Forty years since the death of Ćopić: The last poet of the village

The author is Slobodan Vuković

Generations grew up with the works Branko Ćopić. He was born in Hasani near Bosanska Krupa on January 1, 1915. Graduated from the pedagogical-philosophical group at the University of Belgrade. Participant of the National Liberation Struggle and one of its outstanding poets. Member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He published more than a hundred works, of all forms and genres. Wrote short stories, poems, novels, plays, children's poetry and prose, humor, satire and film scripts. Master of the short story; gifted successor of the storytelling tradition of Bosnian writers. Ćopić is known as a painter of nature and time, as a typologist of our peasantry and a lyricist of the human soul.

When painting his heroes, from the very first stories, he always focuses on those characteristics of theirs that are universal, that make them similar to every human being on our planet.

- Over time, I increasingly "insisted" on those characteristics of theirs, underlined them and, to some extent, absolutized them, made them dominant and decisive for the lives and behavior of my heroes - Branko Ćopić told me.

- My favorite hero, for example, became a dreamer, a man who lives more in the world of his imagination than in the "real", real world. He is often an active dreamer, and this type of dreamer immediately becomes a rebel against the world that surrounds him, becomes Don Quixote, a funny and sad warrior. This kind of hero, the dreamer who escapes from this reality or rebels against it, dominates the stories with motifs from my homeland. It is no coincidence that I gave one collection the title "Fighters and Fugitives", and a selection of stories with the even more appropriate title "Fighters and Fugitives".

Those heroes obviously include Martin Peulić and Nasradin Hodža from the pre-war collections and Uncle Nidžo from the latest collection "The Cow with a Wooden Leg".

- Those are my "real" heroes - says Ćopić.

- Measuring with a sober standard realistic meter, you will not find them anywhere, but you will feel that they are around you and that they are "blowing down your neck." That's how I started, and over the years, through the short story, I developed my basic character of a dreamer and rebel, a man who does not reconcile himself to the poverty, poverty and unpoetic reality around him, nor does he reconcile himself to his "non-heroic" role in it... My unfulfilled wish is to I give that typical peasant in the revolution who would be a symbol of all the peasants and their fate in every revolution. Because, in these areas of ours, the peasant carried all the uprisings and revolts on his back. And as soon as the struggle is over, the new government usually breaks up with the peasants: that they are egoists, that they only think about their house, their cow, and no one sees that if it weren't for the peasants' strong attachment to life, life would not be maintained at all, especially on these winds of ours and imperial jades between East and West.

That Ćopić's hero has several variants, from a quiet dreamer to a fanatical rebel, a mythical lover of justice and, finally, a good-natured and humorously colored delia such as Nikoletina Bursać and Pepo Bandić from the "Eighth Offensive".

- And in the treacherous Hajduk bus, his own brother, Luka Kaljak, is waiting for Nikoletin with a shortened carbine, a "hiccup", a "kratezh" - says Branko Ćopić. - After all, that Busija "kratež" continues until our days, in all the dark confrontations on the "peasant field". Moving along this path of development, I became, in a way, "the last poet of the village" against my will (at least that's how it seems to me sometimes).

He painted his heroes, the peasants, in the pre-war gray days, went to war with them, took them to colonization ("Don't mourn the bronze guard"), and finally brought them to the city, to Belgrade ("The Eighth Offensive").

- Of course, - says Ćopić - the village and the peasants will still remain, but those peasants of the pre-revolutionary era, whom I painted, "will not be like that anymore".

Milolike. Pleasant interlocutor. He spoke intelligibly, the way it is spoken in his Krajina region. Witty. Full of humor.

- My sources of humor are folk, primarily from the terrain of Bosnian Krajina and Lika - Ćopić told me. - That's where he "drew" his humor from Petar Kocic and the folk poet painting his Budalin Tal, the most lively humorous character of our folk songs. I appreciate humor in an unusual way, so when I show up in Cetinje to receive Njegoš's award, can someone greet me with those verses of Njegoš: "God help me and let that crazy Christmas come to us and fill our house with laughter". I remember that humor from the People's Liberation Struggle, which was constantly present among the Krajišniks, so when the fiercest crowds and offensives begin, the Krajišniks all jump and shout at the top of their lungs: "Let's run, brothers, the victory is ours", even though they are thinking of fighting and not running away . Or: "But now we're going to chase the Germans after us..."

I met Ćopić in the spring, long ago, in 1965, when I was a student working in "Index", a list of students of the University of Novi Sad and higher schools of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. I had my own column, a whole page in the newspaper, in which I published conversations with Desanko Maksimović, Risto Stijović, Peter Lubard, Milo Milunović, Mihailo Lalić, Gustav Krklec, Oskar Davič...

I dare to say that I was friends with Ćopić. Many have wondered how a young man in his twenties talks to artists at the end of their careers and lives. Perhaps the poet explained it best Pen Zubac at the promotion of my book "It would be easier to live if you forgive", in the Roman Hall of the Library of the City of Belgrade.

- Those were, even then, very notable, miraculous interviews; because a young man, at the beginning of his journey, talks to people at the end of his journey - said Pero Zubac. - For me, the most interesting and favorite thing is that the great artists of that time and this time accept to talk to a guy who is just polite, knows how to ask the right questions; and that was probably the essence of why they agreed to talk to such a young man, and among them were people who were reluctant to give interviews or talk to newspapers. Nobody rejected Slobodan Vuković...

In the National Liberation War, Branko Ćopić participated from the first days of the uprising; the bearer of "Partisan Monuments 1941".

He told me that for him the war and the Revolution were not only the "framework" in which he put his heroes, but also the subject on which he wrote and painted.

- Of course, in war, a man shows his "hidden" virtues and flaws, but just as well, a just war, the Revolution, develops and nurtures many chivalrous and noble qualities in a man. It is not for nothing that it is said that war is a school. Especially one Revolution is a school, a big school. That's exactly how I experienced and gave the Revolution, as a school for my heroes - Ćopić told me. - I also gave her as a great test for my heroes, the peasants, to whom she often gave tasks that they were not up to. This was especially expressed in my novel "Gluvi barut", a kind of peasant Golgotha, a picture of a great peasant trial and great suffering...

Branko Ćopić, like many writers, often had disagreements with the authorities ("The Heretic Story"), but he steadfastly followed his own path.

I did several interviews with him; it seems to me that the most "colorful" conversation I had was on the occasion of the presentation of Njegoš's award.

President of the Jury, Dusan Kostić, he told me that the Jury worked very democratically.

- The competing works required extreme seriousness. The atmosphere was correct - Kostić told me. - Although there were conflicting opinions about books and writers, full agreement was reached in the work. A series of meetings were held and I can say that the Jury members are very satisfied with their work. In the end, I would like to emphasize that Njegoš's award really fell into the right hands.

September, 1972. Late summer is burning away. Before the presentation of Njegoš's award, Branko Ćopić stayed at the hotel "Maestral" in Miločer, and from there he went to Cetinje to receive the award. I immediately went to Miločer and spent the whole day talking with Ćopić. He was excited, exhilarated, maybe a little nervous, so I asked him which of his heroes he would most like to take to Cetinje to stand by his side?

- I would take Nikoletina! It is the closest to Njegoš's work, so it is no coincidence that it is popular among the masses - Branko jumps up as if from a dream. - And if someone asked me which unit I would lead - I would lead the First Krajina Proletarian Battalion, which went to the First Proletarian Battalion, but perished along the way and never reached the First Proletarian Battalion. It was a battalion of heroes. My most popular song, "Song of the Dead Proletarians", was inspired by this battalion, which was composed of Serbs, Croats, and Muslims...

Emphasizing that he is happy to have received the Njegoš award, which has established itself as the most valuable award in our country, Ćopić told me that it is an award that has a humanist message.

We are talking about Njegoš's influence on prose writers, who is primarily a poet. What is it that radiates inspiration from Njegoš's work in relation to prose writers?

- This is his basic attitude towards life, towards the problems of truth and justice, because Njegoš is uncompromising here - Ćopić is categorical. - No one can surpass Njegos anymore. Formally, no one will be able to write in such a way; it is a verse that is a verse of a folk song. He alone stands above the folk poet. He was and remains a folk bard, like ours Homer, so I call him. He is the poet of our tragedy and our greatness...

Sunny day. On the beach in front of "Maestral", many bathers catch the rays of the late Montenegrin summer. One girl ran up to take a photo with Ćopić. Her parents probably read the author's children's literature aloud to her.

Excellent Montenegrin TV cameraman and photojournalist, Slavko Vukcevic, takes a photo…

Just before the Second World War, Branko Ćopić received the Rakić Award for the short story collection "Mountains", intended exclusively for the best young poet. That's when it is Isidora Sekulić, otherwise a great admirer of Njegoš, said that Ćopić is a poet even though he writes prose and that he deserved Rakić's award.

And Njegoš award Ćopić was awarded for the collection of narrative prose "Bašta sljezove boje", his short lyrical-humorous stories, which are the most important to him as a writer. At the same time, it is also a reward for a writer engaged in a specific and clear way in the struggle for the survival and affirmation of our people, who for centuries persistently fought on this geographical latitude for their bare survival.

- My award-winning collection "Bašta sljezove boje" represents continuity simply because I started my literary work with a short story - Ćopić tells me. - After a series of novels and short stories about the People's Liberation Struggle, I recently came back to a short lyrical and humorous story. It seems to me that I have now approached it with more maturity and more experience that the National Liberation Struggle brought me, but in those short stories I remained attached to the same humanistic ideals as at the beginning of my writing. And those ideals were confirmed by my bitter life experience from the Revolution. And my final conclusion about literature is that the writer must remain clearly and definitely committed to certain ideals of his nation and humanity...

He loved Montenegro, as he told me, because Montenegrins have always been synonymous with courage and heroism.

On March 26, 1984, Branko Ćopić committed suicide by jumping from the Sava Bridge in Belgrade.