11
" Na manhã do dia em cuja noite acabou morrendo, vovô Slavko esculpiu uma varinha de condão para mim usando um galho de árvore e disse: tanto no chapéu quanto na varinha existe um poder mágico, se tu usares o chapéu e carregares a varinha, vais te tornar o mais poderoso mágico de capacidades entre os países que não fazem parte do bloco. Poderás revolucionar muitas coisas, na medida em que isso estiver em conformidade com as ideias de Tito e concordar com os estatutos da Aliança dos Comunistas da Iugoslávia.
Eu duvidava da magia, mas não duvidava do meu avô. A graça mais valiosa é a inventividade, a maior riqueza é a fantasia. Guarda isso, Aleksandar, disse vovô com seriedade, enquanto botava o chapéu em mim, guarda isso e imagina um mundo mais bonito. Ele me entregou a varinha. Eu não duvidava de mais nada. "
― Saša Stanišić , How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone
12
" Zoki walks into the classroom, puts a piece of paper down on the teacher’s desk, and shouts: “Everyone write your name.”
There are three columns: Muslim / Serb / Croat.
We all gather round, we all hesitate.
“Come on, guys.” Zoki writes his name under Serb.
Kenan takes the pen from Zoki and writes his name under Muslim.
Both Gorans put their names under Serb.
Edin puts his name under Muslim.
Alen puts his name under Muslim.
Marica puts her name under Serb.
Goca puts her name under Serb.
Kule asks what this is all about.
Zoki says: “So we know.”
Kule says: “Fuck you.”
Zoki says: “Anyway, you’re Muslim.”
“What I am is Fuck you,” Kule says.
Elvira makes a new column, writes Don’t know at the top, and puts her name there. Alen takes the pen back and crosses his name out and writes it again under Don’t know. Goca too.
Marko puts his name under Serb.
Ana puts her name under Don’t know, thinks for a second, crosses it out, adds Yugoslav as a fifth heading, and puts her name there.
Zoki writes Kule under Muslim.
Kule says: “Zoki, you dumb horse, I’ll fuck your mother.”
The Gorans plant themselves in front of Kule and the one with the long incisors says: “What’s wrong, Kule? Shoes too tight?”
Kule grabs the pen out of Zoki’s hand and tries to scribble something on Goran’s forehead. Goran shoves him, Kule shoves back, and we move between them.
Everyone’s shouting all at once until Kule raises his arm—the gesture says, Everything’s cool, I’m cool. He goes up to the desk and makes a sixth column. On top it says, Fuck all of you. Kule writes Kule in that column, stomps on the pen, which breaks, and leaves the classroom.
No one follows Kule. The list disappears.
A couple months later, Muslims in several cities are ordered to wear white armbands.
An Eskimo family lived in Višegrad at the time, above the supermarket on Tito Street. Actually they had no connection with the Inuit—it was just a joke answer on the 1991 census, which was included in the actual statistics and then recognized by the state. The father repeated it during the Serbian occupation, but no one laughed. So he left the city, with his wife and baby daughter. Today they live closer to the North Pole and speak decent Swedish. "
― Saša Stanišić , Herkunft
16
" Am Morgen des Tages, an dessen Abend er starb, schnitzte mir Opa Slavko aus einem Ast den Zauberstab und sagte: im Hut und im Stab steckt eine Zauberkraft. Trägst du den Hut und schwingst du den Stab, wirst du der mächtigste Fähigkeitenzauberer der blockfreien Staaten sein. Vieles wirst du revolutionieren können, solange es mit den Ideen von Tito konform geht und in Übereinstimmung mit den Statuten des Bundes der Kommunisten Jugoslawiens steht.
Ich zweifelte an der Zauberei, aber ich hatte keine Zweifel an meinem Opa. Die wertvollste Gabe ist die Erfindung, der
größte Reichtum die Fantasie. Merk dir das, Aleksandar, sagte Opa ernst, als er mir den Hut aufsetzte, merk dir das und denk dir die Welt schöner aus. Er übergab mir den Stab, und ich zweifelte an nichts mehr. "
― Saša Stanišić , How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone
