SEVDALINKA AS INSPIRATION

For over a century, sevdalinka, as a folk lyrical creation, has been capturing attention of researchers, melographers, travel writers, composers, musicians, writers and painters. As an oral lyrical form, it has been created out of a desire to use verses and singing to express different human feelings. It has been an inexhaustible spring for the souls of writers, painters and poets. Famous Safvet-beg Bašagić, Osman Đikić, Musa Ćazim Ćatić, Isak Samokovlija, Aleksa Šantić, Hamid Dizdar and others wrote in the language of sevdalinka. Many poens of these authors have also acquired their musical version and have been folklorized, and have thus been accepted as an inseparable part of our folk music tradition.

 Musa Ćazim Ćatić (1878-1915) was one of the writers who were influenced by folk lyric poetry. One of his poems which became popular thanks to performances of Emina Zečaj and Salem Trebo is the poem “U sevdahu duša moja” (My soul is in sevdah):

U sevdahu moja duša / Oko tvoga dvora l'jeta, / Tebe traži, Šemso mila, / Kao leptir majskog cv'jeta. // U sevdahu srce moje / Tvoga toplog žara žudi, / Hotjelo bi da s' ogrije / Sred mlađanih tvojih grudi. // Daj, pusti ga, na toj vatri / U pepeo nek se stvori / Smrt će njemu slatka biti / U sevdahu kad izgori.

(My soul is in sevdah (love yearning) / Lingers around your home / Looking for you, dear Šemsa, / As a butterfly of a May flower. // My heart is in sevdah / Craves for your warm fire, /Wanting to get warm / On your young bosom. // Let it come to the fire / Let it turn into dust / It will be a sweet death / When it burns in sevdah.)

It was from the hand of a physician, writer and a playwright Isak Samokovlija (1889-1955) that a poem which encompasses all the features of sevdalinka: yearning, passion, sorrow... Himzo Polovina claimed that the poem was written by Isak Samokovlija and Hamid Dizdar during the Second World War. This extremely emotional poem has been folklorized and belongs to the group of well-known sevdalinkas:

Okreni se niz đul-bašču / na vrelo kad pođeš / okreni se, nasmij mi se / medna usta, crne oči / Zumro moja. // A sa vrela kad se vratiš, / ja ću te čekati / kraj đuguma, da ti ljubim / medna usta, crne oči / Zumro moja. // Okreni se, pogledaj me! / Ne ljuti se na me! / Okreni se, nasmij mi se / medna usta, crne oči / Zumro moja.

(Turn to look down the rose garden / when you go to the spring / turn, and smile at me / your sweet lips, black eyes / my Zumra. // Turn around, look at me! / Do notbe angry at me! / Turn around, smile at me / sweet mouth, black eyes / my Zumra.)

One of the lucky ones who lived to see his poems accepted by people during his lifetime was Mustafa Dželil Sadiković (1894-1977) from Janja. This poet and kadi published a collection of poems Sevdah i suze (Sevdah and tears), with the foreword by Sait Orahovac, in 1930. His most successful poem which is considered as a sevdalinka is “Šta bi bilo s đuzel-đula” (What would happen to a beautiful rose); another of his poems which has become popular and recorded in many variants is „Nekad cvale bijele ruže“ (White roses used to bloom):

Šta bi bilo s đuzel-đula / da mu nije biser-rose. / Šta bi dragom altun-čelo / da mu nije kesten-kose. // Šta bi bile usne rujne / Da im nije alem-sjaja / Šta bi bila ljubav prava / Da joj nije uzdisaja. // Šta bi, draga, sa mnom bilo / Da te nisam upoznao / Šta bi moje srce znalo / Da te nije sevdisalo.

(What would happen to a beautiful rose / if there were not pearly dew. / What would my sweetheart's golden forehead look like / if he did not have the maroon hair. // What would red lips look like / If they did not have the diamond glow / What would the true love be like / Without sighs. // What would happen to me, my darling / If I had not met you / What would my heart know / If it had not yearned for you.)

German painter W. Leo Arndt (1857-1945) arrived in Sarajevo in or about 1899, where he settled and found a job as the main graphic designer and illustrator of the journal Nada. This journal published hundreds of his works with motifs of Bosnian small towns and villages, gazebos and towers, villagers and their hard life and work in the field. His series Iz putne bilježnice Herceg-Bosnom From the travel notebook of Herzeg-Bosnia) includes the illustration Ašikluk (Courting), inspired by lovers' encounter – courting, under the window protected by wooden lattice. This illustration describes the character of sevdalinka in the best way possible.

Our artist of the world reputation and an important awards winner Mersad Berber (1940-2012) designed the front cover for an album of Safet Isović “Sevdalinke – Biseri Bosne i Hercegovin”“ (Sevdalinkas – Jewels of Bosnia and Herzegovina) (1972), with motifs of the mystical world of Bosnia: a couple in formal wear on a playful, ornated horse, with presentations of Bosnian town architecture. However, it was not the only time that Berber designed an album of traditional music of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He also made the graphic design for the album “Bosnia: Echoes from an Endangered World” (1993) edited by Ted Levin and our outstanding ethnomusicologist Ankica Petrović, published by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, which presents examples of urban and rural music tradition, as well as vocal forms from the spiritual Islamic tradition. Besides, Berber designed the cover of album of sevdalinkas by the Dubrovnik troubadour of Bosnian and Herzegovinian origin, Ibrica Jusić, “Amanet” (2003) with motifs of the Old Bridge in Mostar and the motifs which we typically encounter in both Berber's oeuvre and in sevdalinkas: the girl and the horse.

Another example of inspiration by sevdalinkas in painting is found in works by contemporary artist Nena Šešić-Fišer. Born in Bjelovar, she began career in Sarajevo, where she found the source of her inspiration in sevdalinka. In January of this year, foundation “Effeto Arte” awarded this artist with Donatello Prize for painting Elegia: Tempi Senza Tempo, which was inspired by folklorized poem by German author Heinrich Heine Der Asra “Kraj tanana šadrvana”. Verses of this song, which speaks about the power of love, were inspiration to this artist to link music with painting.

Sevdalinka is equally admired both by those who have inherited this music-poetic form and by those who nourish different music expressions. Today, sevdalinka has an important place in the musical map of the world as part of the World Music, and its wonderful lyrics, melodies and harmonies as musical characteristics on the one side, as well as melancholy it carries in itself on the other, make it one of the most beautiful musical expressions of the world

References

• Gunić, Vehid (2006), Najbolje sevdalinke, Tuzla: Bosnia ARS

• Hörman, Kosta, ed. (1899, 1900) Nada, časopis za pouku, zabavu i umjetnost, Sarajevo: Zemaljska vlada za Bosnu i Hercegovinu