Words are born out of our need for them. You wanted to
to hear my words, that's why they came into being. Need is a mother
words.
Rumi
There are books that you have a premonition without holding them in your hands, without having read them. It happened to me that I would enter a large bookstore and my hand would go by itself to the book I was looking for. As soon as I heard that the reprint edition of the book "When God's Houses Burned" was published Husein Bašić, I immediately felt the need and urgency for that book, and I quickly wrote to Hussein's daughter, Šejla Kerović, to the painter, then to her husband To Atvija Kerović, and to a close and dear friend, the painter Aldemar Ibrahimović. I wanted to create several possibilities at once to have the book as soon as possible. And it arrived really quickly. Atvija Kerović sent it to me from Plav, where the second reprint edition was promoted a few days ago.
I got it quickly and quickly started reading. I didn't look for it by chance, it's that rare book that every poet would want. If I were to rank it and look for a possible similarity, I would immediately place it among those books, such as "Stone Sleeper" So Dizadara, although both are incomparably unique.
Here's the opening song, which might as well be the last. As it begins, the book could end with it. The end is in the beginning as the beginning is in the end.
***
Returning from the war, along rutted roads, past spa-
abandoned houses, next to collapsed and broken bridges
sneezes, tired Ibrahim Žioc - started muttering some
words, noticing that his step became longer and his journey longer because of them
easier. Arriving at last in his homeland, he wrote down those words like this:
Whoever opens the way - all roads are before him,
Whoever interrupts it - will have to kill the team.
Whoever builds a fountain - his soul will flow with the water,
Those who are obatali - will lie down thirsty in the grave.
He who builds a house - bigger than the roof will grow,
Whoever sets it on fire and burns it - his name will perish.
Whoever builds a bridge - will bring two worlds together,
Whoever destroys it - both will lose.
He who saves a man will save himself,
Whoever kills him will kill you in him too.
(12. XII 93.)
Calligraphically written 112 surahs of the Qur'an on the pillar of the porch of the Aladža mosque.
With this entry, Husein Bašić opens the book and the spirit of the words from the holy book spreads through all the poems, of which there are not a large number, only thirty-four. And the number is not important, what is important is the strength and the message. Written out of a deep need, and such books are the best, they are written by time, the poet is the medium who has to convey it, in apocalyptic times, the manuscript itself is displayed. The poet rewrites it, and those poems are eternal. The time when the houses of God are burning is the most terrible of all times. The temples of God are not set on fire, but such a time will come. When those houses burn, the poet is a witness of a terrible judgment, but they cannot burn God. God laughs from the ashes. And the poet summons a song from the ashes, and it smiles at him with God.
Bašić, a great writer, could not pass over the topic, which cannot be ignored. Above the mosques, beauties, built with the souls of men and the skill of skilled builders, who take down their designs from the sky, where everything is written. When those houses burn, then nothing is spared. That they destroy God, and how do they destroy God? And when everything burns, there is a Poet, who builds them again from words, from the soul, from fragments of time, binds them with eternity. He lays a song on the houses of God, as the surest foundation, which barbarians and time, arsonists and destroyers will not dig up. And all this happens in the ninety-something years, so that you know what time it was. In the country of Bosnia, let the country be known! The poet is a witness, and where the poet testifies, there the truth stands. There, justice is not obscured. The sun shines here even when everything is dusk and darkness. And God's houses become suns, songs become suns!
Bašić looks for scattered stones and gives him the word, the power to speak. For the building to rise, for the golden minarets of poetry to rise to the sky. And truly every verse of this book is worth gold, it is worth ducats, it is worth more than that. A handwriting that cannot be erased. There is no power and no weapon that will destroy this manuscript, this golden book, the stellar testimony. While there is darkness on earth. The letters shine.
The Sarajevo library also burned down then. And where books burn, people burn, he said Thomas Mann, when the Nazis burned books in the squares of German cities. And they were burning. Both books and people were burned in Bosnia.
BOOKS ON THE BURN
(On the occasion of the bombing of the National and University
library in the famous Sarajevo City Hall)
Looking' from the hill
They seemed like small fires in a burning city,
Houses that burn like chimneys in the night,
And they wanted it to burn, burn and burn until dawn,
Da se kofista plamen do neba,
Every night while they're up.
They burned in order: house by house and skyscrapers,
Encouraging the fire not to go out;
Finally, they came up with an idea: they set fire to the Town Hall,
Flames will flare up to the top of Igman and Trebević,
They'll ravage on him aching hearts
And warm up broad souls!
That night they burned: Shakespeare, Byron and Pushkin,
Skender, Krleža, Meša,
That night she turned to ashes again Alexandria Library,
Vavilon, Rome, Sparta and Athens,
It shone to all corners of the world,
Only the faces of the arsonists were black,
Black from berth which was closing.
(14. VIII 92.)
Bašić skilfully combines ancient testimonies, inscriptions on temples with events, dispels the darkness with his flames, and builds his temples, more permanent than earthly ones. Every song is a jewel, every temple, before every barbarian they lose their voice, and the arsonists lose their hands and face.
The book is overwhelmingly smiling!
This poetic flame neutralizes the fire flame. Between the arsonist and the Poet, justice is always on the side of the Poet. And in this case it was shown. One builder, a poet, replaced many builders who built temples. Vaseljena beamed from that non-construction job. And letters shine instead of stars.
It is possible for everything to burn, temples and the material they are made of, but the Word cannot burn. Many of these temples were built later, but the Poet, in this case Husein Bašić, immortalized them with this small but large book. God is happy because of that and people. One tiny book can be a great testimony, the work of an immortal builder, who sings about mortal sins and mortals who cause suffering on earth.
The poet showed all his power.
Bašić raised the burnt temples not to the heaven of poetry, he made them eternal. Fighting with the one who was burning them, he won! This book will, I'm sure, like Stone sleeper, like other great books, go among people and it will shine on them. Like a star that cannot be touched, temples have become stars. As Goranova Jama, Zogvic's Newcomers - songs by Ali Binak, like other great works of world literature!
When the houses of God were burning, the words were also burning. From those ashes, the poet wrote a book in which words and temples live. And God is pleased and people are pleased because of the stellar handwriting, which is copied by heaven and earth!
Stars rose from the ashes - Bašić's immortal songs, each shining with its own light, and all together with human light. The supremacy of humanity won over human evil.
THE DARK STAR
(On the news about the demolition of the Ferhadija mosque in Banja Luka)
When the masters laid the first stone in the foundation of the mosque,
Kodžamimar looked at the sky
And seeing her dim star
That she stayed to warm them that morning,
Her life is ruined and she is very sad about it,
And with a voice quieter than water
He uttered this history:
When they raise her from the dust again,
I wish her a longer life, and a happier hand than mine,
And more honorable neighbors than them
What will destroy it in madness! Amen!
(27. VI 93.)
One was also burning on our land, in the place where the Battle of Tuđemil was fought in 1042.
MINING OF THE MOSQUE IN DUJEMILI
Their favorite misfortune is someone else's
Pa koptisali da ne zadocne,
So that no one takes away a large part of them
But what do they need?
And the mosque neither ate nor drank
From their stove and well,
She was just having tea in the middle of the village,
Looking at the clouds in the sky
And she counted the days and years,
She ate them like a fist - a bird,
Unsuspecting fire under the wings.
(18. IX 93.)
And one more, although all squads could be cited. In this book, besides houses of God, bridges are important. How would you do without them? And it's better for us across Rijeka - Mak would say. Basic sings:
IN THE SKY OF THE CUPRIJA
They were tearing it down
Those on the left
And those on the right
The side of evil
Never again
To no one
It won't
Most.
To go after her
He doesn't see and he doesn't know
Whose city
They are tearing down.
Sad cheese - by the bridge
The people of Mostar make it
U hell
Head.
Over the moon
Above water
Bridges in the sky
Let it be.
(20. XI 93.)
Along with the song, a short explanation of two words:
breasts - the bridge - a dangerous bridge on the way to hell
hell - hell
"When the houses of God were burning", it is a thin book in terms of volume, but with its poetic power and the messages it radiates, it is undoubtedly a poetic masterpiece. The songs were written in the early nineties and the date and year are written below each one. The first edition was published in 1994, and the publisher was ALMANAH - Association for the Preservation of the Endangered Cultural and Historical Heritage of Muslims, the reviewers were: Milika Pavlovic i Vojislav Vulanović. The book is illustrated with illustrations from ISLAMIC EPIGRAPHICS OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, book I, II, III - Mehmed Mujezinović, like on the river bed and stream Mersada Berbera, and art equipment Mladena Lompara. Everything was kept in the reprint edition that was published this year. And the artistic side gives the book immeasurable beauty and a special dimension.
Where the war and the army pass, graves and ruins remain. A land without houses of God is a desolate land. And finally, verses that could be mine, and are in the spirit of books that I admire.
He who destroys God's temple has his hands burned,
And whoever raises them, his hands are gilded.
I could finish with them. Although this book has no ending. Her handwriting flickers on the face of the earth and is reflected in the sky. That's how I experienced it! The most beautiful star handwriting written with a human face.
They burned the houses of God, but they did not burn God! They killed people, but they didn't kill a man. And man is the most beautiful house of God! A good book was born in bad times!
(August, 2024)
Bonus video:
