The Balkans : Poetry and Art
In the Balkan peninsula met the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome, Bysantium, Ottoman Turkey and Roman Catholic Europe, but is a land where no culture has ever been able to completely dominate.
The border separating the western and eastern halves of the Roman Empire and,after the fall of the Byzantines, the dividing line between the Muslim Ottoman Empire and the Christian Western Europe cross the Balkans.
This type of ethnic and linguistic mix was what the French chefs had in mind when they decided to borrow the geographical name of Macedonia to describe a mixed salad, the “macédoine des fruits”.
This variety of paths of the history reminds me of the poetry of Konstantinos Kavafis (1863-1933), one of the most important Greek poets.
Voices
Voices idealized and beloved
of those have died or of those
who,like the dead, they have been lost to us.
Sometimes they speak to us in our dreams;
Sometimes,in our thoughts, the mind hears them.
And with their sound they momentarily return
sounds from the early poetry of our life
like music in the night, distant,disappearing.
….and a poem of Emir Sokolovic, born in 1961 in Zenica (Bosnia-Herzegovina)
Every river sprouts from its own seed
Every river that
Sprouts from its own seed
The wind prunes it back
While it gift us with fragrance
The water nurses it
While it buds sleepily
The stone pushes it back
While it pierces its bare feet
And the crab, at times,
When it does its backward
Dance toward the river mouth
Removes the bound
Whether in water or ashore
The sun draws its shadow round
Silently,in utmost silence…
……and, after all, the celebration of a simple life …written by Serbian poet Branko Miljkovic (1934-1961)
Poem About A Flower
One little flower
Hasn’t learned to speak
But already knows the secrets of the sun
And all the earth conceals.
One little flower
Hasn’t learned to walk
But can already feed itself
With sunshine, water and air.
One little flower
Cannot read or write
But it knows what life and world are
And it’s a delight, what a delight!
….and the suggestion of paintings…
Slava Raskay (1877-1906) was a painter considered to be the greatest watercolourist of the late 19th and early 20th century. Deaf since birth, she was schooled in Vienna and Zagreb and her works were exhibited around Europe, including the 1900 Expo in Paris. In her twenties was diagnosed an acute depression and she was institutionalized and died in 1906 in Zagreb.
Self Portrait
Petar Dobrovic ( 1890-1942) was a Serbian painter and politician and was known for portraits and landscapes. He died during the German occupation of Belgrade during the Second World War.
Self Portrait
…and the magic world of music ..and films…
Goran Bregovic, musician and Emir Kusturica, film maker (both born in Serajevo)
had a great success with the film “Time of the Gypsies”.
An unforgettable song was ‘Ederlezi’, the Romani name for the Feast of Saint George that celebrates the return of springtime.
https://youtu.be/EZf00ad3G6o?si=2CzI9CUTOJCLjPen
Their collaboration continued and Bregovic composed the soundtrack (which was performed by Iggy Pop) for next films ‘Arizona Dream’ and ‘Underground’. His compositions extend Balkan musical inspiration to innovative extremes, draw upon European classicism and Balkan rhythms.