Monday, July 11, 2011
Do you want to know what makes me cry?
I don't cry much. I am not a baby any more so I won't cry when I get hurt or when I'm hungry. There is no special reason for me to cry these days. I'm happy and there is nothing in my life that warrants sadness to the point where I would cry regularly.
But if there is one thing that consistently made me cry since I was 14, that would be anything reminding me of my country. Maybe to put it better, what makes me cry is anything reminding me of the good old days and the events that caused many of my countrymen and I to move out of Bosnia, not to mention the deaths of many people because of a horrible war. Watching a Bosnian movie that relates to the war or listening to a song from the old days would almost certainly bring tears to my eyes. It is difficult to hold the tears when a scene like above comes on. Actually, it is almost impossible.
The scene above is from a Bosnian movie "Remake". It was made in 2003 and it is a moving story not only because it encapsulates the war in Bosnia but also because how the story is told. In the scene, a young Bosnian man is asked to sing a song in front of the Bosnian Serb soldiers. He chooses to sing a song called "Il' Je Vedro Il' Oblacno". This song is an old Bosnian traditional song called "sevdalinka" or "sevdah". These songs were written long time ago and tell various stories, mostly about lost love. Some sevdah's are faster and comical but mostly are slow and emotional. If I listen to a particularly emotional sevdalinka, I will try very hard not to cry.
Today is consequently the Bosnian Day of Mourning. The Bosnian government decided that 11. of July will remind the people of the genocide in Srebrenica. I guess I could not find a better way to express my feelings than to let you listen to this song.
By the way, the full version of the song was recorded by a band "Kultur Shock". I like this version so here is the link: Kultur Shock - Il' Je Vedro Il' Oblacno.
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A friend of mine contacted over Facebook telling me how he liked this post, particularly because of how the Bosnian sevdah has an influence on me. This is my reply to him, in Bosnian and in English below that.
ReplyDeleteSevdah nisam otkrio dok nisam cuo Mostar Sevdah Reunion. Od tada sam istrazio malo vise o sevdalinkama i saznao sam kroz slusanje pjesama da me upravo te melodije i rijeci najvise udare u srce. Naravno, ne govorim o turbo folku nego o pjesmama kao "Emina" i "Put Putuje Latif Aga". Te stare sevdalinke, ako su prirodno odpjevane i fino odsvirane, me guraju prema suzama, vjerovatno zbog rata i protjeravanja. Mozda u drugom zivotu sevdalinke bi me gurale prema drugim osjecajima ali sada ja ovako i to je to.
Eh, sad, Kultur Shock. Takav bend samo jednom postoji na ovom svijetu. Prvi put sam cuo Kultur Shock kada sam bio u Phoenix, Arizoni u prvoj posjeti jednog Banjalucana. On mi je pustio njihov album "We Came To Take Your Jobs Away" i kada sam cuo "Zumbul", gotovo je bilo. Od tada sam poslusao skoro sve njihove pjesme i sada sam u procesu trazenja njihovih albuma sirom svijeta. Malo cu jos potraziti u Dublinu ali ako ih ne nadjem, narucicu sve CD-ove preko Interneta. Nisam jos imao sansu da ih vidim uzivo ali sto posto cu doci bilo gdje u Evropi da is slusam.
Njihov pogleda na sevdah je tacno ono sto meni pase. Odkada sam se preselio u Ameriku, veliki utjecaj na mene su imali grunge bendovi (STP, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains) i ostali rock bendovi iz tog perioda (Tool, Rage Against the Machine, Incubus, Days of the New, itd.). Ja mislim da od kada je Dino dosao u Seattle da je utjecaj te vrste muzike plus njegovom bosanskog "vaspitanja" njega usmjerilo prema ono sto Kultur Shock proizvodi sada. Njihova muzika kao da dolazi iz mene, kao da znaju tacno koja dugma da pritisnu kada violina ili gitara zasviraju.
I didn't discover Sevdah until I heard Mostar Sevdah Reunion. Since then I did some more research about sevdalinke and I found out by listening to the songs that exactly those melodies and words touch me the most. Of course, I'm not talking about "turbo folk" but about songs like "Emina" and "Put Putuje Latif Aga". Those old svedalinke, if they are sung from heart and nicely played, make me cry, probably because of the war and forced removal.
Eh, now, Kultur Shock. That kind of a band only exists once in this world. First time I heard Kultur Shock was when I was in Phoenix, Arizona visiting my friend from Banjaluka for the first time. He played me their album "We Came To Take Your Jobs Away" i when I heard "Zumbul", it was over. Since then I listened to almost all of their songs and now I am in the process of finding their albums across the world. I will look for their albums in Dublin a little while longer but if I don't find them, I'll buy all of their CDs over Internet. I haven't had the chance to see them live but I will definitely come to see them anywhere in Europe.
Their view on sevdah is exactly what I like. Since I moved to America, the grunge bands (STP, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains) and other rock bands from that period (Tool, Rage Against the Machine, Incubus, Days of the New, etc.) had a huge influence on me. I think that since Dino (lead singer of the band) came to Seattle that the influence of this type of music plus his Bosnian background shaped the music that Kultur Shock produces. It's as if their music comes from inside of me, as if they know exactly which buttons to press when the violin or the guitar play.