A guide to cities that no longer exist

Everything has passed, the words remain, the keys to enter the cities that no longer exist.

With these words, hidden on the inside cover of his new work, Miraš Martinović he whispers to the reader and hints that he is now passing on his own keys - words. The book "Cities and Fates" was recently published and it could not have been better titled, given that it is known how much preoccupation, passion, fantasy, and even the need of the Martinovićs, those ancient cities, today's ruins or just traces as reminders of existence.

"Cities that existed on this earth disappeared, as did the inhabitants who lived in them. There are other destinies. They called me. M. Yourcenar (Margerit Jursenar) would say: 'There are dreams and there are destinies: I am interested in those moments where destinies are expressed through dreams'. I walked through the labyrinths of cities and dreams. On that way, everyone had a story, woven from imperishable material", the author writes as an additional guide, a kind of guideline, but also a dedication to the reader, and actually a summary of his literary, archaeological, research journey...

On the pages of this book, it can be said, is the pinnacle of Martinović's words. His fascination with ancient cities, the foundations of all today's cities, polises that no longer exist, and fortresses, fortifications, gardens, and then also legends, stories and lives that remain, is best expressed in this book, in which he paid special attention to each of his own inspiration...

He takes the reader through time, traces and/or cities, even through the book, although he does not suggest how to experience it, but he writes romantically about each place, stone, myth..., individually, almost as a witness of creation, existence and destruction.

"Those cities existed on this land. Of each of them, with the exception of Prapratna, some trace remained: an inscription, walls, ramparts, towers, from some a letter, a stone. Awakened from the ruins, everyone had their own voice that I listened to, that spoke: about the managers, ordinary people, residents..., their dreams and destinies. Finding a form and a way to express yourself. Destinies live on even when everything is over. The rest decays, crumbles and disappears, no matter what material it is made of...", notes Martinović.

His desire to revive them grew into a need.

For his research, but also for the needs of the book, he used facts, archaeological findings, quotes from books in which cities are mentioned, he searched through the verses of old poets, some as forgotten as non-existent cities, and then he went out into the field.

"Overgrown with oblivion and grass, they smiled from the ruins, offering former lives and protracted deaths. Even when they are wiped off the face of the earth, cities don't stop living", writes Martinović and says that this book is a labyrinth of destinies woven by chance and history.

In addition to selected quotes, the book opens with the author's "Word at the Beginning", closes with a particularly useful "Guide through the Ruins", and there are also texts signed by Stijepo Mijović Kočan i Dimitrije Popović.

Dimitrije Popović in the text "Guardian of tradition and transmitter of memory" says that literature is needed in order to update the past of a city and bring it back to life, and then go beyond mere historical factography.

"But not to negate that factography, but to interweave the factual with the fictional, reality with dreams, silence with voices, through the process of creative literary expression... It is precisely such a process that makes the specificity and richness of Miraš Martinović's poetic and prose creativity. Therefore, the writer's imagination is convincing, suggestive, because what he writes about comes from what initiates his writing, inspires his creativity," he notes.

This, says Popović, confirms Martinović's dedication to studious work, and she can be so great that she identifies with the fate of one of the story's actors, which brings a special, convincing tone to the narrative. Popović also points out that the style is precise and clear, and the suggestiveness of short sentences gives the text a dynamic vitality.

Stijepo Mijović Kočan clearly expresses his opinion about the book by the very title of the text "A book unique in the world".

"Martinović is a tireless builder of both real and imaginary cities and a reliable witness of their destinies. He is interested in those cities, he says in the 'Words at the beginning' of this book, because in ancient times they were on this land where we now live. In that syntagm, I see both the impetus and the motive and the essence and meaning: when the future, if there are any (!?), are as many millennia away from our time and today's cities as we are today from Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, what will they know? and be able to know about us, our time and our cities? Will they have someone from Miraš to remind them that we also existed and that there were cities that no longer exist..." he asks.

Throughout the book, cities on the territory of Montenegro, but also on the Balkan Adriatic coast and close to the interior, are presented, he states and adds that this is why the book is of historical importance for the entire area that we now call "the region".

"For the modern reader, this literary and historically valuable book can also be instructive. It is worth the attention and interest of those who are not close to either history or literature; their own destiny is certainly close to them; he will be able to find her here too", concludes Stijepo Mijović Kočan.