#serbian literature

[xoxojoka]

"Just cross my mind,

My thoughts will scratch your cheek

Just come into my sight

My eyes will bark at you

Just open your mouth

My silence will break your jaws

Just remind me of yourself

My remembering will dig up the ground beneath your feet

That's how far we've come."

— Vasko Popa, "Give Me Back My Rags"

[ljiljanis]

My first attempt at oil pastels

It's is supposed to be a portrait of Simka from Roots

[bookjotter6865]

Winding Up the Week #320

An end of week recap “Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.” – Toni Morrison (born 18th February 1931) This is a post in which I summarise books read, reviewed and currently on my TBR shelf. In addition to a variety of literary titbits, I look ahead to forthcoming features, see what’s on the…

[onenakedfarmer]

Currently Reading

Danilo Kiš GARDEN, ASHES

[theforeverlearner]

Thursday, September 19

I started my bachelor's degree in Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrian/Serbian (BCMS) this week.

To be exact, it's called in French a Licence LLCER (Langues, Littératures et Civilisations Étrangères et Régionales) BCMS (Bosniaque Croate Monténégrin Serbe).

This program is taking place online which is a great for people working full-time like me.

I browsed the different courses that I'll be taking this semester: linguistics and grammar, grammatical exercises, translation, written and oral expression, literature, history...

Today, I mostly worked on reviewing A2 vocabulary/grammar. I am joining the B1 level but first I want to make sure that I am starting with a solid (grammatical) foundation.

[saintsaensreads]

The growing TBR Pile : 2024 edition

I'm not a fast reader. Case in point : Storygraph has me pinned as someone reading a book in... 2 months. I say this is slander. I think. I'm not sure. There might be some truth somewhere. But I consume a lot of content either via YouTube or Tumblr about books.

The consequences are dire : my TBR pile grows and grows! So here are some of my 2024 discoveries that I want to read (at some point, I don't know when exactly, it's difficult to say - but it will happen?).

First stop : Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian literature.

At the beginning of the year, I happened on a very short article (in an otherwise very dense newspaper) listing some of the latest translations by a single translator of BCS language. She mentioned the similarities and differences between all those languages, leading me to read more and more about her work and those languages. It made me quite curious about translated literature from that region and ended up compiling a few of them.

Source : interview in French of Chloe Billon, the translator in question, in Pages Sauvages.

Na Drini ćuprija - The Bridge over the Drina -, Ivo Andrić (1945)

The town of Visegrad was long caught between the warring Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires, but its sixteenth-century bridge survived unscathed--until 1914 when tensions in the Balkans triggered the first World War. Spanning generations, nationalities, and creeds, The Bridge on the Drina brilliantly illuminates a succession of lives that swirl around the majestic stone arches. Among them is that of the bridge's builder, a Serb kidnapped as a boy by the Ottomans; years later, as the empire's Grand Vezir, he decides to construct a bridge at the spot where he was parted from his mother. A workman named Radisav tries to hinder the construction, with horrific consequences. Later, the beautiful young Fata climbs the bridge's parapet to escape an arranged marriage, and, later still, an inveterate gambler named Milan risks everything on it in one final game with the devil.

Adios, Comboy, Olja Savičević Ivančević (2011)

Dada’s life is at a standstill in Zagreb—she’s sleeping with a married man, working a dead-end job, and even the parties have started to feel exhausting. So when her sister calls her back home to help with their aging mother, she doesn’t hesitate to leave the city behind. But she arrives to find her mother hoarding pills, her sister chain-smoking, her long-dead father’s shoes still lined up on the steps, and the cowboy posters of her younger brother Daniel (who threw himself under a train four years ago) still on the walls.Hoping to free her family from the grip of the past, Dada vows to unravel the mystery of Daniel’s final days.

Second Stop : Polish literature

I learned a lot this past year about Poland (for personal reasons). I started reading about the history of the country, the language, its culture etc. I was at first quite ashamed to be so oblivious to another country from which quite a few of my friends's family come from, and with which French history is so closely linked. Obviously, I started piling up some polish writers in my TBR as a result.

Bezrobotny Lucyfer - Lucifer Unemployed -, Aleksander Wat (1927)

In these nine stories the Polish writer Aleksander Wat consistently turns history on its ear in comic reversals reverberating with futurist rhythms and the gently mocking humor of despair. Wat inverts the conventions of religion, politics, and culture to fantastic effect, illuminating the anarchic conditions of existence in interwar Europe. The title story finds a superbly ironic Lucifer wandering the Europe of the late 1920s in search of a mission: what impact can a devil have in a godless time? What is his sorcery in a society far more diablical than the devil himself? Too idealistic for a world full of modern cruelties, the unemployable Lucifer finally finds the only means of guaranteed immortality. In "The Eternally Wandering Jew," steady Jewish conversion to Christianity results in Nathan the Talmudist reigning as Pope Urban IX. The hilarious satire on power, "Kings in Exile," unfolds with the dethroned monarchs of Europe meeting to found their own republic in an uninhabited island in the Indian Ocean.

Third and Final Stop : under the Influence

I used to watch TikTok at some point, and most of the content left me frustrated, with a hint of dissatisfaction. But sometimes, sometimes, I happened on a great content creator, full of enthusiasm, or a very very avid reader sharing their love for one book. This, unfortunately, doesn't leave me unbothered. And I do admit, witnessing the passion of someone else about a book, made me want to dive into the novels myself !

Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas - The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas -, Machado de Assis (1881)

Machado de Assis is not only Brazil's most celebrated writer but also a writer of world stature. In his masterpiece, the 1881 novel The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas (also translated as Epitaph of a Small Winner), the ghost of a decadent and disagreeable aristocrat decides to write his memoir. He dedicates it to the worms gnawing at his corpse and tells of his failed romances and half-hearted political ambitions, serves up hare-brained philosophies and complains with gusto from the depths of his grave. Wildly imaginative, wickedly witty and ahead of its time, the novel has been compared to works by Cervantes, Sterne, Joyce, Nabokov, Borges and Calvino, and has influenced generations of writers around the world.

The Safekeep, Yael van der Wouden (2024)

It is 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is truly over. Living alone in her late mother’s country home, Isabel knows her life is as it should be—led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis brings his graceless new girlfriend Eva, leaving her at Isabel’s doorstep as a guest, to stay for the season. Eva is Isabel’s antithesis: she sleeps late, walks loudly through the house, and touches things she shouldn’t. In response, Isabel develops a fury-fueled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house—a spoon, a knife, a bowl—Isabel’s suspicions begin to spiral. In the sweltering peak of summer, Isabel’s paranoia gives way to infatuation—leading to a discovery that unravels all Isabel has ever known. The war might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva—nor the house in which they live—are what they seem.

[schulziann]

I miss my Serbian teacher and having someone to discuss my favorite books with :(

[lilacerull0]

the most touching and the most influential aspect of elena's writing is that she takes these people who exist as representatives of the universe, of something intergal to human nature, their lives not in any way original, their destinies shared with thousands and she makes sure, almost instinctively, that we as readers remember them by their specific names. how many people have taken their own life for the same reasons franco mari did? how many people suffered alfonso's faith in exchange for one second of owning their identities? how many girls didn't get to go to school the way lila did? but that doesn't concern elena, does it... those numbers... she thinks of lila and she sees lila and these people who have done nothing but repeat the past exist in this space, exactly as elena remembers them, exist and belong entirely to themselves... these people are gifted originality and importance simply because this woman remembers them... and that means something!!!!!!!!!!

[renegade-hierophant]

The first sci-fi drama in the world is a play written in 1889 by the Serbian author Dragutin Ilić called “A Million Years After”.

You can find the English translation here.

[dukhoiada]

~~ Ivan V. Lalić, "In Praise of Sleeplessness" (translated by Francis R. Jones), painting by Henri Rousseau

[xoxojoka]

"Nobody will ever hug you this tightly,

all perturbed and pale.

I’m a sailor without a compass

whose ships always go crazy.

Nobody will ever

pour an entire last tenderness

into your bloodstream

like this,

nor find both hope and hopelessness inside of you.

Never again will you rot so wonderfully

in a common hotel,

yet not wish to get out of it.

You are the tastiest blood of this world

that I sponged with the bread

of my dark belly.

You are the salt from swollen lips

that we peeled off with our fangs

and spilled over my thighs

and your breasts.

You are the most infinite,

the deadliest sky

next to my rosy ear.

The most shameless girl

among all the women I've ever met.

The shiest woman

among all the girls I've ever met..."

— Miroslav Mika Antić, a fragment of "A Little Rocky Nocturne". Translated by me.

[creatediana]

“Cargo” - a poem by Serbian poet Marija Knežević (born 1963), from her 2020 collection Breathing Technique translated by Sibelan Forrester 

[lepollock]

[bookcoversaroundtheworld]

To Kill a Mockingbird - Serbia (2015)

The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it. "To Kill A Mockingbird" became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.

[theforeverlearner]

About me

26 years old

Woman

French-Bosnian living in France

Graduated in 2022 with a Master's degree in International and European Law

Currently working full time

I started in September 2024 a second bachelor's degree in Slavistic (Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrian, Serbian) – online program.

Languages I speak: French (C2), English (C2), German (C1), Bosnian/Serbo-Croatian (B2)

Languages I would like to learn one day: Spanish, Korean or Mandarin

Current language goals: pass the Goethe Zertifikat C1, pass the TOEIC exam and finish my bachelor in BCMS.

I enjoy reading!

I also practice yoga and I run quite often. I am currently training for a 21km run.

I'm an ENTP type.

Weirdly enough, I have a horrible memory! Makes my life a little bit harder than necessary.

[mija-ditaliar]

Zašto je put do žene tako vijugav i tajan i zašto on sa svojom slavom i snagom ne može da ga pređe, a prelaze ga svi gori od njega? Svi, samo, on u silnoj i smiješnoj starosti, cijeli svoj vijek pruža ruke kao u snu. Što žene traže?

-- Put Alije Đerzeleza, Ivo Andrić