Nicoline van Harskamp - DeLVe | Institute for Duration, Location and ...

“S jeseni, kada počnu vetrovi, lišće divljeg
kestena pada strmoglavce, s peteljkom
naniže. Onda se čuje zvuk: kao da je
ptica udarila kljunom u zemlju.” Ta prva
rečenica iz Ranih Jada Danila Kiša pala
mi je na pamet tijekom prošlogodišnjeg
posjeta Banja Luci, u ranu jesen, povodom
prve izložbe Spaport. Provlačila se tijekom
cijelog boravka, a, iskreno rečeno, ne znam
ima li u Banja Luci stabala divljih kestena,
čisto sumnjam. U pitanju je jedan od onih
knjiških citata iz srednjoškolskih dana koje
i dalje pamtim te koji su pomno opisivali
tadašnja raspoloženja, misli i dvojbe. Materiel
d’apprentissage, odnosno odgojni
materijal. Uostalom i Kiševi Rani Jadi su
neka vrsta odgojnog romana zajedno są
ostalim djelima triptiha, Baštom, pepelom i
Peščanikom. Njihova tema je duhovni razvoj
pripovjedačeve ličnosti, dječaka Andreasa
Sama, i njegovo traganje za izgubljenim
ocem i vlastitim identitetom.
Iako prvi put u Banja Luci, osjećala sam
neku čudnu familijarnost, te asocijacije na
tinejdžerske dane, a ujedno i na 90-te, nisu
bile slučajne. Tada su Kiševi romani i riječi
pružali precizne i lucidne komentare na
dramatične ratne događaje koji su se odvijali
na tzv. “našim prostorima”. “Nacionalizam
je, kao kolektivna pojava, posledica
zavisti i straha, a iznad svega, posledica
gubljenja individualne svesti; te prema
tome, kolektivna paranoja i nije ništa
drugo do zbir individualnih paranoja doveden
do paroksizma.” Te Kiševo pominjanje
Sartrovog Julesa, “to je onaj koji prebledi
ako se pomene tema Engleza”. “Nemojte
pred njim pominjati engleski čaj, jer će
vam svi za stolom namigivati, davaće vam
znake rukama i nogama, jer Žil je osetljiv
na Engleze....”
Dramatična i kompleksna pitanja su i
dalje prisutna i aktualna, a BiH je možda
epicentar svih trenutnih nevolja na tzv.
‘našim prostorima’. Iako svjesni važnosti
“In autumn, when the winds start, the
leaves of the horse chestnut fall headlong,
stalk downwards. Then a sound is heard:
as if a bird had struck the earth beak-first.”
This first sentence from Early Sorrows by
Danilo Kiš came to mind during last year’s
visit to Banja Luka, in the early autumn, on
the occasion of the first Spa Port exhibition.
It endured the whole of my stay,
although to be quite honest I don’t know
if there are any horse chestnuts in Banja
Luka; I very much doubt it. It’s rather
about one of those quotes from secondary
school days, which I still remember,
and that precisely described the moods,
thoughts and doubts of the time. Materiel
d’apprentissage, or educational material.
And anyway, Kiš’s Early Sorrows is a kind
of bildungsroman together with the other
parts of the triptych, Garden, Ashes and
Hourglass. Their topic is the spiritual development
of the narrator’s persona, the boy
Andreas Sam, and his search for his lost
father and his own identity.
Although that was my first time in Banja
Luka, I felt a strange kind of familiarity,
and associations with my teen days,
and also with the 1990s, which was not
accidental. Then Kiš’s novels and words
provided precise and lucid comments
on the dramatic events of the war that
were unfolding in what were called „our
spaces“. “Nationalism, as a collective phenomenon,
is the consequence of envy and
fear, and above all, the consequence of the
loss of individual awareness; and accordingly,
collective paranoia is nothing but
a sum of individual paranoias brought to
the point of paroxysm.” I often remember
Kiš’s reference to Sartre’s Jules, who is the
one that pales if the theme of the English
is mentioned. “Don’t mention English tea
in front of him, because everyone at table
will wink at you, make signs at you with
their hands and legs, because Jules is sensitive
about the English...”
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