The Traditional Bosnian Song Sevdalinka as an Aesthetical, Musical and Philological Phenomenon
The Traditional Bosnian Song Sevdalinka as an Aesthetical, Musical and Philological Phenomenon

Summary/Abstract: The term „sevdalinka“ originates from „sevdah“, the Arabian expression for love, desire for love, and ecstasy of passion. The Turks took this word from the Arabs, the Bosnian Muslims then added an „H“ to the Arab expression „säwda“ – black bile: one of the four bodily humors believed to determine a melancholic state. The heart of sevdalinka is the feeling of love. This central theme is explored in all its nuances: silent tenderness, yearning, desire, melancholy, and longing; happiness, cheerfulness, humor, bewitchment, excitement, suffering and passion; and above all the type of tragic and painful love that inspires the most noble emotions and moral behavior. The shyness and propriety of the girls, for example, is conveyed in sevdalinka, by their blushing.

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