The Bridge on the Drina - PDFDrive.com Page 2

  resultedinadeepunderstandingofpeoplesandcreedsotherthanhisown.Born

  near Travnik in Northern Bosnia in 1892, Dr Andrić passed much of his

  childhoodinVišegrad.Notonlyistheretruth,insightandsympathyinhisvaried

  range of Višegrad portraits, there is certainly also a good deal of observed and

  criticalbiography.

  Dr Andrić's books are almost all about Bosnia and Bosnians. But the peculiar

  positionofBosnia,astormcentreforcenturiesontheborderoftheEasternand

  Westernworlds,saves themfromthe curseofdetailed provincialismandgives

  themaninterestthatextendsfarbeyonditsnarrowborders.Itwouldnotbetoo

  muchtosaythattheassassinationoftheAustrianArchdukeFranzFerdinandby

  GavriloPrincipatSarajevoin1914wastheturningpointofmodernhistory.

  OrAndrić'sowncareerwidenedthefieldofhisobservationsandhissympathies

  in a manner possible only in a vigorously growing society and a century of

  conflict. He studied first at Sarajevo and later at the universities of Zagreb,

  Vienna,CracowandGraz,wherehetookhisdegree.Ofapoorartisanfamily,he

  madehiswaylargelythroughhisownability.Asothergiftedstudentsofhisrace

  andtime,andashisownstudentsin TheBridgeontheDrina, hebelongedtothe

  National Revolutionary Youth Organization, and experienced the customary

  cycle of persecution and arrest. After the First World War he entered the

  Yugoslav diplomatic service and served in Rome, Bucharest, Trieste and Graz.

  At the outbreak of World War II he was Yugoslav Minister in Berlin, when

  Yugoslaviawasdesperatelyplayingfortime,hopingtopostponetheinvasionof

  Hitlerandatthesametimeconsolidateherforcestoresistitwhenitinevitably

  came. I recall waiting tensely in Belgrade for Dr Andrić to return from Berlin,

  the one sure sign that an invasion was immediate. He came back only a few

  hours before the first bombs fell on Belgrade. My only contact with him was

  whentheYugoslavGovernmentwasalreadyinflight.

  During the war, Dr Andrić lived in retirement in Belgrade, and during the

  Germanoccupationtooknopartinpublicaffairs.Thereinwearethegainers,for

  atthattimehewrotehismostimportantworks,includingwhatmaybecalledhis

  Bosniantrilogy: Miss,TheTravnikChronicle and,thegreatestofthemall, The

  BridgeontheDrina.

  The experiences of the war and the German occupation gave Dr Andrić

  sympathy with the Yugoslav Liberation Movement. Since the war, he has been

  associated with it and has been a member of the National Assembly for many

  years.

  TheBridgeontheDrina isnotanovelintheusualsenseoftheword.Itsscope

  is too vast, its characters too numerous, its period of action too long; it covers threeandahalfcenturies.DrAndrićhimselfcallsitachronicle;letusaccepthis

  word.

  It has been awarded the highest literary award of postwar Yugoslavia and has

  beentranslatedintoseverallanguages.

  Itisalwaysaninvidioustaskforatranslatortocommentonanauthor'sstyle.It

  shouldbe—andIhopeitis—evidentinthetranslation.Andrić'sstylehasthe

  sweep and surge of the sea, slow and yet profound, with occasional flashes of

  witandirony.Onesubtletycannot,however,beconveyedintranslation;hisuse

  ofvaryingdialectsandlocalisms.IhaveconveyedtheminthebestmannerthatI

  could,sincealiteraluseofdialectwould,evenwereitpossible,bepedantic,dull

  and cumbersome. For the information of purists, the occasional Turkish words

  that are used are used in their Bosnian sense and spelling which often differs

  considerablyfrommodernliteraryTurkish.

  LOVETTF.EDWARDS

  NOTE onthepronunciationofSerbo-Croatnames

  Andrić's novel is published both in the Cyrillic and Latin (Croat) alphabets. I

  have used the Croatian spelling throughout. The language is strictly phonetic.

  Onesoundisalmostalwaysdesignatedbyoneletteror(inCroat)combination

  ofletters.

  Generally speaking, the foreigner cannot go far wrong if he uses 'continental'

  vowelsandEnglishconsonants,withthefollowingexceptions:

  isalwaysts,asincats.

  čischasinchurch.

  ćissimilarbutsofter,astintheCockneypronunciationoftube.

  Manyfamilynamesendinć.Forpracticalpurposes,theforeignermayregardč

  andćasthesame.

  djistheEnglishjinjudge—theEnglishjinfact.

  dž is practically the same, but harder. It is usually found in words of Turkish

  origin.

  jisalwayssoft,theEnglishy.

  rissometimesavowel,stronglyrolled.Hencesuchstrangelookingwordsasvrh

  (summit),

  šisshasinshake.

  žiszhaszinazure.

  Other variations do not occur in this book. In a few cases I have left the

  conventionally accepted English spelling, instead of insisting pedantically on

  Serbo-Croat versions: e.g. San jak (Serbo-Croat: Sandžak), Belgrade (Serbo-

  Croat: Beograd), etc. In the case of purely Turkish names, I have sometimes transliteratedthemphonetically,astheCroatversionisequallyarbitrary.

  Theuseoftheoriginalnamesretainsdignityandflavour.Attemptstoadaptthem

  toEnglishphonetics(initselfanungratefultask)resultsinsuchmonstrositiesas

  Ts(e)rnche—forCrnče.

  LOVETTF.EDWARDS

  I

  For the greater part of its course the river Drina flows through narrow gorges

  between steep mountains or through deep ravines with precipitous banks. In a

  fewplacesonlytheriverbanksspreadouttoformvalleyswithlevelorrolling

  stretches of fertile land suitable for cultivation and settlement on both sides.

  Such a place exists here at Višegrad, where the Drina breaks out in a sudden

  curve from the deep and narrow ravine formed by the Butkovo rocks and the

  Uzavnikmountains.ThecurvewhichtheDrinamakeshereisparticularlysharp

  andthemountainsonbothsidesaresosteepandsoclosetogetherthattheylook

  likeasolidmassoutofwhichtheriverflowsdirectlyasfromadarkwall.Then

  the mountains suddenly widen into an irregular amphitheatre whose widest

  extentisnotmorethanabouttenmilesasthecrowflies.

  Here, where the Drina flows with the whole force of its green and foaming

  waters from the apparently closed mass of the dark steep mountains, stands a

  greatclean-cutstonebridgewithelevenwidesweepingarches.Fromthisbridge

  spreadsfanlikethewholerollingvalleywiththelittleorientaltownofVišegrad

  andallitssurroundings,withhamletsnestlinginthefoldsofthehills,covered

  with meadows, pastures and plum-orchards, and criss-crossed with walls and

  fences and dotted with shaws and occasional clumps of evergreens. Looked at

  fr
omadistancethroughthebroadarchesofthewhitebridgeitseemsasifone

  can see not only the green Drina, but all that fertile and cultivated countryside

  andthesouthernskyabove.

  Ontherightbankoftheriver,startingfromthebridgeitself,laythecentreofthe

  town,withthemarketplace,partlyonthelevelandpartlyonthehillside.Onthe

  othersideofthebridge,alongtheleftbank,stretchedtheMaluhinoPolje,witha

  few scattered houses along the road which led to Sarajevo. Thus the bridge,

  unitingthetwopartsoftheSarajevoroad,linkedthetownwithitssurrounding

  villages.

  Actually,tosay'linked'wasjustastrueastosaythatthesunrisesinthemorning

  sothatmenmayseearoundthemandfinish

  theirdailytasks,andsetsintheeveningthattheymaybeabletosleepandrest

  fromthelaboursoftheday.Forthisgreatstonebridge,ararestructureofunique

  beauty,suchasmanyricherandbusiertownsdonotpossess('Thereareonlytwo

  otherssuchasthisinthewholeEmpire/theyusedtosayinoldentimes)wasthe

  one real and permanent crossing in the whole middle and upper course of the Drina and an indispensable link on the road between Bosnia and Serbia and

  further, beyond Serbia, with other parts of the Turkish Empire, all the way to

  Stambul.Thetownanditsoutskirtswereonlythesettlementswhichalwaysand

  inevitablygrowuparoundanimportantcentreofcommunicationsandoneither

  sideofgreatandimportantbridges.

  Herealsointimethehousescrowdedtogetherandthesettlementsmultipliedat

  bothendsofthebridge.Thetownoweditsexistencetothebridgeandgrewout

  ofitasiffromanimperishableroot.

  In order to see a picture of the town and understand it and its relation to the bridge clearly, it must be said that there was another bridge in the town and

  another river. This was the river Rzav, with a wooden bridge across it. At the

  veryendofthetowntheRzavflowsintotheDrina,sothatthecentreandatthe

  sametimethemainpartofthetownlayonasandytongueoflandbetweentwo

  rivers, the great and the small, which met there and its scattered outskirts

  stretchedoutfrombothsidesofthebridges,alongtheleftbankoftheDrinaand

  therightbankoftheRzav.Itwasatownonthe»water.Buteventhoughanother

  river existed and another bridge, the words 'on the bridge' never meant on the

  Rzavbridge,asimplewoodenstructurewithoutbeautyandwithouthistory,that

  hadnoreasonforitsexistencesavetoservethetownspeopleandtheiranimals

  asacrossing,butonlyanduniquelythestonebridgeovertheDrina.

  Thebridgewasabouttwohundredandfiftypaceslongandabouttenpaceswide

  save in the middle where it widened out into two completely equal terraces

  placed symmetrically on either side of the roadway and making it twice its

  normal width. This was the part of the bridge known as the kapia. Two

  buttresseshadbeenbuiltoneachsideofthecentralpierwhichhadbeensplayed

  out towards the top, so that to right and left of the roadway there were two

  terracesdaringlyandharmoniouslyprojectingoutwardsfromthestraightlineof

  the bridge over the noisy green waters far below. The two terraces were about

  five paces long and the same in width and were bordered, as was the whole

  length of the bridge, by a stone parapet. Otherwise, they were open and

  uncovered.Thatontherightasonecamefromthetownwascalledthesofa.It

  wasraisedby

  twostepsandborderedbybenchesforwhichtheparapetservedasaback;steps,

  benchesandparapetwereallmadeofthesameshiningstone.Thatontheleft,

  oppositethe sola, wassimilarbutwithoutbenches.Inthemiddleoftheparapet,

  thestonerosehigherthanamanandinit,nearthetop,wasinsertedaplaqueof whitemarblewitharichTurkishinscription,a tarih, withacarvedchronogram

  whichtoldinthirteenversesthenameofthemanwhobuiltthebridgeandthe

  year in which it was built. Near the foot of this stone was a fountain, a thin

  stream of water flowing from the mouth of a stone snake. On this part of the

  terraceacoffee-makerhadinstalledhimselfwithhiscoppervesselsandTurkish

  cups and ever-lighted charcoal brazier, and an apprentice who took the coffee

  overthewaytotheguestsonthe sofa. Suchwasthe kapia.

  On the bridge and its kapia, about it or in connection with it, flowed and developed,asweshallsee,thelifeofthetownsmen.Inalltalesaboutpersonal,

  familyorpubliceventsthewords'onthebridge'couldalwaysbeheard.Indeed

  onthebridgeovertheDrinawerethefirststepsofchildhoodandthefirstgames

  ofboyhood.

  TheChristianchildren,bornontheleftbankoftheDrina,crossedthebridgeat

  once in the first days of their lives, for they were always taken across in their first week to be christened. But all the other children, those who were born on

  therightbankandtheMoslemchildrenwhowerenotchristenedatall,passed,

  ashadoncetheirfathersandtheirgrandfathers,themainpartoftheirchildhood

  onoraroundthebridge.Theyfishedarounditorhunteddovesunderitsarches.

  Fromtheirveryearliestyears,theireyesgrewaccustomedtothelovelylinesof

  thisgreatstonestructurebuiltofshiningporousstone,regularlyandfaultlessly

  cut.Theyknewallthebossesandconcavitiesofthemasons,aswellasallthe

  tales and legends associated with the existence and building of the bridge, in

  which reality and imagination, waking and dream, were wonderfully and

  inextricablymingled.Theyhadalwaysknownthesethingsasiftheyhadcome

  into the world with them, even as they knew their prayers, but could not

  rememberfromwhomtheyhadlearntthemnorwhentheyhadfirstheardthem.

  They knew that the bridge had been built by the Grand Vezir, Mehmed Pasha,

  whohadbeenborninthenearbyvillageofSokolovići,justonthefarsideofone

  ofthosemountainswhichencircledthebridgeandthetown.OnlyaVezircould

  havegivenallthatwasneededtobuildthislastingwonderofstone(aVezir—to

  thechildren'smindsthatwassomethingfabulous,immense,terribleandfarfrom

  clear). It was built by Rade the Mason, who must have lived for hundreds of

  yearstohavebeenabletobuildallthatwaslovely

  and lasting in the Serbian lands, that legendary and in fact nameless master

  whom all people desire and dream of, since they do not want to have to

  remember or be indebted to too many, even in memory. They knew that the vila of the boatmen had hindered its building, as always and everywhere thereissomeonetohinderbuilding,destroyingbynightwhathadbeenbuiltby

  day, until 'something' had whispered from the waters and counselled Rade the

  Mason to find two infant children, twins, brother and sister, named Stoja and

  Ostoja,andwallthemintothecentralpierofthebridge.Arewardwaspromised


  towhoeverfoundthemandbroughtthemhither.

  Atlasttheguardsfoundsuchtwins,stillatthebreast,inadistantvillageandthe

  Vezir's men took them away by force; but when they were taking them away,

  their mother would not be parted from them and, weeping and wailing,

  insensibletoblowsandtocurses,stumbledafterthemasfarasVišegraditself,

  whereshesucceededinforcingherwaytoRadetheMason.

  Thechildrenwerewalledintothepier,foritcouldnotbeotherwise,butRade,

  they say, had pity on them and left openings in the pier through which the

  unhappymothercouldfeedhersacrificedchildren.Thosearethefinelycarved

  blind windows, narrow as loopholes, in which the wild doves now nest. In

  memoryofthat,themother'smilkhasflowedfromthosewallsforhundredsof

  years.Thatisthethinwhitestreamwhich,atcertaintimesofyear,flowsfrom

  that faultless masonry and leaves an indelible mark on the stone. (The idea of

  woman's milk stirs in the childish mind a feeling at once too intimate and too

  close,yetatthesametimevagueandmysteriouslikeVezirsandmasons,which

  disturbsandrepulsesthem.)Menscrapethosemilkytracesoffthepiersandsell

  themasmedicinalpowdertowomenwhohavenomilkaftergivingbirth.

  Inthecentralpierofthebridge,belowthe kapia, thereisalargeropening,along

  narrowgatewaywithoutgates,likeagiganticloophole.Inthatpier,theysay,isa

  great room, a gloomy hall, in which a black Arab lives. All the children know

  this.Intheirdreamsandintheirfanciesheplaysagreatrole.Ifheshouldappear

  toanyone,thatmanmustdie.Notasinglechildhasseenhimyet,forchildrendo

  notdie.ButHamid,theasthmaticporter,withbloodshoteyes,continuallydrunk

  or suffering from a hangover, saw him one night and that very same night he

  died, over there by the wall. It is true that he was blind drunk at the time and passedthenightonthebridgeundertheopenskyinatemperatureof—15°C.

  The children used to gaze from the bank into that dark opening as into a gulf

  which is both terrible and fascinating. They would agree to look at it without