And what am I?
Just a small flame rushing towards a big fire.
Signs by the road
Ivo Andrić had, as he himself said, only one true, fundamental aspiration: to capture as much life breath around him and give it a shape on paper that could be called artistic to some extent. He dedicated his whole life to this aspiration and saw no reason to talk about himself, nor did he want others to write about him, because a writer should write and tell stories, but not turn their own life into a story. When he was supposed to go to Stockholm for the Nobel Prize ceremony in 1961, he said: If it were up to me, I would rather go to China and wait for all that noise to pass. But it wasn’t just about me, but also about the debt towards the country and my people.
He determined what he would dedicate his life to at the age of twenty-two, describing the ideal of an artist: to live quietly and be occupied with creation and various forms every day, but only with creation and always giving, to have no time to live and to have only one joy from all the joys: a great one. created to then peacefully disappear and leave itself in color, in line, in word, in gesture, in sound, to illuminate for centuries and warm its own and everyone’s.
While addressing various themes and motifs, he most often chose the past of Bosnia. The past as a medium for communication with the eternal, and Bosnia as something destined for him. He believed that due to the many intertwined influences and destinies, it is difficult to find a more interesting country in Europe than Bosnia.
Throughout his life, he had the opportunity to live in many cities and encounter different cultures. Considering himself a citizen of the world, he refused to be associated with just one city, among other things, because he was convinced that a writer should be a kind of bridge, one that brings cities and regions together rather than separating them.
Bridges
As a symbol of the connection between people and time, bridges were a constant inspiration and guiding thread in Andrić’s creative work. Bridges, as he says in his essay of the same name, show the place where a person encounters an obstacle and does not give up. He didn’t just stand in front of her, but he overcame and bridged her as best he could, according to his understanding, taste, and the circumstances he was surrounded by. By building bridges, or establishing connections, a person fulfills themselves because everything that our life expresses – thoughts, efforts, glances, smiles, words, sighs – all of it strives towards the other shore, which is aimed at as a goal, and where it truly finds its meaning. That other shore is present through diverse forms of opposition, whether in the external world, through the encounter of East and West, through the encounter of different cultures and religions, through interpersonal relationships, or within the person themselves through the touch of what we call spirit and body.
By telling us stories through different characters in his works, Andrić offers diverse perspectives on one reality. Without imposing his own views, he presents different extremes, seemingly irreconcilable, and then with his unobtrusive storytelling skill, he breaks down those same boundaries, emphasizing what is common, universal. That is the world of the spirit… Everyone has their part there and, In his work, even the most modest part, right in its entirety. By looking through the eyes of different characters, he offers us various perspectives with the aim of understanding the whole, as he says in the essay “A Conversation with Goya”: “I felt then, as I know today, that everything that exists is one single reality, and that only our instincts and unequal reactions of our senses deceive us into seeing separate and different worlds in the multiplicity of phenomena through which this one reality is revealed, different in characteristics and essence. And none of that exists. There is only one reality with eternal ebb and flow, known to us only partially, always governed by the same laws.”
He expressed the desire to get closer to this universality through his attempts to understand the rhythms of history. He always returned to the past because, perhaps, the past is what does not pass! Some labeled him as a historical writer because of this, but he considered himself primarily a writer, and the past is to me what beauty is to a woman. Speaking about In the past, Andrić offers the reader the opportunity to build their own bridge between the past and the present, to recognize what is typically human that repeats and runs through time. From the very beginning of his literary work, I was engrossed by the thought: how to portray a person in a time that moves like a living organism, in a space without the static nature imposed by an image, excluding the observer from the artwork. Andrić’s love for history is merely a way, or means of communication with the reader. Robert Hodel, head of the Institute for Slavic Studies at the University of Hamburg, says: The historical-social context is only significant for this literature insofar as it serves as an example of eternal human laws. Andrić himself emphasized the importance of the spirit that inspires a work and the message it carries in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, dismissing the time period in which the writer writes as irrelevant.
Distinct writing:
For Andrić, life is a continuous struggle with the goal of establishing. of balance. In writing, among other things, there is a struggle for harmony between words within a sentence. In fear of using unnecessary words, he said: Stand on each of your words with the weight of your body, measure its strength, rinse your mouth with it like a good winemaker examines wine. If your word cannot withstand all of that, it should be erased because knowing how to erase is harder than writing. One word must not exist at the expense of the entire sentence; all words must be in harmony for the sentence to fulfill its meaning. It’s similar to sports: the whole team must play, not just the individual… With Andrić, all words play for the team that aims for clear writing. Writing clearly – that’s what I had in mind every time I sat at my desk, facing the blinding glare of blank paper. It is impossible to reach the reader through unclear writing, and that then questions the purpose of writing itself. Clarity and elimination of everything unnecessary reflect the concern for the reader in terms of adequate communication. The bee communicates its message, rather than worrying if the reader will like what is written. The concern for the reader is also expressed through the writing style, in which the bee does not want to exclude them, and does not want to tell them everything, but rather gives them space for their own conclusions. A bad writer is one who tries to say everything, at least something should be left for the readers…
The bee acknowledged numerous influences that consciously and unconsciously shaped his writing, and learned simplicity from an epic folk poet, as well as from Vuk Karadžić and Njegoš. Moreover, he always emphasized that he learned a lot from an illiterate man in Bosnia. What a wealth of language and expression! I recorded, studied, trying to at least absorb some wisdom from our world. Researching old records and the oral traditions of elderly people in Bosnia were a great source of inspiration for him. In a letter to Tugomir Alaupović, he writes: “It saddens me to think that with every old woman, one verse dies, and with every friar, one history is buried.” Among other things, in a statement where he explains… And why is he awarded the Nobel Prize, it says: For his epic strength in describing themes and human destinies from the history of his country.
Myths and legends
Andrić’s love for folk songs and stories is actually a love for the legends that are told in those works, because, he believed, legends are the reality of life. For a Bosnian child, myths and legends have the power of a mother’s milk. As a writer who sought to get closer to reality, that is, to capture as much of the breath of life around him as possible, Andrić knew that this was impossible if he only dealt with historical facts. In order to understand the history and destiny of a community and an individual, myths and legends must not be bypassed. In the essay “Conversation with Goya” he says: Being puzzled for a long time by what was happening around me, in the second half of my life I came to the conclusion: that it is futile and wrong to seek meaning in insignificant, yet seemingly important events happening around us, but that it should be sought in those layers that have been accumulated over centuries and millennia. creates around a few main legends of mankind. These layers constantly, although less and less faithfully, repeat the shape of that grain of truth around which they agree, and thus transmit it through the centuries. In fairy tales, there is true history of mankind, from which one can discern, if not fully discover, its meaning. There are several basic legends of mankind that show or at least illuminate the path we have traveled, if not the goal we are heading towards. The legend of the first sin, the legend of the flood, the legend of the Son of Man, crucified for the salvation of the world, the legend of Prometheus and the stolen fire. Allusions to some of these mentioned myths can be seen, for example, in the novel “The Bridge on the Drina,” in which historical events are intertwined with mythical ones. One of them is the great flood told through the story of a great flood, when water flooded the town overnight and damaged or at least altered everything without exception, and every resident knew that there is something in their lives that withstands every natural disaster and that, due to the incomprehensible harmony of its forms and the invisible, wise power of its The foundation emerges from every temptation indestructible and unchanged. Otherwise, the construction of the bridge is surrounded by legends that testify that everything permanent and great cannot be achieved without a lot of effort, sacrifice, and selflessness.
Effort and modesty were considered patrons of any creation, including literary creation. He considered the feeling of satisfaction and success dangerous, and saw the key to success in dissatisfaction. Wanting far and desiring much, when it comes to setting selfless goals, is not a sin, it is not dangerous. It is wrong and dangerous to aim for a target that is too close, because that means betraying oneself and others, and failing to live up to life.
(…) You want a lot, strive boldly and far and high, because high goals reveal and multiply the strength within us. Strive boldly for the perfection of great works, and work diligently and patiently on limited and arduous details without glamorous prospects, cheap self-satisfaction, and vain grandeur. Live for your goals, and exhaust yourself generously in invisible tasks every day. At times, consider that life is more powerful and the world is richer than what we can perceive in each individual moment, and don’t forget that each of us contains unknown possibilities, gaining strength as we go along.