and you know you are lying down in vain: tomorrow you will get up still more enervated than when you lay down. In the morning you get up from bed and you know that you are getting up in vain: yesterday’s day is awaiting you, with yesterday’s stress. With the humiliations of the day before yesterday. With the despair of […]
All on Board
One over-looked casualty of the war in Bosnia is her collective commitment to a pluralistic, tolerant, integrated society. Unconscionable violence and vicious propaganda were brought to bear against her heritage, cultural convictions, social practices, and civic order––making it next to impossible for Bosnia to sustain her multi-confessional and syncretistic-informed traditions. Tone Bringa, author of Being Muslim the Bosnian Way, writes, […]
Of all the things created and built by humankind as a part of life’s effort, nothing in my mind is better or worthier than bridges. They are more important than houses, more sacred, and more universal than temples. They belong to all and treat all alike; they are useful, always built for a purpose, at a spot where most human […]
A research attempt on the occasion of the collection of poems The Stone Sleeper by Mak Dizdar The collection of poems entitled The Stone Sleeper by Mak Dizdar has long been in our bookshop windows and on readers, critics, and reviewers’ desks––who spared no effort or word to praise it, to call for yet another review, however affirmative it might […]
On the palm of a hand a flower On the palm of a hand a shower On the palm of a hand ice And you You only worry about your worry Without worry Translated by Keith Doubt & Luisa Lang Owen – © 2005 Keith Doubt & Luisa Lang Owen
The snows are growing ever deeper and blacker like sins In a life that is drawing near its end Will we still have eyes When in the garden the apple tree bears its first white blossom Translated by Omar Hadžiselimović – © 2006 Omar Hadžiselimović
Bosnia is a name for a model of community life shared by the inheritors of different holy traditions. Its history bears witness to efforts to formalize this model in contemporary modes of thought. In an earlier period––the time of the Bosnian Bans and Kings––this model expressed itself in the effort to justify and establish communal life between different Christian communities. […]
Death like a heavy shadow has escorted me for some time I would already have died gladly, beautifully, publicly if only I could have kissed that death Translated by Keith Doubt – © 2006 Keith Doubt
In both field and mountain the white lilies have bloomed So in field and mountain the lily seems to speak In mount and dale every lily Seems to blaze And when so pensive among the blooming flowers You silently Pass Maybe like me you think of those Who passed silently by here Before you Among the blooming white flowers Wondering […]
The signing of the Dayton Accords should have provided the majority of the inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the hoped-for return of prewar values. The Dayton Accords ended the bloody war in Bosnia and Herzegovina: this was without a doubt its only contribution. But those same people who started the war and conducted it were also the Dayton Accords […]
I asked for a good shield to protect me Then I threw it away for its goodness Weighed heavily on me Translated by Keith Doubt – © 2006 Keith Doubt
The hiža of our fathers was founded here to fix virtue more strongly in the hearts of men May it ever be open wide for welcome visitors and for the great of heart For guests for elders and other believers For all good people for all good Bosnians For all warriors in the war that is waged against war And […]