Anthologist: Almin Kaplan
Translator: Angeliki Dimouli
Co-translators: Goran Kolakotzic, Mirza Purić, Barbara J. Havelant
*
Dijala Hasanbegović, Sandra Cvitković, Anita Pajević, Lidija Deduš, V.B. Borjen, Alen Mešković, Šima Majić, Amila Kahrović Posavljak, Srđan Gagić, Adem Garic.
Find the book here
To make anthologies as well as elections at all – it is ungrateful. Anthology is impossible if it is considered as the most representative and best choice from poetry of a time which is still limited to space. I do not say that anthologies do not need us, but I believe that they should not be experienced too seriously, because all of them, even this one, whatever their authors’ efforts – are flawed.
Anthology, or the choice of modern Bosnian-Herzegovinian poetry made by the signer of these lines, was ordered by the editorial board of Vakxikon Publications. The restrictions that had to be respected during the selection implied that authors / authors who make choices must not be older than forty years, as well as that they should not have published less than one or more than three books. The client also insisted that the selected authors must have songs translated into English so that the same songs from English were translated into Greek. The above conditions have made it impossible for many authors to be included in the selection and make it larger and more diverse as it really is and is a Bosnian Herzegovinian literary scene.
If contemporary Bosnian Herzegovinian literature were to be divided according to its affinities on the topic of the subject, then the simplest division would be to writers who still questioned the immediate experience of the war and those who did not have such an experience by themselves but inherited it. There is also a category of authors of the younger generation who try to thematize things from everyday life, but even then that poetry, although indirectly, speaks, if not of war, then certainly about its consequences. The position of the author is conditioned or determined by the war events of the early nineties in the Balkans. Nationalism, xenophobia, war crimes, inter-ethnic intolerance, unnatural transition, rigid patriarchal society, impotent secularism – the themes of modern Bosnian literary scene. Living in the mentioned spaces and being immune to these misfortunes may perhaps bring us good poetry, but it will hardly bring us true literature. And for the literature, the most urgent is – as the Bosnian Herzegovinian poet Marko Vesovic says – that it is true. I do not think that other topics are less valuable or missing, but it is simply not good to ignore the reality and stifle the experience of the language in which you exist and in which the “war” continues in this “postwar” time.
Authors who are in this selection are largely subject to the above division. But what makes them interesting and important is their attitude towards language, ie the effort to find a place for themselves and for their own poetry in the same language. However much the topic is important and that it is an imperative, the poet is obliged, above all, to take care of the language. We live in a time in which the poets deal with the language negatively. Even that language is often irrelevant to them, and only use it to send information to readers. As a consequence, we have dictionaries, jokes and frozen philosophy that did not even know how to try to be poetry.
Before you, there are dear readers of ten contemporary Bosnian authors and authors, diverse and stylish, and what they are tematizing about. However, they are all cautious in their own language and all contribute to it in the way that serious literature strives. He still only remains to believe that their poetry will survive through two translations, first from original to English, and then from English into Greek. Because the translation of poetry – to once again quote Vesovic – is nothing more than kissing through the glass.
Almin Kaplan