Image: Mehmed-pasa Sokolovic Bridge built by the Ottomans. Hundreds of Bosniaks(Bosnian Muslims) were murdered and thrown off the bridge into the Drina River by Bosnian Serbs. Picture Copyright © Velija Hasanbegovic

♦Witness X(Zeljko Lelek case, Court of Bosnia&Herzegovina):

“Zeljko Lelek, Mile Joksimovic and Vlatko Pecikoza arrived almost at the same time at the bridge. Lelek was in a taxi driven by Bosko Djuric. They took out two women out of the car, both were in their early 20s, one was carrying a five to six month old baby. Vlatko grabbed the baby from her and said ‘Let the baby have some fresh air’. He took it and threw it up in the air. Lelek was holding a knife and caught the little body on it,” the witness said, adding that Joksimovic then forced the mother to lick the child’s blood “in order to stop the bleeding”.

♦Witness KB(Zeljko Lelek case, Court of Bosnia&Herzegovina):

“I saw them bringing two older people whose hands were tied. One was wearing a French beret on his head. They lined them up by the water and forced them to go into the water. When the water was up to their waist, the men started shooting. People fell down and I was sick from watching it,”

♦Witness Hasan Ajanovic(Vasiljevic, Lukic case):

“Lukic told us to wade out into the water,” he said, interviewed by telephone from a Western European country that he insisted not be identified. “I did not hear the first shot, I suspect because Lukic’s gun had a silencer. But I heard the screams and then the other shots. Meho’s body fell on top of me. I lay with my face in the sand until night. I swam across the river and escaped. The water stank of death.” (Source)

Image: From Joe Sacco’s “Gorazde: A Safe Area”

♦Witness Mesud Cocalic:

“The bodies were often slashed with knife marks and were black and blue,” he said. “The young women were wrapped in blankets that were tied at each end. These female corpses were always naked. We buried several children, including two boys 18 months old. We found one man crucified to the back of a door. Once we picked up a garbage bag filled with 12 human heads.”(Source)

♦Witness Hasena M. :

“watched them put my mother and sister astride the parapet, like on a horse. I heard both women screaming, until they were shot in the stomach. They fell in the water – the men laughing as they watched. The water went red.” (Source)

Image: From Joe Sacco’s “Gorazde: A Safe Area”

♦Witness Hasnija Pjeva:

“If the Drina River could only speak, it could say how many dead were taken away,”(Source)

“Kad se meni plakalo,

Vas nije nigde bilo,

ni glasa vašeg ni pisane reči

koja za nuždu teši.

Danas, kad vi plačete,

Meni se bolno smeje,

Ukoliko mi nije otužno i dosadno,

Kao pred glupom scenom.

Eto, to vam je sve

Što ljudi jedno drugom

Mogu u ovom kratkom životu da daju:

Potpuno nerazumevanje.”

_________________________

(Ivo ANDRIĆ, Bez naslova)

“Ti nisi isti ujutro i uveče; sa minutama zrije lik Tvoj; zaluda sam te juče poznavao, jer Ti rasteš i o Tebi svaki dan govore drugo.

A ja prostirem svoje smrtne godine ispod Tvojih svodova i šutim na njima i mrem pored Tebe koji se rađaš bez prestanka.

Dok se rađanje i umiranje u silnom zamahu lome i biju oko mene kao dva protivna vjetra, ja zaklanjam rukama i grudima malo čovjekovo svjetlo, malo čovjekovo svjetlo koje se ne vidi na svodovima i koje ispunja kratkim sjajem jedino dva vlažna polja mojih zenica. Ali ja Te osjećam uvijek, ispod mojih nogu i iznad moje glave, u dahu rastvaranja svega, laganom i vječnom, osjećam kako u mraku dišeš Ti, čije se veličine bojim.

Tako mi, kao dva nejednaka protivnika, ležimo noćas uporedo.”

(Ivo ANDRIĆ, Nemiri)

“Bog izbija kao svjetlo
iz svake stvari stvorene
i svakog života koji se miče.

Osamljen kamen na žalu ima aureolu njegova daha,
i oblijeva ga jutrom i večerom,
kao ljubičast fluid,
sjaj sunca koje se ne vidi.

On je kao toplina u dahu svega što živi.

On je gluh za sate koji izbijaju
i cijepaju vrijeme na parčad,
i On je slijep za dan i noć
i sve promjene vremena.

On je kao miran sjaj i velika tišina
u kojoj se čuje glas koji ga niječe.

On tako dobro šuti
da se već pomišlja da ga nema.

A On je mirno srce svih atoma.”

(Ivo ANDRIĆ, Nemiri)

      Čitajući dobre pisce, dešavaju se pred nama čuda. Često na početku neke rečenice, kad vidimo kako se pomalja jedna misao, mi zastanemo zadivljeni i uplašeni. I sa nevericom se pitamo: “Je li mogućno? Hoće li se to što naslućujem zaista desiti? Je li ovo zaista ona ista misao koju smo mi, na jednom, naslutili pri dodiru naše svesti sa svetom oko nas, skriveni deo naše unutarnje stvarnosti? Zar ima još neko da je ovo ovako video i osetio?”
      A kad, pročitavši do kraja, vidimo da je zaista tako, mi ostajemo nad tom rečenicom zamišljeni, zahvalni i srećni jer nam je pao u deo najveći dar koji čitanje može da nam pruži: osetili smo da nismo sami nikad, ni u najtežim ni u najlepšim trenutcima, ni u svojim najgorčim nedoumicama, ni u najsmelijim zaključcima, nego da smo povezani sa drugim ljudima mnogostrukim i tajnim vezama koje i ne slutimo, a koje nam “naš” pisac otkriva. To je spasonosno.

İstanbul, martedì 11 agosto

Curiosando per le vie laterali, lontano dalla ressa dei turisti, ci imbattiamo per caso in una sorpresa, la piccola e seminascosta Moschea di Mehmet Paşa (Sokullu Mehmet Paşa Camii), anch’essa un capolavoro di Sinan completata nel 1572.

Venne voluta da Mehmet Paşa Sokolović che culminò una carriera ad altissimo livello nelle strutture dell’Impero Ottomano come Gran Vizir (Sadrazam, il Primo Ministro della Sublime Porta), carica che mantenne con tre Sultani per oltre 14 anni fino al suo assassinio nel 1579.

Era in realtà un serbo, originario del villaggio di Sokolovići in Bosnia orientale. Anche lui, come Sinan, era stato reclutato a forza in giovane età attraverso il devşirme (dal verbo “ramazzare” in turco), il crudele sistema di tributo feudale in uso presso le famiglie cristiane sottomesse all’Impero, soprattutto nei Balkani: ogni quattro o cinque anni ogni quaranta case veniva preso un giovane ragazzo in età preadolescente che di solito non vedeva più la propria famiglia. Sembra che tra i secoli XV e XVII tra i 200mila e i 300mila ragazzi furono prelevati a forza e spediti nella capitale. Lì, venivano convertiti all’Islam e addestrati secondo una dura disciplina militare monastica in assoluta lealtà al Sultano, non era concesso loro di sposarsi e non potevano portare la barba come gli altri musulmani ma solo i baffi.

Prima della conversione Mehmet si chiamava Bajica. Sembra fosse entrato in seminario presso il monastero di Mileševa insieme a suo fratello (o cugino) Makarije Sokolović, divenuto poi Patriarca della Chiesa Ortodossa Serba dopo che nel 1557 Solimano permise di ristabilire il Patriarcato di Peć grazie all’intervento decisivo di Mehmet Paşa.

Come molti giovani anche Bajica entrò nei Giannizzeri (Yeniçeri), un corpo speciale dell’Esercito Ottomano, una specie di Pretoriani del Sultano, che fino al XVII trasse la sua linfa proprio dal devşirme. I più brillanti venivano mandati al palazzo e alcuni di loro raggiunsero la massima carica di Gran Vizir.

Tra i moltissimi edifici lasciati da Sokolović tra İstanbul e nei Balkani, c’è anche il famoso Ponte sulla Drina di Višegrad [si veda la storia in questo blog], non lontano da dove Bajica era nato. Costruito proprio da Sinan con 11 eleganti arcate su quasi 180 metri, nel 2007 è entrato nella Lista del Patrimonio Universale dell’UNESCO. Nell’omonimo romanzo di Ivo Andrić si racconta anche la storia di Bajica-Mehmet.

Siamo ben contenti che i riferimenti Balkan continuino a segurci… La penisola rimase sotto la dominazione ottomana per oltre quattro secoli e dunque le influenze e i lasciti sono profondissimi. Anche qui a İstanbul i richiami non mancano: il “Boşnak” dove fanno burek (qui chiamati börek),

l’Associazione per la Solidarietà e gli Affari Culturali dei Turchi Balkanici,

e l’onnipresente Sarajevski Roštilj (griglia di Sarajevo).

Author: Martin Woker, Visegrad
Uploaded: Monday, 21 July, 2008

A moving report translated from ‘Neue Zürcher Zeitung’ (Zurich) outlines the problems faced by those who would like to market the Bridge over the Drina in the small town of Visegrad in eastern Bosnia. The Visegrad authorities are hoping for a boost from the fact that the bridge has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. But the town is a place still burdened by the terrible crimes committed there in the recent war.

Sometimes a paint-job renovation can really work wonders. Thus, for instance, in the shady garden of the Hotel Visegrad in the small town of the same name in eastern Bosnia. The furniture has been freshly painted and the façade of the inn also glows in new colours. The tables are well occupied at lunchtime today, mainly by locals, as one can tell from the licence plates of the cars in the parking lot. Five years ago the place still looked completely run-down and was hardly frequented by visitors. Its garden restaurant is located next to the eastern end of the stone bridge, which was built 420 years ago to make a difficult and dangerous river-crossing easier on the highway leading from Sarajevo to Istanbul. This spring, UNESCO’s secretary-general, Koichiro Matsuura, visited and bestowed a certificate on the bridge, which had been inscribed on the World Heritage List the previous year. Since that time, Bosnia-Herzegovina is now represented by two sites on UNESCO’s list: the bridge over the Neretva in Mostar, and the one over the Drina in Visegrad.

A stage for three and a half centuries

Unlike the bridge in Mostar, which was completely destroyed in the recent war and became a much-photographed object once again only after being rebuilt four years ago, the Bridge of Mehmed Pasha Sokolovic in Visegrad is at least in part an original structure that bears witness to ‘the cultural exchanges between the Balkans, the Ottoman Empire and the Mediterranean world, between Christianity and Islam, through the long course of history,’ in UNESCO’s formulation. What is understood by such cultural exchanges was described by the author (and

diplomat) Ivo Andric, who grew up in Visegrad living with his aunt and died in 1975, in his most famous work, The Bridge on the Drina. The novel was part of his Bosnian trilogy, which earned him the Nobel Prize for literature in 1961. Andric’s works were required reading in the schools of the former Yugoslavia.

‘The bridge is about two hundred and fifty paces long and about ten paces wide save in the middle where it widens out into two completely equal terraces placed symmetrically on either side of the roadway and making it twice its normal width. This was the part of the bridge known as the kapija, the gate. Two buttresses had been built there on each side of the central pier which had been splayed out towards the top, so that to right and left of the roadway there were two terraces daringly and harmoniously projecting outwards from the straight line of the bridge over the noisy green waters far below. … That on the right as one came from the town was called the sofa. It was raised by two steps and bordered by benches for which the parapet served as a back steps, benches and parapet were all made of the same shining stone. That on the left, opposite the sofa, was similar but without benches. … On this part of the terrace a coffee-maker had installed himself with his copper vessels and Turkish cups and ever-lighted charcoal brazier, and an apprentice who took the coffee over the way to the guests on the sofa. Such was the kapija.’

In the 400 pages that follow, the kapija to a certain extent forms the stage for a lively tableau, extending over three and a half centuries, of life in Andric’s home town and of its Muslim, Christian and Jewish inhabitants. For a long time the bridge freed Visegrad from its geographically marginal position and brought travellers from all the world to the little town. The aim of the present local authorities is to find a way to latch on to this tradition. Opposite the hotel stands a new pavilion, recently built and still closed and empty but already marked as a tourist information centre. Right around the corner, built in a daring Yugo-modernist style, is the tall Robna kuca. That is what almost all department stores were called in the former Yugoslavia. In Visegrad, where the sparse traffic makes pedestrian zones unnecessary, this relic of a vanished era has not only survived but, it appears, it has even gotten a new paint job. Nevertheless, this Visegrad is hardly a boom town, but thanks to the bridge that is supposed to change soon.

Bold plans

At least that’s how the future looks to Milan Milicevic, the town’s current mayor and a member of the Serbian Democratic Party, founded by Radovan Karadzic. The chain-smoking town father first presents the visitor with an English edition of Andric’s novel, autographed by the mayor himself. Then he lays out his bold plans, which are to culminate in a close partnership with the

city of Mostar and are to include a project to rebuild a narrow-gauge railroad that was abandoned in the 1970s. All that is to be for the enjoyment of future hordes of tourists, who can come here to admire a newly re-established Orthodox monastery and, of course, the bridge, which is to be artfully restored in the near future by a Turkish firm, at a cost of 3 million euros.

At present, says Milicevic, most of the visitors come from Serbia or from the Republika Srpska, as the entity created during the recent war calls itself. But the first Japanese and Germans have already been sighted. An upswing in tourism is expected, he says. But where in Visegrad are all these foreign visitors supposed to stay overnight? Those coming from the Dalmatian coast could not possibly do the excursion as a day-trip. No problem, says the mayor. In the town and its vicinity there are three hotels with more than 400 beds.

One of these stands in a lonesome, wooded side-valley a bit further downstream and is part of a spa resort called Vilina Vlas. On the steps leading into the barely 30-year-old building (also built in the unmistakable Yugo-style) two cigarette-smoking gentlemen are standing, one of them with crutches. They are here to take the cure in the healing waters of the hot springs, which contain radioactive elements. The hotel is still awaiting privatization. The city administration, its present owner, has had some of the walls freshly painted, which however has not really improved matters. Seven cars and a tour bus (with Serbian licence plates) stand in the parking lot. Most of the 160 beds are not taken, despite the moderate price charged for room and board. Unthinking visitors from rich Europe might possibly appreciate the down-at-the-heels exoticism of the place. Unless they thought first to enter its name into an internet search engine.

Whoever does that will encounter abysses of human perversion that would shake even the most blunted sensibilities. Those who come across the research of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network [BIRN] concerning the events of April 1992 in Vilina Vlas will find themselves transported into a wartime reality that could not be more terrible or more repulsive. The hotel served as the headquarters for the Serb militia in Visegrad during that period, while they were carrying out the so-called ‘ethnic cleansing’ of the area. At the same time it also served as a provisional prison for abducted Muslim civilians, mainly women and girls who were systematically raped in the hotel rooms. There are credible witness testimonies of the most severely abused female captives, who saved themselves from their tormentors by leaping across the balcony railings and committing suicide. The principal perpetrator and leader of the militia was a man born in the region, 25 years old at the time, by the name of Milan Lukic, who in the early spring of 1992, when fighting first broke out in the Drina valley, left his place of residence in Zurich in order to turn the idea of a Greater Serbia, promoted by figures such as Vojislav Seselj and other war criminals, into a reality in his homeland.

What was required to achieve this aim was the expulsion of all non-Serbs from Visegrad and its surroundings. In the 1991 census, 62 percent of the slightly more than 21,000 inhabitants had identified themselves as Bosniaks (Muslims), while only half as many were Serbs. Thus, just as in other regions of Bosnia affected by ‘ethnic cleansing,’ terror was employed as the principal method of driving out the Muslim majority population in Visegrad. The indictment issued against Milan Lukic by the UN tribunal in The Hague lists a series of executions and murders of Muslim civilians. Women, men, old people and children died locked inside houses which were set on fire by Lukic’s militiamen. Rapes, however, are not mentioned in the indictment.

Unpunished crimes

Bakira Hasecic, president of the association ‘Women Victims of War in Bosnia and Herzegovina,’ has bitter things to say about this fact. She herself comes from Visegrad, a survivor of rapes and other abuse along with her two underage daughters, and she is sure that she would always recognize Milan Lukic again, since he is missing an index finger. The event that prompted the founding of the association was a one-day organized return of Muslim women to Visegrad to visit their destroyed homes. What caused most indignation during the visit, says Hasecic, was that she and the other women recognized three of their former tormentors, although the men were now wearing the uniforms of the regular police of the Republika Srpska. The three later may well have been brought before a court. But the shock the women suffered finally prompted them to establish the association. Prior to that, the subject of rapes had been treated as strictly taboo in Bosnia. ‘It was very difficult for us to admit it publicly,’ says Hasecic, ‘we had to lay bare our souls to do it.’

That conversation took place two years ago, on the occasion of a showing of the award-winning Bosnian film Grbavica, which is based on the theme of a girl born as a result of a wartime rape and her relationship with her mother. At the time, Hasecic and other women victims from Visegrad could not understand why Milan Lukic, who was arrested in Argentina in the summer of 2005, was not charged also with rape, even though there was more than enough judicially relevant evidence for it. According to a report by BIRN, the prosecutors in The Hague have recently asked the court to expand Lukic’s indictment to include charges of rape, torture and abuse of prisoners. The acceptance of this request by the court would mean a partial success for the association of women victims: a result of their tirelessly maintained public pressure.

Function as a meeting place lost

Their insistence on reminding the public of the countless atrocities which took place only 16 years ago, and which for the most part have not led to prosecutions of those responsible, necessarily brought Hasecic and other victims of the war into the foreground of UNESCO’s festive certification of the bridge. On the bridge they placed a memorial tablet (which has long since been removed again), and they read out a list of the names of all the victims of the war from the Visegrad region: 3,000 according to their count, while other sources speak of between 1,200 and 1,500 dead. In any case, Visegrad is no longer the town described by Andric. Only a very small number of the expelled Bosniaks have returned to their rebuilt houses. Their exact number is unknown. The ‘ethnic cleansing’ of the region has been accomplished; what remains is a town robbed of its Balkan multiculturalism and thereby deprived of its richness.

On the day after the murder of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand, on 28 June 1914, writes Andric, an official announcement was posted on the kapija: ‘… printed in fat letters and framed with a broad black border. It announced to the people the news of the assassination of the crown prince in Sarajevo, and expressed outrage over this misdeed. But not one among those who passed in front of the announcement stopped to read it, but all passed by the poster and by the guard posted there with their heads lowered, walking as fast as they could.’

As of three months ago, a plaque placed at the end of the bridge announces its world-wide significance as a heritage site. The inscription arouses the interest of very few tourists who have come to visit the bridge on this early summer day. The locals who would pass it with their heads bowed are not to be seen. The historic structure has lost its function as a meeting place. The last time that the kapija served as a stage, for the time being, was during the summer of 1992. It was a stage for the murder of innocents, whose bodies disappeared into the Drina. But there is neither a novel nor an inscription to bear witness to that. And it is also not mentioned in the new tourist guidebooks that are gradually starting to appear again in Bosnia. Could it be that the paint-job renovation has achieved the effect it aimed for? Let us hope not.

Translated by András Riedlmayer from Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 11 July 2008. Martin Voker is the newspaper’s South-East Europe correspondent

Source: Bosnian Institute

“Da bi se nekud stiglo i nešto postiglo,
potrebno je u nas mnogo.
Kao i svuda u svetu,
možda i više.

Pre svega treba proći,
po dubokoj tami,
kroz blatnjavo selo
i čopor nevezanih pasa u njemu.

Pa posle toga
- ako šta ostane od tebe -
sačekati jutro,
pojaviti se tamo negde među ljudima,
ispavanim,
ornim za borbu i razgovor,
i
- biti takav kakvi su i oni
i, po mogućnosti,
jači i bolji od njih.”

(Ivo ANDRIĆ, Znakovi pored puta)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“Ima ljudi koji mogu
tako dobro da prikriju hod svojih misli i tok svojih osećanja
da niko ne može pogoditi njihovu pravu prirodu.

Ali izgleda da naše misli i naša osećanja
neosetno i neprimetno,
godinama,
modeliraju naše lice,
kao tiha, uporna voda površinu zemlje,
i kad stane da se primiče starost,
odjednom se otvore na njemu
neočekivane brazde i ponori.

I svak može da pročita sve ono
što je izgledalo zauvek skriveno.”

(Ivo ANDRIĆ, Znakovi pored puta)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Ima ovakvih slučajeva:
ono što je jednog čoveka zauvek
osramotilo u očima ljudi
i pred njegovom rođenom savešću,
vidno je i pristupno svima.

A ono što je sveto, čestito i uzvišeno bilo u njemu
ostalo je, uglavnom, neviđeno i neznano,
jer se javljalo samo u blesku, na mahove,
kao munja u dubokoj noći, kad svi spavaju.”

(Ivo ANDRIĆ, Znakovi pored puta)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Volite ljude, često im pomozite i uvijek ih požalite, jer su nam svi ljudi potrebni.

Ivo Andric

ŽIVJETI MEĐU HILJADAMA LJUDI, A MISLITI SAMO NA JEDNOGA, ZNAČI LJUBAV.

ANDRIĆ

“Mnogo samuješ i dugo ćutiš, sine moj, zatravljen si snovima, izmoren putevima duha. Lik ti je pognut i lice blijedo, duboko spuštene vjeđe i glas kao škripa tamničkih vrata. Iziđi u ljetni dan, sine moj!

- Šta si vidio u ljetni dan, sine moj?

Vidio sam da je zemlja jaka i nebo vječno, a čovjek slab i kratkovjek.

- Šta si vidio, sine moj, u ljetni dan?

Vidio sam da je ljubav kratka, a glad vječna.

- Šta si vidio, sine moj, u ljetni dan?

Vidio sam da je ovaj život stvar mučna, koja se sastoji od nepravilne izmjene grijeha i nesreće, da živjeti znači slagati varku na varku.

- Hoćeš da usneš, sine moj?

Ne, oče, idem da ž i v i m.”

(Ivo Andrić, Ex ponto, Epilog)

Višegrad, sabato 18 luglio

Come consigliavo ad un amico prima di partire, in cima alle letture Balkan obbligatorie c’è Il Ponte sulla Drina.

A Višegrad, nella Republika Srpska, proprio vicino alla frontiera con la Serbia, sorge una delle meraviglie della regione. Si tratta di un ponte massiccio e stupendo costruito dai turchi nel secolo XVI, voluto dal Gran Visir Mehmed Paša Sokolović e costruito dall’architetto Sinan [si veda la storia]. Andrić racconta in modo affascinante la vita della regione dal momento della costruzione del ponte (vero protagonista del libro) durante la dominazione turca fino alla Prima Guerra Mondiale e grazie al suo romanzo divenne il primo, unico e ultimo premio Nobel jugoslavo.

Andrić era nato a Travnik, in Bosnia centrale, regione in cui sono ancora più forti le tracce della dominazione turca. Nella bella cittadina esiste ancora un museo nella casa natale dello scrittore, anche se sempre più piccolo visto che la sua figura è invisa ai nazionalisti musulmani. Lì, solo nel ristorante Plava Voda, si può gustare il caffé alla turca preparato in un modo molto speciale, come piaceva ad Andrić. Viene servito densissimo, nel classico pentolino individuale, con un biscotto ed una sigaretta.

Ora a Višegrad non ci sono più musulmani bosniaci e a Travnik non ci sono più serbi.

U SVAKOJ ŽENI IMA ĐAVO KOGA TREBA UBITI ILI POSLOM ILI RAĐANJEM ILI I JEDNIM I DRUGIM. A AKO SE ŽENA OTME I JEDNOM I DRUGOM, ONDA TREBA UBITI ŽENU

(Ivo Andrić)

Kad pogledam NATRAG, čini mi se da mi preostaje još samo umrijeti! Kad pogledam NAPRIJED, čini mi se kao da sam tek od juče na svijetu!

Ivo Andrić

ŽIVOT JE ČUDO KOJE SE NEPRESTANO TROŠI I OSIPA, A IPAK TRAJE.

ANDRIĆ

Ko čini dobro, od njega se još više dobra očekuje

Andrić

Kad pogledam NATRAG, čini mi se da mi preostaje još samo umrijeti! Kad pogledam NAPRIJED, čini mi se kao da sam tek od juče na svijetu!

Ivo Andrić

Per le vacanze pasquali faremo un viaggio di alcuni giorni in Bosnia.

A Sarajevo incontreremo dei nostri amici bosniaci, che ci raccontano sempre storie drammatiche e interessanti. Mangeremo molta carne cucinata nei modi più disparati. Berremo il caffé turco che si deve depositare sul fondo della tazza. Guideremo la macchina nelle valli strette e verdi, lungo fiumi pieni d’acqua verde.

In vista di questo viaggio, io e Claudia abbiamo iniziato una lettura tematica: Il ponte sulla Drina di Ivo Andrić. Ce ne siamo fatti prestare due copie e lo leggiamo in contemporanea. La mia edizione è rigida e piccola, la sua è rossa e morbida. Le due traduzioni sono un po’ diverse. L’opera è degli anni ‘40 e Ivo Andrić è un premio Nobel per la letteratura.

Già nelle prime pagine ci sono descrizioni molto precise del paesaggio, delle terre di confine, delle ambiguità nella popolazione bosniaca. Tutto ciò che abbiamo conosciuto due anni fa e che rivedremo con i nostri occhi, dopodomani.

Zaborav sve leči, a pesma je najljepši način zaborava, jer u pesmi se čovek seća samo onoga što voli.

Ivo andrić

Rana koja se krije, sporo i teško zaceljuje

Andrić

Lepša duša dublje jeca

Andrić

Samoća je raskoš bogatih duhova

Ivo Andrić