Montenegro

Montenegro is in its very early stages of independence—after emerging from the break up of the last incarnation of Yugoslavia as part of the union Serbia and Montenegro, Montenegro held a referendum on 21 May 2006 which resulted in the declaration of independence on 3 June, and this was formally recognised by the world when on 28 June the country became a member state of the United Nations. It’s the anniversary of the referendum, when 55.5% of the population (narrowly passing the 55% required) voted to become a separate nation, that Montenegrins choose to mark as their Independence Day. It’s just over a year (11 May 2007) that the country also became part of the Council of Europe.

As can be guessed from the name of the nation, there’s Italian—specifically Venetian—heritage in the country; not surprising, really, since it lies right across the Adriatic from Italy, though its certainly a Slavic language they speak…

Things I’ve learned recently: the earliest recorded settlers in Montenegro were Illyrians. Hey! I’ve heard of the Illyrians in my browsing in the classical world, but never had any idea about where they were from or anything else. Illyrius was the son of Cadmus and Harmonia, and he eventually ruled Illyria. That aside, not a lot is known about the Illyrians, except that they lived in the region that now comprises Montenegro and Albania. The Illyrians haven’t been mentioned since the 7th century—apparently with the arrival of the Slavs in the 6th century they all became Slavicized, which I didn’t know was a word, but now that I do, I want to be Slavicized too. Maybe.

In the 16th century, Montenegro came under the rule of the Ottomans, but developed what was a unique autonomy—despite which they rejected Ottoman reign. In the 17th century, following many rebellions, the Great Turkish War led to Ottoman defeat. Following this, Montenegro became tied to Serbia.

Looking at all these places has the effect that I know more and more about all the cities and landscapes I haven’t seen, and I know that there are a huge number of them I won’t get to see. The city of Kotor and the Morača and Tara River Canyons look lovely…

Oh, and those with the literary habit, lets not forget that Jay Gatsby was supposed to have fought in Montenegro in World War I.

Today’s poem is by Balša Brković, and comes, once more, from the anthology New European Poetry. Ulvija Tanović is the translator.


The Babylon Song

It is more and more difficult to write a letter.

The irretrievable clearness of words is lost.
Every poem used to be full of
uncanny meaning:
on the one side there were the woman and night,
and on the other light and I.

Now it is different:
Penelope’s weave of my civilization
is undone overnight, it ebbs easily.

If all words have been spoken,
everything, it then seems, has already happened.
And that would be terrible:
as if the World were a great Theater
in which for a long time there has been not
a single writer, or director, or musician.

The whole of space, the Stage, the Planet
is inhabited by actors
(gone wild without all the Others,
without the Manuscript of the Creator)
an entire ocean of actors
infinitely repeating
scraps of the same roles.
There is simply no one to tell them
What to say, or where to go.

If all the words have already been in His wrath,
then we have forever been—tired.

Still, the limits of the unutterable are wider and wider.
And it is more and more difficult to eat the darkness of the last Nothing
and spew the light that changes everything into Being,
into the certainty of Language.

Oh, sweet demons of erudition!
When God spilled the languages over Babylon
perhaps He only
gave us sturdier material:
after all, one does not get to the Creator’s throne
by piling bricks.

—Balša Brković
translated from the Montenegrin by Ulvija Tanović
from New European Poets