I am Midhat Ridjanović, professor emeritus of English and linguistics at the University of Sarajevo. I am now writing as an ordinary citizen of Bosnia-Herzegovina to inform you about the current catastrophic situation in my country. In the 1992-95 war all major industrial facilities were destroyed and none have since been reconstructed. A large number of smaller industrial and commercial […]
The ICTY Trial Chamber decided on a temporary release for Vojislav Šešelj, leader of the Serb Radical Party. The decision itself was not unanimous but was unique for having been made despite many legal deficiencies. The conditions under which Šešelj was released did not restrict his public and political activism in Serbia. Šešelj has been prosecuted clumsily in ITCY from the beginning. The […]
It is now generally recognised that the food of an ethnic group is not the same as that of its homeland, but, rather, the result of creolisation, the long process whereby food and foodways are transformed in the new homeland. This is, of course, one aspect of the more general process of the cultural transformation of an immigrant culture to […]
1. When a girl leaves her home to get married Our sister, our dear friend, You are going, and leaving us behind. Are you sad, may your mother rejoice, Are you sad that we are parting? – I’m sad, my dear sisters! I miss the trees and rocks, Much less going to the village of another. My sisters, remain with God! […]
We flickered the yellow lamp out Around your body the blue cloak fell Outside forests, clouds, trees Outside heavy white wings fly My body stretched beneath your feet My hands bend, yearn, pray Dear, let your heavy hair through the night flutter, flutter Through the night, My dear, your hair murmurs deeply like the sea Antun Branko Šimić Translated by […]
Hung on a cloud, the cloak of the Tongariro volcano is clasped at the neck with a single round button: Blue Lake. At the bottom of the lake, at the height of the heart, a time bomb is ticking. We try not to think, we try not to know, but its veins like prickly goose bumps are crawling up our […]
After I learned that the life of humanitarian worker David Haines, a citizen of Great Britain, is under threat, I appeal to those who are keeping him in captivity to unconditionally release him so he can reunite with his family. Islam teaches us that human life is sacred. David Haines is a man who spent most of his life helping […]
There is an awkward story about money in my mother’s favorite book, the Book of Books (Matthew 25:14-30). The first time I read it, long ago, it struck me as too simplistic, even naïve. Moreover, its topic appeared totally inappropriate for serious reading which was, as believed by some, dictated to the writer’s ear by God himself. The story begins […]
Here lies Linil, the eldest son of Abbot Hotonja Where are you headed? Which path will you take? Leading to whom? And why? Halt, think. Look back. Do you think with your feet rather than your mind? This stone was cut for the eldest son by the youngest brother Borjen and inscribed by the scribe Sanko. In Vrhbosna, in 1402 […]
Contemporary pedagogy as a science has been going through a crises similar to that of other humanistic sciences. Humanity faces problems that indirectly and directly relate to education. Attempts to resolve these problems and challenges often, especially in the so-called transitional societies, end up as unsuccessful reforms of the formal educational system. This failure has led to the beginning of a […]
“Bosanske reke / Bosnian Rivers” is a family game, which we would play while traveling to the seaside by car, especially while chocking on the dust as we were crossing the craggy roads of Romanija mountain. I continued playing the game later in my life: even now, it is a pleasant pastime on my travels to Bosnia. The game is played on an “ousting” […]
If they had told me before how many times a man can die, I might have found a horse in order to flee. First, we all died; they took our fathers they took our honor and dignity they took our sanity, and they made us into fools because we believed. I died when I buried my first And then, I […]
Blessed are those Who can stare at evil as it is the sun, With eyes half closed Through a veil of black lashes And the veil of lasting peace … Blessed are those Who are unmoved by discomfort, Who cannot distinguish between dreams and reality And who cry without tears … Blessed are those Happy, forever and ever Who hear […]
World! Believe me! It will come Very soon And I shall call it My Day And I shall trust That it exists Just like His smile His words Exist Just like My poetry In its wilderness Exists Just like Everything But myself Exists Translated by Alma Jeftić
Memories, stones of the past in a motionless foundation Build us for an eternity Memories, birds of the north open the doors of darkness, and the doors of light, and again fly south Memory, colorful rugs Woven with threads of cobweb Spread out for flight Flight Flight from the foundation. Translated by Keith Doubt
I’d prefer to watch with delight the mastery of a crow as it cracks a walnut (the hidden substance reachable only by shattering a world) and then drops it from above a busy city intersection and then waits for the boring cars to pass so that she can feast on it I’d prefer to go to the Botanical Garden of […]
The day and sky above, In their proper places. A neat image for survival. It’s good, I say, It’s good. Bones under the ground, A table on the ground, A fruit bowl on the table. Grapes and plums. We’re in the shade of the tree, Wind in the tree-top, slow, so we can feel its breath. We do not watch […]
Street lamps were burning on all sides and the decorated trees were shining bright. Petards, rockets, fireworks. The celebratory shooting made the atmosphere relaxing, almost home-like. I told her about a Dane to whom, over beer and in miserable English, I’d tried to explain why I wasn’t going home for Christmas. We pressed against each other in the cold, tiny […]
Lord, who brought me to this moment unseen guide me farther still to my final wish Do not leave me, tired and alone in the middle of the road my cheeks are pale and my thoughts dangle helplessly like my arms Lord Let the new blue morning Lift up my tired thoughts Let a surge of fresh red blood pass […]
Never had I much … Never had I lacked … Yet … I shared In the village of Vrpolje, near Trebinje, there is a necropolis comprising eighteen stećaks. One of them bears an inscription indicating that it is the resting place of Prefect Medulin. The inscription indicates that he was not a rich man, though he always did good deeds. […]