Sarajevo Blues

by Semezdin Mehmedinović, Ammiel Alcalay (Translator)

From one of Bosnia's most prominent poets and writers: spare and haunting stories and poems that were written under the horrific circumstances of the recent war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Semezdin Mehmedinovic remained a citizen of Sarajevo throughout the Serbian nationalists' siege and was active throughout the war in the city's resistance movement, as one of the editor's of the magazine Phantom of Liberty.

Semezdin Mehmedinovic says that "writing is, finally, quite a personal thing that doesn't make much sense unless you are practicing for the last word." For those Bosnians emerging from the siege or still in exile, these "last words" remain intimate possessions, one of the last bastions left against the commodification of tragedy.

Genres: Poetry, Short Stories, War, Nonfiction, History, Essays, Biography

122 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Semezdin Mehmedinović is a well known Bosnian writer, filmmaker, and magazine editor. His book "Sarajevo Blues" was praised by Washington Post as one of the best books which document war in Bosnia.

Reviews

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a slim book, but it is not a quick read. That's not a complaint. The topics are difficult and dense, and they deserve -- even demand -- more than one reading. The poems near the end were probably my favorites, and you needed to read what came before them, including the essays, to feel their full power.

[Hulyacln · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Yugoslav Edebiyatı profesörü olan Vojislav Maksimoviç,bir Müslüman’ın kesik başını futbol topu yapmıştı.Bu yüzden insanlar hakkında hiçbir beklentim kalmadı.Bu yüzden İsa’yı çarmıha germeyecek hiçbir milletin olduğunu sanmıyorum.
Sadece dünyam değil,dilim de paramparça.
Örneğin bir kütüphane artık kitaplarla dolu bir bina değil,kül olmuş bir harabe.”
.
Yanıbaşımızda oldu bu olanlar.Dilleri,bedenleri,düşünceleri parçalandı insanların.Komşuları tarafından tecavüz edildiler,sınıf arkadaşları tarafından öldürüldüler.Tarihin ilk dönemlerinde değil; televizyon ekranlarında yayınlanacak kadar yakın bir geçmişte oldu olanlar.
Derseniz ki hala olmuyor mu bunlar?
Olmaz mı derim ben de..İsa çarmıha gerildi,Muhammed taşlandı,yan komşunuzu kocası çocuğunun gözü önünde bıçakladı,sokağınızdaki kedinin bağırsakları çıkarıldı zevk için.
Ben derim ki, insan unuttu.Sadece Saraybosna’yı değil..
İnsan derim,insan kendini unuttu.
.
Semezdin Mehmedinoviç,öyle vurucu yazıyor ki.İçindeki tüm fırtınalarda biz alabora oluyoruz.Yazılanları dahi sindirebilmek kolay değilken; yaşamak..Havsalam almıyor..Savaşın orta yerinde bir çift göz oluyor Mehmedinoviç. Gördüklerini yazıyor, yazdıklarıyla hatırlıyor..
.
Bu eseri okuyabilmek benim için çok kıymetli.Gizem Yiğit de nasıl güzel bir dille çevirmiş.Kapak tasarımı Harun Tan’a ait.

[City ReadersMag · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bazı kitaplar vardır sizi öyle içine alır ki anlatının mekanına, zamanına ve olayların tam da ortasına koyuverir.

Ben de tıpkı böyle duygularla okudum derin bir hüzünle sarmalanmış bu kitabı. Bazen ölü yıkayan kadın gibi kurşunlardan korunmak için arabaya bindim; bazen de keskin nişancılardan korunmak için sokaklardan koşarak geçtim.

Kitabın son bölümlerini Cenevre`den Zürih`e giden trende okuyorum. Her satırında gözyaşlarım süzülüyor yanaklarımdan. Avrupa`nın ortasında yaşanan bu drama “tarafsız” ve sessiz kalınmasını, “sorunlarını kendi içlerinde halletsinler” gibi yaklaşımları aklım almıyor, almak istemiyor. Bence, Bosna savaşı üzerine yazılan en etkili kitaplardan biri Saraybosna Blues. Semezdin Mehmedinoviç kendi gördükleri ve yaşadıkları üzerinden, ajitasyon yapmadan ve savaşın çirkin detaylarını anlatmadan yaşananları iliklerinizde hissetmenizi sağlıyor. Bu arada, kitap hem denemelerden hem de şiirlerden oluşmakta.

Kitabı bitirip kapatıyorum ve çevreme bakıyorum. Ağladığımı görüp başlarını çeviriyor insanlar. Tıpkı Saraybosna’da yapılan gibi diye geçiriyorum içimden, tıpkı şu an dünyanın başka yerlerinde de yaşandığı gibi!

https://www.instagram.com/cityreaders...

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will repeat what I wrote in a comment earlier along in my reading. This work is intense, moving, lyrical at times, heartbreaking. The author describes the days, and nights, of a city in the midst of war and the lives and deaths of the people in the city. Then he tells of his life in that city. There is occasional beauty but more bullets and bloodshed, and the thankless tasks of staying alive. This is the side of war I haven't read much about. We should all probably see this side.

I will read this again, parts of it many times. I especially loved the poem "Essay", the final poem "Dates", and the essay "Crows". I've been trying to decide between 4, 4.5 and 5 as a rating. I believe I will go with the 5. There is so much in the book. I believe I will find more at each reading.

[Lauren]

▪️SARAJEVO BLUES by Semezdin Mehmedinović, translated from the Bosnian by Ammiel Alcalay, 1995/1998 by @citylightsbooks

#ReadtheWorld21 📍Bosnia and Herzegovina

If you caught my IGLive last week with Danja @danchireads, I talked about this book quite a bit, and made a bold claim - one of my favorites of the month, and maybe even the whole year.

"It's called history. I've long ago lost the sense that words like history and progress have meanings that might ever coincide. Progress definitely doesn't exist in that sense, and we live in a space infected by a surplus of history. And when that's how it is, it's only natural for history to serve someone's interest."
✍️ From "Surplus History" (essay)

One particular essay "Stocking Hat" will remain with me for awhile. He describes a teammate from his soccer team who doesn't show up for a game one night. Mehmedinović boards a city trolley to go home after the game, when the trolley is attacked and held up by a masked group of terrorists with guns... And he immediately recognizes his missing teammate is there holding a kalashnikov in his face. He relates this incident to the many times a person you "think you know" threatens your existence, in this context of the War when neighbors and friends turned so quickly.

Poems, essays, and reflections - many about the war and related aftershocks, but some also some pieces about cats, walking the city and family.

Stunning collection.

📚 Quite eager to check out his more recent MY HEART (2021) since this one resonated so deeply.

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 5 out of 5]

In short essays, stories, poems and truncated interviews, Semezdin Mehmedinović presents an account of war unlike any other. From the point of view of an inhabitant of Sarajevo during the vicious war of the early 90's, he brings the experience to life. This joins his work of autofiction, My Heart, which will be published later this year, as one of my favorites of the year so far.

[Aykan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Çok çok acayip bir kitap. Hastalıklı duyguların ortalama insanları ne hale düşürdüğüne dair incelikli gözlemler. Tabii ki savaş, savaşın içinde, kırılan bir halkın mensubu Mehmedinovic. Bosna üzerine yazılanları okurken hissettiklerimin tarifi yok. Çok sene ve çok savaş geçti üstünden fakat halâ tütüyor...

[Draganf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Polovinu knjige čini poezija, polovinu proza.
Poezija mi se baš i ne dopada, što ne znači da je loša.
Proza polovično. Ali, onaj dio koji je dobar, baš je dobar, na momente genijalan.

Ono što me motiviše da čitam ovakve sarajevske ratne priče, to je unutrašnja borba sa samim sobom, relativizacija, upoznavanje druge strane, rušenje dogmi i tabua, oslobađanje od determinističke matrice. Nije da se ne naježim na svaki pomen srpskog fašizma, četničke agresije i bošnjačke bezgrešnosti, ali baš to, ta odbojnost, gnijev, osjećaj nepravde, glavni je razlog što ću u skorije vrijeme pročitati sve knjige ovog tipa koje mi dopadnu šaka. (Iako sebe ne smatram nacionalistom, na srpski nacionalizam kolutnem očima s blagom dosadom, dok na hrvatski i bošnjački reagujem žustrije, brecnem se, zauzimam gard, a valjda je i to dovoljan dokaz da nisam objektivan koliko mislim da jesam)

Knjiga je prvo pisana na engleskom jeziku (valjda), objavljena u Americi, tamo doživjela prilično dobru recepciju, pa ne čudi što obiluje onom ustaljenom kapitalističkom matricom karakterističnoj za 'avangardne umjetnike iza gvozdene zavjese'. Nisam brojao koliko se puta pominje Kokakola, ali mi je ostalo upečatljivo mjesto na kom se kaže da bi bilo mnogo bolje da se umjesto zastava i državnih simbola, na ekranima na zidovima zgrada danonoćno emituju reklamni spotovi Kokakole i Benetona. Interesantno, jer nije da nije tako, ali opet...!

Za kraj, jedna genijalna naivnost, ili naivna genijalnost, kako god.
"Wilhelm Reich u djelu Ubistvo Krista kaže da postoje duše koje snuju zlo i to ispunjava njihov duh", priča mi Hrvoje B. "Takvi su razapeli Krista, jer, naprosto, ne mogu podnijeti dušu koja teži univerzumu ljubavi. Neron, Kaligula, Džingis Kan, Staljin - oni ne mogu podnijeti postojanje takvih duša kao što je Brunova, ili Ghandijeva, ili Lincolnova. Bosna stoljećima dokazuje mogućnost zajedničkog života ljudi raznih konfesija i naroda u miru i ljubavi - već kao takva je skandal. Zato je razapinju, kao i Krista što su."

U ovom odlomku se sažima sve. Dakle, Bosna je ideal ljubavi i suživota, Bosna je poput Hrista (?!) Postoje ljudi koji ne mogu podnijeti takvu ljubav, recimo, sovjetski lider (!) Postoje ljudi koji su toliko dobri da ih zli ne mogu podnijeti, recimo, američki lider (!!!) Bosna je zemlja ljubavi koja zbog svog savršenstva postaje plijen zlih i zavidnih, to jest Karadžića i ostalog rukovodstva Sprske (neki se poimenice pominju u knjizi), podržanog od strane srpskog naroda.

Ima i drugih dijelova vrijednih pomena, ali ne bih dužio, i ovo pišem samo zbog tog što nema nijedne recenzije na našeg jeziku. Knjigu vrijedi pročitati, ima zaista dobrih i zanimljivih dijelova.

Ocjena: 3,5. Ali, da ne bude da zbog nekih neknjiževnih razloga dajem slabiju ocjenu, neka bude 4 :)

[Vishy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've wanted to read Semezdin Mehmedinović's 'Sarajevo Blues' for a long time now. I finally read it today.

'Sarajevo Blues' is a collection of short prose pieces and poems set in Bosnia in the '90s during the war. It was one of the first books from Bosnia to come out in English at that time. It was highly acclaimed when it first came out, and its fame has grown steadily ever since. The prose pieces and poems in the book are insightful and moving and haunting and heartbreaking. Reading anything about Bosnia from that period makes me sad and this made me sad too. There is a wonderful introduction by the translator Ammiel Alcalay at the beginning of the book which is very informative and insightful. I loved Alcalay's introduction to Miljenko Jergović's 'Sarajevo Marlboro' and I loved his introduction here too. He writes beautiful essays which are such a pleasure to read. I discovered that there is a whole volume of his essays which has been published. I want to read that! There is also a beautiful interview at the end of the book with the author in which he discusses different things including Bosnian literature and the events of that time.

I'm sharing below some of my favourite passages from the book.

"After he finished taking pictures of the Library, Kemal Hadžić was wounded by a piece of shrapnel on his way home. It’s hard to avoid a tendency towards mysticism during war: the first thing I thought of is that his wound was a warning...At the same time, plunging into the world is its own art form: what else did this photographer do as he circled the burning library, looking for a perfect angle or enough light, catching the water of the Miljacka with a wide angle lens? What else if not to fulfill that passionate artistic desire of distilling wild beauty from the spectacle of death, of approaching it from the other side? The artist’s need to venture into the unknown is risky, but it is precisely upon this impulse that the power of art is based. Maybe the shrapnel was a punishment for that heretical impulse."

"Everyone in Sarajevo, accustomed to death, lives through so many transcendental experiences that they have already become initiates of some deviant form of Buddhism. If the agression lasts another month or so, many of them will believe that a chestnut falling on Wilson’s Promenade carries more weight than a grenade."

"I’m running across an intersection to avoid the bullet of a sniper from the hill when I walk straight into some photographers: they’re doing their job, in deep cover. If a bullet hit me they’d get a shot worth so much more than my life that I’m not even sure whom to hate: the Chetnik sniper or these monkeys with Nikons. For the Chetniks I’m just a simple target but these others only confirm my utter helplessness and even want to take advantage of it. In Sarajevo, death is a job for all of them. Life has been narrowed down completely, reduced to gestures. It’s almost touching to see the comic motion of a man covering his head with a newspaper as he runs across this same street, scared of a sniper’s bullet."

Have you read 'Sarajevo Blues'? What do you think about it?

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Around the World Reading Challenge: BOSNIA and HERZEGOVINA
===
4.5 rounded up

A collection of poetry and short stories/vignettes that were written/take place during the Serbian nationalists' siege of Sarajevo. The concept and style here really worked beautifully for me, and the way the stories and poems built and played off of one another were just gorgeous. Really evocative and powerful collection.

[Nelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection of poetry and prose that creates a meaningful look into life in Bosnia before, during and after the genocide.

[Amila · Rating 2 out of 5]

Što se tiče doživljaja ljudskog među neljudima (ono zbog čega jednim dijelom čitam knjige ove tematike), ima poneki biser tu i tamo.

[Nataša · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poznato ime koje me nije privlačilo dobilo je svojih 5 minuta tokom prve posete Sarajevu, pa mi je subjektivno značajna, iako je blistala samo u momentima.
Autor kaže da čekajući slobodu piše reklamu ratu. Prodato.

[andreea.]

"These days, I pass through streets famous for massacres: in a passageway I see a display case with an advertisement for photographs. In one picture, four skydivers create the figure of a dancer in the air. They smile, overwhelmed by a feeling of freedom, conscious of the fact that they’re flying. But there is nothing angelic in this spectacle: their smiles are almost hysterical, maybe because of the packs on their backs that skydivers still have to reconcile themselves with. More proof that every form of freedom is inevitably connected to risk. And even though their faces are clearly different, their individual fate is wiped out by the signature beneath the photo: Produkt von Kodak. What remains, then, is an ad for the photo itself, for the incomporable quality of its color. And this informs an age in which advertising has definitively replaced criticism.
A constant discomfort derives from this—writing these sentences, or any other for that matter—I am writing an ad for the war."

[Mochammad Yusni · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good friend from Croatia gave this book to me last year. This time of Corona I decided to open it, and dear God how it helped me so much to transport into his war context made my journey within this book became more powerful. I don't intend to claim that war has similar situation like this pandemic, but there are certain aspects like the isolation, distancing, worry while walking outside, etc that helps me a bit to understand how dreadful the war situation in Bosnia-Hercegovina at that time. Having said that, it wouldn't even happen if Semezdin made a bad work. His powerful, engaged, deep and heartbreaking writings truly amazing. Let me also tell you, I am not a poem reader kinda guy, but this work makes me truly appreciate poems in a whole new level.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two other works popped into my mind when I was reading this set of stories, poems and essays: Claude Lanzmann's "Shoah" documentary and Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem. Why? All three in their own way tackle the horrors of war and genocide, and all three do so not through vivid description of the brutality but with a sort of detached, unfinished voice. Seems to go against common sense but I find such depictions of war much more jarring and powerful than sensationized, tear-jerking ones.

Also, don't skip out on the interview with Mehmedinovic at the end. His responses to the questions and outlook on post-war & post-Yugoslav society show a fierce intelligence and his genius with words.

[Hafsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of poetry and prose by Bosnian writer Mehmedinovic. In this book he describes his experiences living under siege in Sarajevo, his writing is hard-hitting and thought-provoking. The themes of hopelessness, fear, loss and desperation are universal even if the book is about a specific place and time. If I could pick out a central idea it would be about the loss of identity in Bosnia where Sarajevo became unrecognisable and neighbours turned against each other. Although this is a short book it is by no means easy to get through, I would recommend it to someone familiar with the Bosnian war and wanting understand the experience of war.

[naoual · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I think the most important thing in life is for a lot of things to happen to you, so you'll have something to remember!"

*This does not have anything to do with SARAJEVO BLUES, but I just find it ironic that the translator Ammiel Alcalay, also published "Israeli" books💀like how can you translate a book about this particular war and then go about your way and WRITE books about an apartheid state🤡*

[Steven Godin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once I too will depart alone
into the darkness of the grave —
on Alifakovac
or another hill, the city
I knew everyone in
and now only two or
three remain —
and only night, alone
I look out from the past
on the city's darkness
from someone else's
home, I, stranger —
I a stranger

[Jasenka Delić · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neke priče su mi bile divne i taman po mom ukusu, neke nešto manje. Ipak, drago mi je da i ovaj naslov ima svoje mjesto u mojoj biblioteci.

[Ana Mendes]

“War is a word that I pronounced very easily not too long ago: now it’s filled with the weight of true meaning. (…) Now I’m learning things all over again. This May I found out what the word abundance means (…) the possibility to choose (…).” - p.106

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

We slowed down at the bridge
to watch some dogs tear a
corpse apart by the river
and then we went on
nothing in me has changed
I heard the crunch of snow under tires
like teeth biting into an apple
and felt the wild desire to laugh
at you
because you call this place hell
and you flee from here convinced
that death outside Sarajevo does not exist.

[Dayna Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of Bosnia prominent poets and writers, Mehmedinovic stayed in Sarajevo during the war and this book of short stories and poems takes you to the war torn city and lets you experience for yourself the horror of a war Americans still know little about. A magnificent work, this book is a Reader's Corner Highly Recommended Read.

[Arnel Šarić · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Me'med, crvena bandana i pahuljica" je prva Semezdinova knjiga koju sam pročitao i koja me onako prepolovila napola.

Ovdje tog kvaliteta ima u tragovima, ali valjda sam ja umoran od priče o ratu i ne toliko raspoložen za poeziju, pa se nije primilo kao gorespomenuta.

Ipak, preporuka, moguće da ste drugačijeg sentimenta.

[Mallowmrawr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detached and disheartening. Very sad prose concerned with this novel. Encourages awareness of the things that happen outside our own little "world", makes you notice things that are usually taken for granted on our end.

[William West]

While I don't actively endorse the author's political perspective, he does write beautifully and conveys a haunting sense of day to day, urban life in the midst of civil war.

[Sena Karavas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book tells you about a tragedy that the whole world witnessed and yet did nothing. You'll read the words of a man whose soul is broken and experienced a cruel war with all his living cells...

[chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

We slowed down at the bridge
to watch some dogs tear a
corpse apart by the river
and then we went on
nothing in me has changed
I heard the crunch of snow under tires
like teeth biting into an apple
and felt the wild desire to laugh
at you
because you call this place
hell and you flee from here convinced
that death outside Sarajevo does not exist
-- "Corpse"

I know that someone I've just spent a nice afternoon with could knock on my door at any second with a stocking on his head, just the way Stojan Sljuka knocked on the door of the trolley. I haven't seen him since but the wrap-up for the play-by-play from those days was quite gruesome. Vojislav Maksimovic, a professor of Yugoslav literature, used the decapitated head of a Muslim as a soccer ball. So I don't have any illusions left about people or, for that matter, about nations. That's why I don't think a single nation exists that wouldn't crucify Christ.
-- "Stocking Hat"

In the Western mythology of Disneyland, cats merit the least sympathy. Mice, as the victims of cats, according to the tendentious logic of American fairy tales, are superior beings who deserve more sympathy. Of course this is related to the fact that the status of victim must remain an exclusively human category (and this relationship of victim and victimizer is not without religious origins). Anyone thinking rationally would have to agree it's a mean feat to attribute cleanliness to these creatures of the cellar, producers of fevers, plagues, and a whole range of diseases that lead to truly horrifying forms of death. For such an animal to become an object of sympathy seems absurd. On the other hand, cats who groom themselves like hygienic dynamos, not only come out on top when it comes to mice but are so self-sufficient that they're not dependent on people. It's simply unnecessary for them to emulate human characteristics in order to gain some sympathy from a superior earthly being whose every utterance begins with the word "I."
-- "Cat"

Without you everything
in this town will still be the same.
Or almost -- you reassure yourself,
like when you use a huge wooden
match to light a cigarette.
So remember a few details,
like the rattling of silver rings,
or your glass bowls.
And all the instances that
mercilessly surround your
AWKWARDNESS: the clash
of teeth in a kiss, for instance,
before you recognize the
ghostly rattling of bones
in the silence
that you might have imagined
like your fear of dying in winter
when the laundry freezes on the line
and the ribs of numb undershirts crack
-- "Zenica Blues"

[Emir]

"Whoever has not dwelt in the midst of horror and dread cannot know how strongly a witness and participant protests against himself, against his own neglect and egoism. Destruction and suffering are the school of social thought."

- Czeslaw Milosz

Semezdin Mehmedinović witnesses for Sarajevo and its people during the city's bloody and brutal siege. The witness of a poet is unlike that of a journalist in so far as he fights, aware of, the framings of journalistic reports.

"People are relatively normal, or relatively loony since death has been accepted as a statistic."

The poet tries to save or expose the humanity behind the rubble of war, unflinching as humanity turns against itself.

"The war has made me suspicious of any metaphor (and not because poets turned into murderers)."

Mehmedinović poems, prose, and reflections are all poetically charged, sparkling light against the gloom, violence and death, despite his own disillusionment.

"I myself no longer have any illusions about people. I know that someone I've just spent a nice afternoon with could knock on my door at any second with a stocking on his head... I don't have any illusions left about people or, for that matter, about nations. That's why I don't think a single nation exists that wouldn't crucify Christ."

It is to the poet's credit that he acknowledged that by writing about the war he could be contributing to its commodification as war reportages do. Mehmedinović succeeded in retaining the horrors of war, Sarajevo Blues lacerates your insides with such acute intensity and offers insights to war, any war, that only a keen poetic consciousness could provide.

A poet approaches the ineffable to try to express it: love, horror, life, death... Will one ever succeed?

"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."

[Lillzebub · Rating 4 out of 5]

A work of poetry in translation is tantamount to a new edition of the original, so my review should not reflect on Mehmedinović's collection in the original Bosnian. With that being said, I enjoyed his choice of images, oftentimes quotidian and offset by the lurid rather than vice versa, and his playful affinity for the absurd ('it's grenading outside') coinciding with concerns about the ethics of representation ('monkeys with Nikons' for whom 'death is a job'), artistic production, and literature itself. Mehmedinović blends prose, poetry, essay, and journalism into a beyond-genre endeavor that attempts to speak directly to his own experience of the war in Sarajevo. However, the impetus to superimpose the self onto poetry, to assume the poetic voice, vaults the reader into the cityscape, on Mehmedinović's balcony, beneath the unsheathed claws of his blessed cat, not as a spectator but as another 'I.' Seeing, viewing, and understanding are primary concerns throughout Sarajevo Blues, and the writer's relationship with observing, participating, and criticizing others' and other forms of doing so extend the import of the anthology beyond Sarajevo, the Balkans, and the genre of war writing in general.