The Bridge on the Drina

Forgetfulness heals everything and song is the most beautiful manner of forgetting, for in song man feels only what he loves.

Zaborav sve leči, a pesma je najlepši način zaborava, jer u pesmi se čovek seća samo onoga što voli.

For a man filled with a great, true and unselfish love, even if it be on one side only, there open horizons and possibilities and paths which are closed and unknown to so many clever, ambitious, and selfish men.

They entered there into the unconscious philosophy of the town; that life was an incomprehensible marvel, since it was incessantly wasted and spent, yet none the less it lasted and endured 'like the bridge on the Drina'.

Tako se na kapiji, između neba, reke i brda, naraštaj za naraštajem učio da ne žali preko mere ono što mutna voda odnese. Tu je u njih ulazila nesvesna filozofija kasabe: da je život neshvatljivo čudo, jer se neprestano troši i osipa, a ipak traje i stoji čvrsto "kao na Drini ćuprija".

Every human generation has its own illusions with regard to civilization; some believe they are taking part in its upsurge, others that they are witnesses of its extinction. In fact, it always both flames and smolders and is extinguished, according to the place and the angle of view.

They looked at the paper and saw nothing in those curving lines, but they knew and understood everything, for their geography was in their blood and they felt biologically their picture of the world.

Ali nocu, tek nocu, kad ozive i planu nebesa, otvara se, beskrajnost i silna snaga toga sveta u kom se ziv covek gubi i ne moze da se priseti ni sama sebe ni kuda je posao ni sta hoce ni sta treba da radi. Tu se samo zivi, istinski, vedro i dugo; tu nema reci koje tesko obavezuju za ceo zivot, ni smrtonosnih obecanja ni bezizlaznih polozaja, sa kratkim rokom koji neumoljivo tece i istice, a sa smrcu ili sramotom kao jedinim izlazom na kraju. Da, tu nije kao u dnevnom zivotu, gde ono sto je jednom receno ostaje neporecivo, a obecano neizbezno. Tu je sve slobodno, beskrajno, bezimeno i nemo.

For only thus, living each moment separately and looking neither forward nor back, could such a life be borne and a man keep himself alive in hope of better days.

But misfortunes do not last forever (this they have in common with joys) but pass away or are at least diminished and become lost in oblivion. Life on the kapia always renews itself despite everything and the bridge does not change with the years or with the centuries or with the most painful turns in human affairs. All these pass over it, even as the unquiet waters pass beneath its smooth and perfect arches.

...every woman has some reason to weep and weeping is sweetest when it is for another's sorrow.

... u krvi im je saznanje da se pravi život sastoji od samih zatišja i da bi ludo i uzaludno bilo mutiti ta retka zatišja, tražeći neki drugi, čvršći i stalniji život koga nema.

Forgetfulness heals everything and song is the most beautiful manner of forgetting, for in song man feels only what he loves. So, in the kapia, between the skies, the river and the hills, generation after generation learnt not to mourn overmuch what the troubled waters had borne away. They entered there into the unconscious philosophy of the town; that life was an incomprehensible marvel, since it was incessantly wasted and spent, yet none the less it lasted and endured 'like the bridge on the Drina'.

Život je neshvatljivo čudo, jer se neprestano troši i osipa, a ipak traje i stoji čvrtso- kao na Drini ćuprija.

Šta vredi sva ta huka, kad evo dođe ovakvo vreme pa čovek propadne tako da ne može ni da izgine ni da živi, nego trune kao direk u zemlji i svačiji je, samo nije svoj.

Nije važno koliko čovek vremena uštedi, nego šta s tim ušteđenim vremenom radi; ako ga na zlo upotrebi, onda bi bolje bilo da ga nema. Nije glavno pitanje da li čovek brzo ide, nego kud ide i po kakvom poslu.

...it was an intimate bond between the men of that generation ... for nothing brings men close together than a common misfortune happily overcome.

Never can that be told, for those who saw and lived through it have lost the gift of words and those who are dead can tell no tales. Those were things which are not told, but forgotten. Fore where they not forgotten, how could they ever be repeated?

Whenever a government feels the need of promising peace and prosperity to its citizens by means of a proclamation, it is time to be on guard and expect the opposite.

But one thing could not happen; it could not be that great and wise men of exalted soul who would raise lasting buildings for the love of God, so that the world should be more beautiful and man live in it better and more easily, should everywhere and for all time vanish from this earth. Should they too vanish, it would mean that the love of God was extinguished and had disappeared from the world. That could not be.

Teško je ploviti bez krivudanja sa tolikim svetom na brodu i za spas svih treba ponekad nešto od tereta i u more baciti.

Jer jedino tako, živeći svaki trenutak odvojeno i ne gledajući ni napred ni natrag, može se ovakav život podneti i živ čovek sačuvati za bolje dane.

The desire for sudden change and the thought of their realization by force often appears among men like a disease and gains ground mainly in young brains; only these brains do not think as they should, do not amount to anything in the end and the heads that think thus do not remain long on their shoulders. For it is not human desires that dispose and administer the things of this world. Desire is like a wind, it sifts the dust from one place to another, sometimes darkens the whole horizon, but in the end calms down and leaves the old and eternal picture of the world. Lasting deeds are realized on this earth only by God’s will, and man is only His humble and blind tool.

All at once, in his dangerous position, Ćorkan felt himself separated from his companions. He was now like some gigantic monster above them. His first steps were slow and hesitating. His heavy clogs kept slipping on the stones covered with ice. It seemed to him that his legs were failing him, that the depths below attracted him irresistibly, that he must slip and fall, that he was already falling. But his unusual position and the nearness of great danger gave him strength and hitherto unknown powers. [...] Instead of walking, he began to dance, he himself did not know how, as free as if he had been on a wide green field and not on that narrow and icy edge. All of a sudden he felt himself light and skilful as a man sometimes in dreams. His heavy and exhausted body felt without weight. The drunken Ćorkan danced and floated above the depths as if on wings. [...] His dance bore him onward where his walk would never have borne him- No longer thinking of the danger of the possibility of a fall, he leapt from one leg to the other and sang with outstretched arms as accompanying himself on a drum.