Elegy For Kosovo: Stories (2000) - Plot & Excerpts
This short and devastating novel of the year 1389 in the region of the Balkan Peninsula is in the form of three stories. A great battle commenced in late June of 1389 in which the Serbs, Bosnians, Croats, Albanian and Hungarian troops were routed by the Turks. The Turkish Sultan, Murad I, and his eldest son were believed to be murdered by their own troops because of a difference in opinion about the direction of the empire. Murad’s blood was spilled on that plain in Kosovo, nourishing the ancient hatreds that grew there like weeds."These tales bring to mind the Greek tragedies," [the Great Lady] said in a low voice. “They are of the same diamond dust, the same seed." t"What are these Greek tragedies?" the lord of the castle asked.tShe sighed deeply and said that they were perhaps the greatest wealth of mankind. A simple treasure chest, like the one in which any feudal lord hides his gold coins…"Told in simple and elegant prose, the story relates these ancient hatreds and impresses upon the reader how the oral traditions of the martial minstrels of the region managed to keep the conflict immortal with their songs. Ismail Kadare, born in 1936, is Muslim by birth in an area of Albania that was primarily Christian. In a 1998 Paris Review interview, Kadare talks a little about the Albanian language and its literary traditions—how it had been mostly oral. The wide-ranging interview is helpful in understanding what Kadare was saying in this novel. When it was written in the 1990s, the plains of Kosovo were again suffering under the onslaught of warring factions attacking each other "like beasts freed from their iron chains." Kadare, who had much experience writing under repressive regimes (he studied writing in the USSR, and later published work under the regime of Enver Hoxha in Albania) believed that fiction might be able to accomplish the impossible, like change a regime. In a review published in Britain’s The Independent in 1999, Kadare says that "personal freedom for the writer is not so important. It is not individual freedom that guarantees the greatness of literature…" We know this to be true, of course, though literature can also be nourished in a less repressive atmosphere. Kadare took the route of writing elliptical allegorical pieces that were more difficult to interpret, like Chinese writers have been forced to do for decades. In fact, Kadare’s work was so elliptical, some reviewers could mistake his meaning for support of the repressive regime.Kadare claims this was never his intention. Maria Margaronis, who writes for The Nation suggests in a review for the online magazine EXPLORINGfictions that Kadare’s “Great Lady” in this novel was in fact Madeline Albright, U.S. Secretary of State at the time of the war in Yugoslavia, and that Kadare was again writing allegorically and elliptically in support of U.S. intervention to stop the war. Maragonis goes on to say "But Kadare, of all writers, was uniquely well placed to express in fiction the contradictions facing his people in the post-cold war world. Instead he has chosen to continue the old game, throwing in his lot with those who see the Balkans as a cauldron of atavistic hatreds while claiming favored status for his own tribe. In the long run, this does the Albanians no favors." Let’s say this: Kadare writes fiction eloquently, clearly, and persuasively. I hope to look further into his work.A note on the translation: it was done by the incomparable Peter Constantine, who deserves full kudos for retaining the beauty of the language.
There is a lot of blood in Kadare's novella, both literal and metaphorical and all befitting to the Kosovan story. Awash with scorn for interpretations of Balkan politics, even to the point of rejection of the name Balkan itself, 'And so without a common name, nut with a name bestowed upon them by the enemy, they marched to battle and defeat', Kadare uses the metaphor of blood for advocacy and interpretation, 'Blood flows one way in life and another way in song, and one never knows which flow is the right one'. Blood as spilt blood and its relationship to the land is never clearer than when the 700 year old dead Sultan looking from his grave declares 'take away all the mud around hearer, for even a few drops of blood are enough to hold all the memories of the world'.A wonderful lament and a lovely read which scorns religion and its lamentable role as much as anything when a Turk battling with Islam and Christianity is watched intently to establish 'from which part of the Turk's body one of the two faiths would be expelled from'.
What do You think about Elegy For Kosovo: Stories (2000)?
Well known for his quote, ‘Dictatorship and authentic literature are incompatible…..The writer is the natural enemy of dictatorship’, the inaugural Man Booker International winner, explores the complexities of ethnic identities of southern Balkans. Hundreds of years before the Slobodan Milosevic campaign’s of ethnic cleansing, murdering thousands of Albanians, Bosnians and Croatians, the plain of Kosovo witnessed a brief unification of these different ethnics - the Christian army led by Prince Lazar of Serbia, against the Ottoman army led by Sultan Murad.It is not enough for a person to totally understand the complexities of the issue from a single book, but nonetheless the emotions from different point of views are heartfelt. The Albanian and the Serb minstrels in particular, during their run as war fugitives, at one point are singing songs that condemn each other as per tradition, but realizing also that now Kosovo was lost to the Ottoman, the defeat had brought them together instead of against each other. The final elegy was a lament of Sultan Murad’s ghost, praying to Allah for oblivion as he felt that his blood in the plain was a curse - the land was in conflicts until today.Overall this is a poetic lament of how a war shapes the historical and emotional identities of southern Balkans. Thanks to Ismail Kadare, I now have a new book in my wishlist: S. A Novel about the Balkans
—Faizah Roslaini
"The minstrels had already begun to compose their songs, each in his own language. They resembled the ancient songs; even the words were not that different. The Serbian elders chanted: “Oh, the Albanians are preparing to attack!” and the Albanian lahuta minstrels sang: “Men, to arms! The pernicious Serb is upon us!““Are you out of your minds or are you making fools of us?” the people asked. “The Turks are marching on us, and you are singing the same old songs — The Serbs are attacking, the Albanians are attacking!’” “We know, we know!” the minstrels answered. “But this is where we’ve always turned to find parts for our songs, and this is where we will always turn. These parts are not like those of weapons that change every ten years. Our models need at least a century to adapt!"
—Eadweard
This short book by one of Albania's leading writers is a curious lament about the seemingly endless discord in the Balkans.The Battle of Kosovo Polje (1389) is the focus for this piece. Even when faced with a common enemy, the Ottoman Turks, the 14th century Albanians and Serbs find it hard, if not impossible, to forget their age old enmity. This is the message of Kadare's slim volume. Beautifully written, this work clearly exposes the author's fears about the region in which he was born. Otherwise, there is little more that I can say about this book. A good read if you are looking for an interesting rapid reading book, but it is not amongst Kadae's best works.
—Adam
