THE ЕXPLANATION OF “PRIZREN”
THE ЕXPLANATION OF “PRIZREN”

Summary/Abstract: I felt all our helplessness, all sorrow of mine. “Prizren”, I whispered, with a bit of affectation. Like the word ‘Sumatra’ reaching the inner ear of Crnjanski to lend sound to an intimate distance, the word ‘Prizren’ found itself in the ear of the poet testifying herewith, yet as a sound-employing conjuration rather than a pure cultural association. The word meant to him a fleeting glance [the Serbian verb prizirati, prizreti] at something rather than an insight or a view. He had not been in a situation to step onto the bank of the Bistrica and check upon the accuracy of the divined description from the opening of the poem “Prizren, Unobserved”: “The town, the lower town behind, the upper town high up. / They take off for a moment, then quickly land. / I lack wording adjustable enough to describe all of that with accuracy: With drifts fortified from inside, O Prizren.” Yet in my soul, deep down, despite all the baulk at admitting so, I felt immeasurable love for the distant hillsides... Like in a crazy hallucination, I would soar up into the boundless morning mists, to stretch out my arm and gently stroke the distant mounts of Prokletije, of Šara.

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