On the occasion of the series "Nobelovic"
This year, while on vacation in Herceg Novi, we reverently - Simona and I - entered the Andrić memorial museum, his former house with a garden in Topla, thus bowing to the time that Andrić gave to Herceg Novi. The home there of Ivo Andrić and his life partner Milica Babić was thoroughly renovated a few years ago, so that everything is in tune with the personalities of the famous owners of that property. And that era. It preserves a large part of the catalog of a brilliant career. The "Andrić's Herzegovinian Paths" stretch from the house - past the famous churches of Saint Savior and Saint George, all the way to the City Museum. There is almost no dilemma: Andrić's wife and muse, Milica Babić, is the literary "Jelena, the absent woman" - for her "gentleness, warmth, love, inner sensibility" (the assessment of Andrić's biographer Radovan Popović, stated in the famous book by Dr. Vladimir Roganović, " Andrić in Herceg Novi").
In the silence of their Herzegovinian ban, sitting in Andrić's study, immersed in the past, I humbly agree with his undeniable credo, the successive trill: "experience, think, write down". Especially that second component is typically Andrić's in the full sense. Andrić - on the surface a reserved, even cold diplomat, a somewhat introverted creator. Deep down, on the other hand - a thin, sensitive and subtle personality that preserves affection and sincerity for the chosen ones. A man who always wrote about historical changes and unrest, about fractures in human souls, trying to preserve his own inner peace. Not always successfully. There is every chance that he finally (pro)found it with Milica Babić, right in Herceg Novi.
The view from their veranda towards the blue sea is "the illusion that we are traveling towards perfection". The great writer writes: "On the way to spiritualization". For our only Nobel laureate - and not only for him - Herceg Novi is "the city of eternal greenery, sun and stairs". And famous architecture. And in several locations, passers-by are greeted by the invigorating roar of water, the "speech of the fountain", its intermittent droplet whisper.
As much as possible, I identify with Andrić's enjoyment "in the indescribable sweetness of her presence, which grew and overflowed..." Of course - Miličina's, and the magical "Jelena, the woman who is not there". And my self even then thinks (also) of my companion Simona, my heart beats for her. To Andrić without Jelena, alias Milica - and for me in the absence of Simone - every separation, even a short one, especially on trips, even on the seashore, seems to be permeated with vague forebodings, trembling as a component of completely belonging to the other. Her.
Suddenly a scene appeared to me: as irresistible as the setting sun, as a clear day, as the sea at dusk - Simona in Novi. A professor of literature in the home of a Nobel laureate! However, she by no means wants to reveal to the museum curator how much she herself knows about the character and work of Andrić. She lets that learned young man speak inspiredly, and she - next to her, I - listen carefully. Only sometimes he "interjects" succinctly, with well-chosen words, just as Andrić, as a rule, also did in society, especially at the bar table. At the same time, the harmony of the piece of open sea that sticks out between Cape Mirište, with the fortress of Arza on its tip, and Cape Oštro - and the blue sky above the city, flawlessly builds on Simona's complex, layered personality. While she is followed by the force of my unobtrusive gaze, each time impressed by her unobtrusive aura.
(Excerpt from the novella "Dry Drops 2", Dosije studio, Belgrade, 2024)
The author is a professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Belgrade
Bonus video:
