Bosnian and Herzegovinian Nobel Prize laureate Ivo Andrić was born on this day in 1892 at Dolac, near Travnik. The great writer and diplomat received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1961, and to this day has remained the only recipient from the region of this prestigious award for literature.
Today, even the Google is in the spirit of Andrić and The Bridge on the Drina, and the Jazz Fest joins in the celebration of this special day.
On behalf of Edin Zubčević, we would like to thank everybody who called and emailed the Jazz Fest office wishing the Jazz Fest’s creative director a speedy recovery.
Zubčević was involved in a serious traffic accident in which he was thrown from his bike while trying to avoid an unconscious driver and sustained severe physical injuries. “After a short, but rapid flight, I was lucky enough to land on my head. As a typical Bosnian, while landing on my head, I managed to break both my arms”, says Zubčević.
After fifteen long days of various medical examinations and treatments, his recovery is going well and Edin, in the spirit of his true self, is not letting the two broken arms keep him from running the business. He has come back to work today, monitoring the preparations for the upcoming festival in their full swing and whistling Interplay (with a 63% precise pitch within one octave:)
Andrić is one of Edin’s favorite Bosnian writers.
“Kod unutarnjih borba koje čovek vodi sa samim sobom i sa nepoznatim silama u sebi, važi više nego igde pravilo: ne predaj se nikad! Ni predaje, ni ustupanja! A pre svega, što kažu u Bosni: ne veži tugu za srce!
Biti uvređen nepravdom ljudi manje je nego biti u bedi, a biti u bedi manje je nego biti bolestan, biti bolestan jos nije: umreti. Ali i kad je čovek uvređen nepravdom, teško bolestan, pa i na samrti, ne treba, tek tada ne treba da ‘pusti rđi na se’. Tada treba napregnuti sve sile i ne priznati tugu i malodušnost. Izdržati trenutak, a već idućeg časa čovek je na putu da prezdravi ili mrtav. A smrt je najveći i najsigurniji osvetnik.”
Photo: Zijah Gafić