Iva ANDRIC
251
behind three hundred rivers and mountains, but the objects of your dis–
gust and hatred are here, next to you, in the same village, often on the
opposite side of the wall of your backyard.
So
your love remains inert,
but your hate is spurred into action easily. You even love your native
land, you fervently love it, but in three or four different ways which can–
cel each other out, hate one another to death, and often clash.
In one of Maupassant's stories there is a Dionysian description of
spring which ends with the remark that on such days there should be a
warning posted on every corner: "Citizens! It is springtime, beware of
love!" Perhaps in Bosnia men should be warned at every step, in their
every thought and their every feeling, even the most elevated, to beware
of hatred-innate, unconscious, endemic hatred. Because this poor,
backward country, in which four different faiths live closely bound
together, needs four times more love, mutual understanding and toler–
ance than other countries. But in Bosnia, on the contrary, misunder–
standing, which from time to time crosses into open hatred, is almost
the general characteristic of its people. The abyss between the different
faiths is
so
deep that only hatred sometimes manages to cross it. I know
that you could argue, and with sufficient reason, that a certain progress
in that direction can be seen, that the ideas of the nineteenth century
have left their impact here, too, and that now, after the liberation and
unification, everything will
go
much better and faster. I'm afraid it is not
completely so. (It seems to me that, in these past few months, I have
seen very well the real relationships between people of different faiths
and nationalities in Sarajevo!) On every occasion it will be said: "Your
brother is dear, regardless of his religion!" or "It matters not how one
crosses himself, it is whose blood warms his heart," "Honor what is not
yours, and be proud of yours," "Integral national unity does not know
religious or tribal differences." But in Bosnian urban life there has
always been plenty of fake courtesy, wise deception of oneself and oth–
ers by resounding words and empty ceremonies. This partly conceals the
hatred, but it does not remove it or stop it from growing. I'm afraid that
in these circles, even under the cover of contemporary maxims, old
instincts and Cainlike plans may only be slumbering, and that they will
live until the foundations of the material and spiritual life in Bosnia are
profoundly changed. And when will that time come, and who will have
the strength to do it? It will come some day, I believe in it, but what I
have seen in Bosnia does not show that things are moving in that direc–
tion even now. On the contrary.
I thought about it, especially during the last few months, when I
was still wrestling with the decision to leave Bosnia for ever. It is
