SUNG POETS: MUSA ĆAZIM ĆATIĆ

Here lies a poet with excelling gift, who did not ask for honor or profit but rather lived a bohemian life and sang miraculously, until death accompanied him to this grave. (Rubaiyya for the tombstone of Musa Ćazim Ćatić, Safvet-bey Bašagić, 1928)

Only several lyrical poems, written in the language of sevdalinka, from the oeuvre of a poet from Bosnia and Herzegovina Musa Ćazim Ćatić have been recorded, performed by well-known performers of sevdalinkas. We can certainly confirm if there were more and that there could have been more, but it is this fact that, in an authentic way, reflects the set of circumstances in which the great poet lived and worked: only one collection of poems was published during his lifetime, and only five people attended his funeral. His bohemian way of life and socio-political circumstances prevented him from giving more.

A poet, bohemian, polyglot and translator Musa Ćazim Ćatić was born in Odžak on 12 March 1878. He was one of the first Bosniak poets who, after a long, centuries-long period of writing in Oriental languages, wrote poetry in his mother tongue, Bosnian. He wrote love, patriotic and religious poems. Professor Enver Kazaz points out that it was the influence of sevdalinka that allowed writing some of his best poems: By repeating springs of motifs of sevdalinka, its musicality and emotional quivering, Ćatić wrote some of the most beautiful love poems of Bosniak literature. Centuries-long experience of the collective poem, refracted through the prism of strong poetic individuality, achieved a characteristic shift in adding to poetic patterns and language, which is particularly revealed in very plastic depiction of poetic details. (Kazaz 1997:32) Such are poems from the cycle Ašiklije (Courting), where motifs from sevdalinka are used.

In 1974, a performer of sevdalinkas Emina Zečaj recorded a poem of Ćatić for “Jugoton”. Ismet Alajbegović Šerbo composed a melancholic rubato melody for the poem, after the model of sevdalinka. The song was also recorded by saz-player Hašim Muharemović in 1978. The sung lyrics only slightly deviated from the poet's text, which we present here:

Pričala mi kona tvoja: / Kada su te njemu dali, / Da si, draga, zadrhtala / K'o na grani listak mali; // Kanula ti suza s oka / Niz obraze prerumene. / O, da li si, da l' si tada / Sjetila se tužna mene? // Jesu li ti na um pali / Sevdaha nam danci mili, / Pa ti drhtaj mladog srca / I tu suzu izmamili? // Ah, znam, jesu. Ta i ja sam / More suza tada lio / I u tome burnom moru / C'jelu prošlost utopio.

(Your neighbor told me: / When they gave you to him, / That you, my darling, trembled / Like a small leaf on a twig; // A tear trickled form your eye / Down the too rosy cheeks. / Oh, did you, then / Sadly remember me? // Did you think of / Lovely days of our sevdah / And the trembling of your young heart / Brought the tear to your eyes? // Oh, yes, they did. Me too / I shed a sea of tears / And in this troubled sea / Drowned the whole past.)

The poem Sjećaš li se (Do you remember) from the cycle Uspomene (Memories), where Ćatić speaks of his broken heart, remembering the times past, was published on the album “Kradem ti se” (I sneak close to you) of Himzo Polovina in 1976, produced by “Jugoton”. Besides the first generation of vocal soloists of Radio-Sarajevo (Z. Imamović, N. Aleksić, M. Petrović), this song was recorded by Nedžad Salković, on an album from 1972 produced by PGP RTB. Interest in the song was also expressed by contemporary performers of sevdalinkas Damir Imamović and band Mostar Sevdah Reunion:

Sjećaš li se kad si lani / na uranku sreće bila. / Dala si mi jednog dana / stručak nježnog karanfila. // Ja sam cv'jetak mirisao / kao s tvojih b'jelih grudi. / Bajan miris što 'no pjesme / u junačkom srcu budi. // Ali skoro uveo je / taj karanfil, cv'jetak ubav. // Da l' će, draga, isto tako / uvehnuti naša ljubav?

(Do you remember, last year / When you went to the reveille of happiness. / One day, you gave me / bunch of tender carnation. // I smelled the flower / as if from your white bosom. / The splendid fragrance which / arouses poems in a hero's heart. // But it withered soon / the carnation, the lovely flower. // My darling, will / our love will wither as well?)

The poem U sevdahu (Love yearning), which abounds with erotic elements, found its place in the repertoire of sevdalinka performers Emina Zečaj and Salem Trebo. As a song, it is performed in an abbreviated variant. Trebo, as an extremely talented performer of sevdalinkas, composed music for the poem, which was published, together with other songs, on his album “Sretni dani” (Happy days) in 1997:

U sevdahu moja duša / Oko tvoga dvora l'jeta, / Tebe traži, Šemso mila, / Kao leptir majskog cv'jeta. // Hotjela bi amber-miris / S vilinske ti kose piti; / Ah, pusti je, ona će se / U tom milju utopiti!... // U sevdahu pjesma moja / S lahke harfe tebi hrli / I tvoj svaki korak prati, / Jer je željna da te grli; // Ah, željna je da na tvoje / Ružičaste usne pane; / Pa pusti je, zlato moje, / Ljubeći te nek izdahne... // 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 yearns for love / Haunts your home. / Looking for you, dear Šemsa, / As a butterfly of a May flower. // It would like to drink the scent of amber / From your fairy hair; / Oh, let it, it will / Drown in this pleasure! ... // My song yearns for love / Rushes to you from the light harp / And follows your step, / Since it wants to embrace you; // Oh, it is eager to / Fall on your rosy lips; / Let it, my sweetheart, / Let it expire while kissing you ... // My heart years for love / Pining for your warm cinders. / It would like to warm up / in the midst of your young bosom. // Let it sty on this fire / Let it turn to ashes / Death will be sweet for him, / When it burns in love yearning.)

As part of saz-playing repertoire, the poem of Ćatić Jednoj bogatašici (To a rich woman) (the author of the melody is not known) was performed in a reduced variant, without some stanzas. Speaking directly to the beloved is encountered as a pattern in many sevdalinkas, and it is therefore not surprising that this poem of Ćatić has taken hold in the sung variant:

Ne gledaj me, ljepote ti tvoje! / Jer Tvoj pogled mir mi samo muti. / Ne gledaj me, jer do Tvog su skuta / Mom sevdahu zagrađeni puti. // Ti si kćerka bogatstva i sreće, / Odrasla si u zlatu i svili, / Tvojom dušom nikad se nijesu / Oblakovi teške tuge vili. // A ja pjesnik gola sam sirota, / Za me radost tek je pusta bajka, / U kolibi pod čađavim krovom / Rodila me siromašna majka. // Pa ta tuga zar da i Tvoj život, / Tvoju sreću tako bistru muti? – / Ne gledaj me; ta do Tvog su skuta / Mom sevdahu zagrađeni puti!

(Don't look at me, for the love of your beauty! / Since your gaze only disturbs my peace. / Don't look at me, since to your wings / The road for my love is blocked. // You are a daughter of wealth and happiness, / Grown in gold and in silk, / Heavy clouds of sorrow / have never loomed over your soul. // And I am a poor poet, / Joy is only a fairy tale for me, / In a hut, under the sooty roof / I was born by a poor mother. // Why should such sorrow / dim / Your life, your happiness? ... / Don't look at me; tto your wings / The road for my love is blocked!)

A worthy part of the oeuvre of Musa Ćazim Ćatić consists of religious poems, where his profound religiosity can be observed. In recent years, Ćatić captures attention again, though this time from another angle. His religious poem “Islamu” (To Islam) and the patriotic poem “Bošnjak” (A Bosniak) have been recorded and included in the repertoire of performers of spiritual Muslim music from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Musa Ćazim Ćatić passed away in the bloom of youth, on 6 April 1915, at the age of 37. He was buried in Tešanj. Together with Bašagić, Đikić and others, he was one of the poets who refined and enriched the sound culture of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

REFERENCES

• Ćatić, Musa Ćazim (1988), Izabrana djela, Sarajevo: Svjetlost.

• Mešić, Abdurahman, ed. (1935), Novi behar, list za pouku i zabavu, year VIII, number 20-23. (1.6.1935), Sarajevo: Islamska dionička štamparija u Sarajevu.