Sarajevo Blues
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-Hercegovina. 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. Sarajevo Blues was originally published at the end of 1992 and was the first book in the...
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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-Hercegovina. 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. Sarajevo Blues was originally published at the end of 1992 and was the first book in the Biblioteka “egzil-abc” series, published in Ljubljana, which provided a forum for Bosnian writers and translators under siege or living in exile. 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.Vesna NeskowIt is only in his occasional political commenary that Mehmedinovic flags somewhat; he's a poet, after all, not a political analyst. -- The New York Times Book Review
Translator's IntroductionLoss1Singular Dream4Corpse5August, 19896The Phone Rings7In the Studio8Alifakovac9Stranger10Essay11Deserter12Spirituality13Stocking Hat14Back then24At the Edge of Town25The Chetnik Position26Expulsion27Cisterns / Rainwater28A Relatively Calm Day29No Man's Land30Crows31Grbavica33A Martyr's Resting Place34Lilies35Curfew36Getting Thinner37Looted Stores38Imam Bey's Mosque39Innocent Civilians44Fires46Milomir Kovacevic47Lion's48Glass49Zambak / Muslims50Kids52Hero53Grenade54Traffic56Photographers57Wounded Parks59War Profiteers60White Death62Politics63Vestibule64What will you Remember?66Ruins68War70Animals71Cat72Shelter74Washing the Dead76Exodus78Bernard-Henri Levy79Lapisnica / Eduard Limonov80Sign81Massacre83Freedom84Surplus History88New Experience90Tunnel92Zenica Blues97Dates105An Interview with Semezdin Mehmedinovic106
\ Vesna NeskowIt is only in his occasional political commenary that Mehmedinovic flags somewhat; he's a poet, after all, not a political analyst. -- The New York Times Book Review\ \
