The Bridge on the Drina - PDFDrive.com Page 42

  present conditions was no better than to spend their lives like brigands in the

  mountains.Youngpeopledidnotthinkwhattheysaid,paidnoheedtowhatthey

  did,didnotcountthecostandwerecarelessintheirwork;theyatetheirbread

  without stopping to think whence it came and talked, talked, talked, 'baying at

  themoon'asPavleexpresseditinhisargumentswithhissons.

  Thiswayofthinkingwithoutlimits,thisspeechwithoutconsideration,andthis

  life without calculation and hostile to every calculation, drove Pavle, who had

  worked all his life by and with calculation, to frenzy and desperation. He was

  filled with fear whenever he heard or saw them; it seemed to him that they

  imprudentlyandirresponsiblyhackedawayattheveryfoundationsoflife,atall

  thatwasdearestandmostsacredtohim.Whenheaskedthemforanexplanation

  whichwouldconvinceandreassurehimtheyreplieddisdainfullyandhaughtily

  with vague and high sounding words; freedom, future, history, science, glory, greatness.Hisskincrawledatalltheseabstractwords.Thereforehelikedtosit

  anddrinkcoffeewithLotte,withwhomhecouldtalkaboutbusinessandevents,

  alwaysbasedonasureandadmittedcalculation,verydifferentfromthe'politics'

  andthebig,dangerouswordsthatquestionedeverything,explainednothingand

  affirmednothing.Duringtheconversationheoftentookouthispencilstub,not

  thatoftwenty-fiveyearsbackbutonejustasshinyandalmostequallyinvisible,

  and put all that was said to the infallible and irrefutable proof of figures. They often recalled in their talk some long ago happening, or some jest in which

  nearly all the participants were now dead, and then Pavle, bowed with cares,

  would go to his shop in the marketplace and Lotte remained alone with her

  Worriesandheraccounts.

  Lotte'spersonalspeculationswereinnobettershapethanthehotel'sbusiness.In

  the first years after the occupation it had been enough to buy any share in any

  enterpriseandonecouldbesurethatthemoneywaswellinvestedandtheonly

  questionthatcouldarisewastheamountoftheprofit.Butatthattimethehotel

  hadonlyjuststartedworkandLottehadneitherthereadymoneyatherdisposal

  northecreditwhichshelaterenjoyed.Whenshehadachievedbothmoneyand

  creditthestateofaffairsontheexchangeshadcompletelychanged.Oneofthe

  mostseriousofthecycliccriseshadhittheAustro-HungarianMonarchyatthe

  endofthenineteenthandthebeginningofthetwentiethcentury.Lotte'sstocks

  and shares began to play like dust in a high wind. She would weep with rage

  whenshereadthemostrecentquotationseachweekintheVienna Merkur. All

  the profits of the hotel, which at that time was still doing good business, were

  not enough to cover the losses caused by the general decline in values. At that

  timetooshehadhadaseverenervousbreakdownwhichlastedafulltwoyears.

  Shewasalmostmadwithpain.Shechatted

  to people without hearing what they said or thinking what she herself was

  saying.Shelookedthemfullinthefacebutdidnotseethembutthesmall-print

  columns of the Merkur which were to bring her good or evil luck. Then she began to buy lottery tickets. Since everything was in any case only a game of

  chance, she might as well do it properly. She had lottery tickets from every

  country.Sheevensucceededingettingholdofaquartershareinaticketofthe

  great Spanish Christmas Lottery whose first prize amounted to fifteen million

  pesetas. She prayed God for a miracle and that her ticket should draw the first

  prize.Butsheneverwonanything.

  Sevenyearsbefore,Lotte'sbrother-in-lawZahlerhadgoneintopartnershipwith

  a couple of wealthy men on pension and founded the 'Modern Milk Co-operative' in the town. Lotte provided three-fifths of the capital. Business on a

  largescalewasenvisaged.Itwasreckonedthattheinitialsuccesses,whichcould

  not fail to eventuate, would attract capital from outside the town and even

  outside Bosnia. But just at the moment when the enterprise was in its critical

  phase the annexation crisis took place. This destroyed every hope of attracting

  fresh capital. These frontier districts became so unsafe that capital already

  investedinthembegantoflee.TheCo-operativewentintoliquidationaftertwo

  years, with the total loss of all the invested capital. Lotte had to mortgage her best and safest shares, like those of the Sarajevo Brewery and the Solvaj Soda

  FactoryatTuzla,tocoverthedeficit.

  Parallelwiththesefinancialmisfortunesandalliedtothemwerefamilytroubles

  and disappointments. It was true that one of Zahler's daughters, Irene, had

  married unexpectedly well (Lotte had provided the dowry). But the elder

  daughter,Mina,remained.Embitteredbythemarriageofheryoungersisterand

  unfortunateinhersuitorsshehadbecomebeforehertimeavinegaryandsharp-

  tongued old maid to whom life at home and work in the hotel seemed even

  heavierandmoreunbearablethaninfacttheywere.Zahlerwhohadneverbeen

  lively or quick-witted grew even more ponderous and indecisive and lived at

  home like a dumb but good-natured guest from whom there was neither harm

  nor profit. Zahler's wife, Deborah, though sickly and in advanced years, had

  given birth to a son, but the boy was backward and rickety. He was now ten

  yearsoldandstillcouldnotspeakclearlyorstandupright,butexpressedhimself

  in vague sounds and crawled about the house on his hands and knees. But this

  miserablecreaturewassopitiableandgoodandclungsodesperatelytohisAunt

  Lotte, whom he loved far more than his mother, that Lotte, despite all her

  worriesandduties,lookedafterhim,fedhim,dressedhimandsanghimtosleep.

  With this cretin ever before her eyes, her heart contracted at the idea that

  business was now so bad that there was not enough money to send him to the

  famous doctors in Vienna or into some institution, and at the thought that the

  days of miracles were past and that such creatures could not grow healthy by

  God'swillorbyman'sgoodworksandprayers.

  Lotte'sGaliciandependents,whomshehadeducatedorgiveninmarriageduring

  the good years, also caused her no little worry and disappointment. Some

  amongst them had founded families, extended their business and acquired

  property. Lotte got regular news from them, letters filled with respect and

  gratitude and regular reports of the progress of their families. But the

  Apfelmaiers to whom Lotte had given a start in life, had educated or provided homesfor,didnothelpherortakeanyresponsibilityfornewrelativesbornand

  growingupinpovertyinGaliciabut,oncesettledindistantcities,onlybothered

  about themselves and their own childre
n. For them the greater part of their

  successlayinforgettingTarnowandthecrampedandwretchedcircumstancesin

  which they had grown up and from which they had had the luck to liberate

  themselves,asquicklyandascompletelyaspossible;andLotteherselfwasno

  longerabletosetasidemoneyasshehadoncedonetogivethatblackpovertyof

  Tarnow its chance in life. She never went to sleep or woke now without the

  thought that someone of hers in Tarnow was forever sunk in the slough of

  hopeless poverty, condemned forever to ignorance and filth, in that shameful

  povertywhichsheknewsowellandwhichshehadfoughtagainstallherlife.

  Even amongst those whose lot she had already improved there was reason

  enoughforcomplaintanddissatisfaction.Eventhebestamongthemhadturned

  from the right path and made mistakes after their first successes and most

  shining hopes. One niece, a gifted pianist, who by Lotte's help and

  encouragement had completed her studies at the Vienna Conservatoire, had

  poisonedherselfafewyearsearlieratthetimeofherfirstandbestsuccesses;no

  oneknewwhy.

  One of her nephews, Albert, Lotte's pride and the hope of the family, had

  completed all his studies, both at secondary school and university, with

  outstanding success and only because he was a Jew had not received his

  diploma 'subauspiciisregis' orobtainedtheImperialsignetasLottehadsecretly

  hoped. None the less, Lotte had imagined him at least as a leading lawyer in

  ViennaorLwow,sincebeingaJewhecouldnotbecomeaseniorcivilservant

  which

  would best have accorded with her ambitions. In such dreams she reaped the

  rewardforallhersacrificesforhiseducation.Buttheretooshehadhadtosuffer

  a painful disillusionment. The young doctor of law went into journalism and

  became a member of the Socialist Party, and of that extremist wing which

  became notorious in the Vienna general strike of 1906. Lotte had to read with

  herowneyesintheViennesenewspapersthat'duringthecleaningupinVienna

  of subversive foreign elements, the well-known Jewish agitator Dr Albert

  Apfelmaierhasbeenexpelled,afterfirstpurgingasentencepassedagainsthim

  of twenty days' imprisonment'. That, in the language of the town, meant the

  sameasifhehadbeena haiduk, abrigand.AfewmonthslaterLottereceiveda

  letterfromherdearAlbertinwhichhetoldherthathewasemigratingtoBuenos

  Aires.

  Inthosedaysshecouldnotfindpeaceeveninherownroom.Withtheletterin

  her hand she went to her sister and brother-in-law and desperately, senselessly,

  flewintoapassionwithhersisterDeborahwhocouldonlyweep.Sheshouted

  withrage:

  'What is to become of us? I ask you, what is to become of us, when no one

  knowshowtomakehiswayandstandupforhimself?Unlesstheyarepropped

  uptheyallfall.Whatisgoingtohappentous?Weareaccursed,thatisallthere

  istoit.'

  'Gott, Gott, Gott,' wailed poor Deborah with tears flowing down her cheeks,

  naturallyquiteunabletoanswerLotte'squestions.NordidLotteherselffindan

  answer but clasped her hands and lifted her eyes to heaven, not weeping and

  frightenedlikeDeborah,butfuriousanddespairing.

  'HehasbecomeaSocialist!ASoc-ial-ist!Isn'titenoughthatweareJews,but

  hemustbethataswell!OGreatandOnlyGod,howhaveIsinnedthatYoumust

  punishusthus?ASocialist!'

  SheweptforAlbertasthoughheweredeadandthenneverspokeofhimagain.

  Three years later one of her nieces, sister of that same Albert, married well in

  Pest. Lotte took charge of the trousseau and took a leading part in the moral

  crisisthatthismarriageprovokedinthegreatApfelmaierfamilyofTarnow,rich

  only in children and an unsullied religious tradition. The man whom this niece

  was to marry was a rich speculator on the Bourse, but a Christian and a

  Calvinist, and he made it a condition that the girl should be converted to his

  faith. The relatives all opposed this but Lotte, with the interest of the whole

  familyinmind,saidthatitwashardtokeepafloatwithsomanypersonsinthe

  boatandthatitwassometimesnecessarytothrowsomethingoverboardforthe

  salvationofalltherest.Shesupportedthegirlandherwordwasdecisive.The

  girlwasbaptizedandmarried.Lottehopedthatwiththehelpofhernewrelative

  shewouldbeabletointroduceatleastoneofthosecousinsornephewsnowof

  suitableageintothebusinessworldofPest.ButbadluckhaditthattherichPest

  speculator died in the first year of marriage. The young wife went almost mad

  withgrief.Monthspassedandhergreatgriefdidnotlessen.Theyoungwidow

  had now been living in Pest for four years, given over to her unnatural grief

  which amounted to a mild form of madness. The great, richly furnished

  apartmentwasswathedinblackcloth.Shewenteverydaytothecemetery,sat

  by her husband's grave and read softly and devotedly to him the list of market

  quotationsforthedayfrombeginningtoend.Toallsuggestionsmadethatshe should awake from the lethargy into which she had fallen she answered softly

  that the dead man had loved that above all and that it had been the sweetest

  musichehadeverknown.

  Thus many destinies of all kinds accumulated in that little room. There were

  many accounts, many doubtful bills, many others written off and expunged for

  everinthatgreat,many-sidedbookkeepingofLotte's;butthegreatprincipleof

  work remained the same. Lotte was tired but she was not discouraged. After

  every loss or failure, she would call on her resources, set her teeth and go on

  withthestruggle.Inrecentyearsshehadbeenfightingarearguardactionbutshe

  went on struggling with the same aim before her eyes and with the same

  resolution as she had shown when she made money and went forward in the

  world. She was the 'man' of that household and 'Aunt Lotte' to the whole

  township.Therewerestillmanybothinthetownandintheoutsideworldwho

  waitedforheraid,heradviceoratleastherencouragement,andwhodidnotask

  andcouldnotimaginethatLottewastired.Butshewasreallytired,morethan

  anyonesuspectedandmorethansheherselfknew.

  The little wooden clock on the wall struck one. Lotte rose with difficulty, her

  hands on her hips. She carefully extinguished the great green lamp on the

  woodenside-tableandwiththeshortstepsofanoldwoman,stepssheusedonly

  whenshewasinherownroomandeventhenonlywhengoingtobed,shewent

  toliedown.

  Therewascompleteanduniversaldarknessoverthesleepingtown.

  XXI

  Itisnow1914,thelastyearinthechronicleofthebridge
ontheDrina.Itcame

  as all earlier years had come, with the quiet pace of winter but with the sullen roar of ever new and ever more unusual events which piled upon one another

  likewaves.Somanyyearshadpassedoverthetownandsomanymorewould

  still pass over it. There had been, and there still would be, years of every sort, buttheyear1914willalwaysremainunique.Soatleastitseemedtothosewho

  livedthroughit.Tothemitseemedthatneverwouldtheybeabletospeakofall

  that they had seen then of the course of human destinies, however much, still

  concealedbytimeandevents,mightbesaidorwrittenaboutitlater.Howcould

  theyexplainandexpressthosecollectiveshudderswhichsuddenlyranthrough

  all men and which from living beings were transmitted to inert objects, to

  districtsandtobuildings?Howcouldtheydescribethatswirlingcurrentamong

  men which passed from dumb animal fear to suicidal enthusiasm, from the

  lowest impulses of bloodlust and pillage to the greatest and most noble of

  sacrifices,whereinmanforamomenttouchesthesphereofgreaterworldswith

  otherlaws?Nevercanthatbetold,forthosewhosawandlivedthroughithave

  lostthegiftofwordsandthosewhoaredeadcantellnotales.Thosewerethings

  which are not told, but forgotten. For were they not forgotten, how could they

  everberepeated?

  In that summer of 1914, when the rulers of human destinies drew European

  humanity from the playing fields of universal suffrage to the already prepared

  arena of universal military service, the town of Višegrad provided a small but

  eloquent example of the first symptoms of a contagion which would in time

  become European and then spread to the entire world. That was a time on the

  limitsoftwoepochsinhumanhistorywhenceonecouldmoreeasilyseetheend

  ofthatepochwhichwasclosingthanthebeginningofthatnewonewhichwas

  opening.Thenonesoughtforajustificationforviolenceandfoundsomename

  borrowed from the spiritual treasury of the past century for savagery and