Sarajevo Blues Quotes

“Here's what I think: there are neither major nor minor tragedies. Tragedies exist. Some can be described. There are others for which every heart is too small. Those kind cannot fit in the heart.”
― Semezdin Mehmedinović, Sarajevo Blues

“That's what time was like, along with the things occupying it, that it made the feelings connected to any memory seem worthless.”
― Semezdin Mehmedinović, Sarajevo Blues

“People quickly forget evil because they still haven't created a language to describe it so the world refuses to carry the burden, preferring to forget.”
― Semezdin Mehmedinović, Sarajevo Blues

“... Bu şehirde yaşamak, yüzde yüz korumasız olmak ve her saniye ölümün nefesini ensende hissetmek demek. Çaresizlik duygusu, ölümlülüğümün kapladığı alanı bedenimin doldurmasından kaynaklanıyor ve dur durak bilmeyen bombardıman yüzünden içinde bulunduğu durum insanın aklından hiç çıkmıyor. Ruh sağlığını korumak ancak en iyi korunan sığınağı bulmakla mümkün. Tecrübeyle sabit ki, en etkin sığınak kitaplardan yapılandır. Yakındaki bir tüpgaz deposuna bomba isabet etti ve fıslayarak sızan gaz müthiş bir kokuyla bütün sokağı kapladı. Uzmanlara göre durum tehlike arz ediyordu, ertesi gün büyüklü küçüklü bütün delikleri kitaplarla tıkadık. Belediye kütüphanesinin deposunu sığınağa dönüştürürken kitapları boşalttığımız için malzemeden yana sıkıntımız yoktu. Bomba düştüğünde kitapların şarapnelleri perdeleyip tutma özelliği var. Marksist bir kütüphanede çalıştığı için karısı eve, durmadan Lenin, Engels ve Kardelj'in bedava kitaplarını taşımış olan bir tanıdığımın hayatı o sayede kurtuldu.
Tipik bir Kafkari benzetme -kitap kafanızı korur- bizim için gerçek oldu. Saraybosna'da bir şair kendine kitaplardan gerçek bir sığınak inşa etti. Antredeki pencereye, cephedeki ön saflardaki nöbetçi misali, üzerinde "Tito ile Zafere" yazılı vinylex kapaklı lüks ciltli kalın bir kitap koydu...”
― Semezdin Mehmedinović, Sarajevo Blues

“It was right during the period when Karadžić was the most vocal champion of absolute separation along “cultural border-lines” that I happened to thumb through the 1991/92 Sarajevo phonebook. Under the family name Karadžić, I found twenty-one entries. In addition to the aforementioned poet, the rest of the entries could be fit under the following ethnic rubrics: 10 Muslims, 9 Serbs and 1 Croat. The most curious aspect of these lisings is the fact that the only Croat, Mate Karadžić, carried the same first name as the leader of the Croatian nationalist party, Mate Boban. And amongst the Muslims, I found Ale Karadžić, Ale being a term of endearment for Alija, the first name of the Bosnian President Alija Izetbegović.”
― Semezdin Mehmedinović, Sarajevo Blues

“The war has made me suspicious of any metaphors (and not only because poets turned into murderers). I put even less faith in metaphors derived from religious mythology: things belonging to “that” world, a world that can only be reached by passing through death, no longer concern the living. Thus, all responsibility for the commission of evil can be abdicated. If you follow through on this metaphor—and that is why it always made me uncomfortable—then you can remove any trace of responsibility from Karadžić’s hellish acts. That is how, to put it mildly, lies emerged victorious—and were measured out in drums of “non-Serbian” blood. Lies were the only political means in which Radovan Karadžić had absolute faith. Since everything he did in the name of racial “cleanliness” created a fact, so to speak—he was creating a reality to fit his lies—all he had left to do was keep repeating the lies until his accumulated acts made his lies seem irrefutable. Maybe that’s why it became so easy for so many of our “neighbors” to put stockings over their heads. The claim most often repeated by Karadžić—that people of different nationalities couldn’t live together in Bosnia—was simply a euphemism for racism. The truth was quite the opposite: peoples of different cultures had lived together for so long in Bosnia, and the ethnic mix was so deep, that any separation could only be accomplished through extreme violence and enormous bloodshed.”
― Semezdin Mehmedinović, Sarajevo Blues

“But no one remembered Radovan Karadžić’s poems, and the hatred so evident in his early poetry just slipped by, even though his line “Take no pity let’s go / kill that scum in the city” became a slogan for the war project. Despite everything, Karadžić gave the impression of a peace-loving and good-natured fellow. During the first multi-party elections, after the fall of socialism, he founded the Greens. That seemed quite in character. Founding such a party, given conditions in the Balkans, represented more of an artistic performance than true political engagement. The Greens first action in Sarajevo proved this: they draped plastic bags in various colors over the boughs of the acacias lining some of Sarajevo’s main streets. Not too many months after this, he became the leader of the Serb nationalists. In order to fit his new role, he deliberately held his left hand off to the side so that inquisitive onlookers could see the handle of his pistol tucked under his jacket. The transformation was fundamental. Only Radovan had no need to put a stocking over his head for this change in physiognomy to become apparent: his expression turned wild and he was no longer the same person I had once known. His unassuming look evaporated, like the soul leaving the body of a dead man.”
― Semezdin Mehmedinović, Sarajevo Blues

“ALIFAKOVAC At the very eastern edge of Sarajevo a boy loaded down with an armful of roses — It’s Bajram and he, the little merchant, is going to the graveyard loaded with roses loaded with a hundred course roses like a grave on the day of its digging Like a grave on the day of its digging the boy is climbing Alifakovac”
― Semezdin Mehmedinović, Sarajevo Blues

“The claim most often repeated by Karadzic - that people of different nationalities couldn't live together in Bosnia - was simply a euphemism for racism. The truth was quite the opposite: peoples of different cultures had lived together for so long in Bosnia, and the ethnic mix was so deep, that any separation could only be accomplished through extreme violence and enormous bloodshed.”
― Semezdin Mehmedinović, Sarajevo Blues

“In war, {freedom's} meaning is bound to the collective, making peace and freedom the same . . . The collective is a mob that suffers in silence, and waits.”
― Semezdin Mehmedinović, Sarajevo Blues