Among contemporary Bosnian writers whose biography and literary work had been indelibly marked by the 1992-1995 war of independence, Sarajevo-born author Karim Zaimović (1971-1995) is without any doubt one of the most representative, considering his tragic fate and the peculiarities of his narrative production. The son of famed painter Muhamed (1938-2011) Karim was among Sarajevo’s leading young intellectuals during the […]
My little boy Mile was thirteen, Đuro fourteen, Anka twelve, Boško eight, Uroš nine, Dragutin three, and Milutin barely one, when the house burned. Later Mile and Đuro did not come back. Neither did their father, my man, come back from that village of Jasen by the Sava. I immediately recognised the voice of this one. Instantly, although it was […]
Father would often take me to the movies. He enjoyed watching films, so he used to take me with him. Only in college did I realize that I was different, that I was of the Yugoslav origin. Of the Yugoslav or Serbo-Croatian origin – something like that. Bota, my father, took great pride in it. Since my childhood days, he […]
As we commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide it is important to reflect on the crucial support that the UN General Assembly’s Resolution designating July 11 as an “International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica” provides for the Mothers of Srebrenica and other Srebrenica survivors. This historic UN Resolution, which was adopted due […]
Unique and unparalleled, diversified and unusual, the world of old Tuzla was certainly the result of the historical context that generated it, during the succession of different empires. The common Old Slavic descent of the original state of Bosnia was followed by the specific circumstances in the Turkish Empire and the spread of Islam, which left a special mark on […]
The day was mild say eyewitnesses when a white cloud rose toward the sky First all the Stations of the Cross unwillingly soared up toward the heavens With Jesus in the rear as usual bearing his own cross Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows covered her eyes With a lily in his teeth Saint Anthony looked for the forgotten young […]
When children from Bosnia ascend to Allah falling asleep peacefully in Christ they don’t need a passport any more A black stamp suffices at all border crossings They quickly learn Happiness is Kitsch Antique furniture, Wiehler gobelins with a field of poppies make quite a nice bonfire A proof of existence cogito ergo sum Salt manufacturing in Bosnia is done […]
Stars don’t exist to beautify our nighttime sky They are black coals, remnants of matter that didn’t spare itself they burned up in their own fire and they now live only when light falls on them – the light of other bodies that also burn up unstintingly Thus if we too selflessly burn to the end the glow of others’ […]
Of a hundred inventions and brilliant discoveries, we profit most from the export of ropes for hanging. We satisfy charming tyrants with toys of terror, and these feathers of freedom with which we adorn ourselves were plucked live from the wings of the oppressed birds of the Archipelago of Cancer. We raise our voices occasionally, but faced with overstuffed meat […]
Truths are untenable! We cheered, like at the dog races, for the lies that barked the fiercest. My brother denounced the neighbor’s fat cow for ruminating marijuana. For the sake of future betrayal, we all, like little Jesuses, dragged the cross of hammer and sickle on our backs. And, truly, when the iron curtain, like a shower curtain, came unhooked, […]
The leeches of the military industry crave fresh blood. Directors do not read poetry. There’s no reason – their children won’t go to the trenches. Their servants, the party leaders, take care of it all. They don’t read poetry either. No need! They rule by the magic of fear, and no one will object to taking from schools or cutting […]
While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily thickening to empire, And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out, and the mass hardens, I sadly smiling remember that the flower fades to make fruit, the fruit rots to make earth. Out of the mother; and through the spring exultances, ripeness and […]
No bitterness: our ancestors did it. They were only ignorant and hopeful, they wanted freedom but wealth too. Their children will learn to hope for a Caesar. Or rather—for we are not aquiline Romans but soft mixed colonists— Some kindly Sicilian tyrant who’ll keep Poverty and Carthage off until the Romans arrive, We are easy to manage, a gregarious people, […]
Homeland is a place where we have grown up safe at home with our parents, where we have gained our first experiences and learnings, our first friends and comrades. Wherever we go later and change our places of living, our home, or the place where we grew up, be it a town or a village, forever remains the epicentre and […]
A problem Bosnians face today is the stipulation by her enemies that Bosnia does not have a unifying cultural heritage. The misleading claim argues that, since Bosnia is a myth, it has no basis on which to be a state. In 1995, the Dayton Peace Accords left Bosnia-Herzegovina in limbo. On the one hand, the Dayton Peace Accords re-affirm Bosnia-Herzegovina […]
I am beauty’s faithful slave. When my mother gave me life From the clouds the fairy of song flew down to my cradle And with a kiss that burned hot like a tropical sun Touched my lips and little child’s forehead. My forehead burns forever with thoughts of eternal love And lips speak them in a song. I […]
To attain that beauty – you must be patient, like a stalactite. To drip and wait. And fulfill no one’s expectations. Sparingly drip to completion the words that have poured over from a world that no longer exists into a body that is no longer the one consigned to you once. If they discover you, or if you open […]
This year marks the 110th anniversary of the death of Musa Ćazim Ćatić, one of the founders of modern Bosnian-Hercegovinian poetry. He was born on 12 March 1878 in Odžak, five months before the Ottoman Empire’s occupation yielded to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his short life ended in 1915, three years before the fall of the latter monarchy. Ćatić spent […]
for Ida Here in this city where I was born thousands of kilometers away from Teheran just as much from Paris too I’ll always be able to have night in the daytime I’ll always be able to have December after January I’ll always have to think about the Papal heresy sleuth Casamaris and about Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror I will […]
Our warrior returned from the war in Greece bringing back a Greek baking pan and wounds on his body. The women told him the pan from Greece was no good because it was too shallow. We told him his wounds from Greece were no good either because they were too shallow. We said to him: We […]
