Narrative
Градови и химере
Not translated into English
Jovan Dučić · 1930
Opening lines
Овде јутра освићу хитро и вечери закашњавају.
Here mornings dawn quickly and evenings come late.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from sr.wikisource.org
Synopsis
Ten letters written over the course of a diplomat's life, which take the reader from the Swiss Alps to Paris, then to Corfu, Rome, Delphi, Athens, Jerusalem and Cairo. The city is never the only subject: each one serves as a starting point for a meditation on what a civilisation does to people, and there are more maxims than descriptions.
Context
The ten letters were written over three decades of a career and gathered in 1930. They follow the author's postings and journeys more than an itinerary, and it is the thinker more than the traveller who speaks in them. A poet praised in his lifetime as the greatest Serbian lyric poet, then challenged by the avant-garde and discredited after his death for ideological reasons, he was restored to honour in 2000, when his remains were transferred from America to Trebinje.
Who it is for
A collection of long prose pieces, in a formal language and a sententious tone. Nothing in it requires prior knowledge, but one must accept that the author generalises a great deal and describes little.
Prizes and reception
One of the travel narratives that generations of Serbian readers have regarded as the finest in their language.