Written by: Đorđe Šćepović
Poetry is immortal, if it is truly poetry. And the work of Czesław Miłosz and Joseph Brodsky most certainly is. In the 1990s, while Bosnia and Herzegovina was engulfed in flames and soaked in the blood spilled by war criminals, some of whom would later become saints of the Serbian Church, Miłosz and Brodsky were writing about primal evil, and about those who stood by in silence. At the time, their words seemed to speak directly to Bosnia, to Sarajevo. Brodsky wrote:
"As you pour yourself a scotc
Crush a roach or check your watch
As your hands adjust your tie, people die."
He also wrote essays about the massacres unfolding in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Another Nobel laureate, Czesław Miłosz, attempted to shake Europe and the world out of their indifference. In his poem Sarajevo, he writes:
"Now that a revolution really is needed,
Those who were fervent are quite cool.
While a country murdered and raped calls for help from the Europe
which it had trusted, they yawn."
In the realm of literature, every poet hopes their verses will outlive them and the events they write about. But in this case, under these circumstances, I believe neither of them would have minded if their poetry had faded along with Bosnia’s pain. And yet, those poems are still being read, spoken now in different voices, on distant continents. The world yawns. Europe yawns. Even as a violated land cries out for help. The world is indifferent. Europe is indifferent while people are dying. Who cares about Palestine? There are no minerals there.
As Israel systematically destroys Palestine, and Iran prepares for another bloodbath, this time with the blessing of Trump’s frenzied America, the poems of Brodsky and Miłosz, written in the early ’90s, take on new life. Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry has never echoed reality so closely as it does today. Even though Darwish is long gone, even though his verses were raw and honest when they were first penned. It feels as if the whole world is on fire, set ablaze by a handful of madmen who belong not in power, but on trial. In a courtroom for war crimes.
Just like back then, today’s merchants of death hide their blood-soaked hands and well-documented biographies behind a wall of lies. If only they were a little more creative, maybe someone might even believe them. But the excuses haven’t changed. When Bosnia was being shelled by mortars, tanks, and snipers, the justification was the same: terrorism. A “ruthless fight against terrorism”.
In truth, terrorism is what they’ve been selling us for decades, as the path to a safer, brighter future. Terrorism is what happened in Bosnia. It’s what’s happening in Palestine. But whose future are they fighting for? The children killed in Sarajevo? The victims of genocide in Srebrenica? The starving, thirsty children in Gaza, blown apart while standing in line for bread?
More than 8,000 Bosniaks in Srebrenica were executed by bullet and blade, slaughtered in the name of a “better future”. 1,601 children in Sarajevo never lived to see any future at all. 50,000 Palestinians have had their futures erased. So, whose future are these mass murderers protecting? In whose name does Israel rain down death today? How did the greatest victims of Nazism in World War II come to commit the same crimes as their oppressors? Because that’s exactly what they’re doing. And yes, this is war. World War III. But say it out loud, say that Israel's regime is criminal, and you’ll be branded an antisemite. Speak the truth about Donald Trump’s madness, and you’ll be labeled a hater of the West.
If that’s how it is, then I’ll wear both labels. If the polite recommendation is to remain silent about the slaughter of innocent civilians, dying of thirst and hunger while waiting for bread and water, then I reject that recommendation. I’ll break the rule that tells us to stay unmoved by the deaths of others.
In a recent investigative report, J.J., the leading propaganda pen of a regime-aligned media outlet, interviewed the politically appointed director of the National Security Agency, who named “Islamist lone wolves” as the gravest threat to Montenegro’s security. Sounds terrifying, doesn’t it? Islam. Loneliness. Wolves.
Conveniently, that threat doesn’t include Putin’s “Night Wolves”, those militarized brotherhoods close to the Serbian Church, nor the neo-Chetnik movements, nor the many surreal Miholjdan gatherings. No, those are just cultural organizations, unworthy of mention in the serious investigative journalism of the same reporter who, just a few years ago, labeled civic activists as dangerous terrorists. No consequences. No accountability.
While the world burns, we’re still gazing longingly toward America. America, the one that lit the match. Toward Europe. We seek salvation from those applauding the genocide in Palestine. From those who cheer the destruction of homes, schools, and hospitals in Gaza. Are these the people who will lift us out of the swamp of clericalism and state-sponsored chauvinism? Are these the ones who’ll condemn Bishop Metodije for praising Chetnik butchers and calling partisans monsters? Joanikije and the other politicians in robes? They won’t. That’s something we’ll have to do ourselves. Even if J. J. draws our names on a BIRN map. Even if they accuse us of hating Serbs because we refuse to worship Ratko Mladić.
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