Bosnia and Herzegovina / All works
Poetry
Sarajevski tabut
Not translated into English
Abdulah Sidran · 1993
Synopsis
Published in the midst of the war, during the siege of Sarajevo, the collection brings together the best poems the author had written before the conflict and those the war had just inspired in him. Many had already appeared in journals or in volumes, but, gathered under this title, they seem written for the present. Critics read in it the chronicle of the crime committed against the people of Bosnia; the poems of the eighties already carry the inner fear of a catastrophe that the poet felt coming. The tone blends the tragic, meditation and a humour of the author's own.
Context
Assembled in the hardest days of the siege, the collection brings together pre-war poems and new texts, so that it passes for a summation of the whole body of work. It received the freedom prize of the French PEN centre, and selections of these poems have appeared in German, French and Italian; the bilingual Italian edition earned the poet a literary prize in 1996. Critics place this book at the summit of the work of a poet regarded as the great chronicler of the recent history of Bosnia, and whose strength lies in his spoken language.
Who it is for
For readers who want to see the besieged city from the inside, in poetry plain in tone and heavy with memory.
Prizes and reception
The best-known book by its author, it led to his being counted among the most influential writers of the former Yugoslavia.