3
" …Čuvar zabravlja turbe – zapisuje nepoznati – pustivši da u njegov mrak padne teški zvuk iz brave kao da unutra ostavlja ime ključa. Mrzovoljan je kao i ja, seda na kamen do mene i sklapa oči. U času kad već mislim da je zaspao u svom delu senke, čuvar podiže ruku i pokazuje mi moljca koji lebdi negde u tremu turbeta, izašao iz naših haljina ili iz persijskih prostirki zgrade.
– Vidiš – obraća mi se on nezainteresovano – kukac je duboko gore pod belim zidom trema i primetan je samo zato što se kreće. Moglo bi se odavde pomisliti da je ptica duboko u nebu, kad bi se zid shvatio kao nebo. Moljac taj zid verovatno tako i shvata i jedino mi znamo da nije u pravu. A on ne zna ni to da mi znamo. Ne zna ni da postojimo. Pa pokušaj sada da opštiš s njime, ako možeš. Možeš li da mu kažeš nešto – bilo šta – ali tako da te on shvati i da si ti siguran da te je on shvatio do kraja?
– Ne znam – odgovorio sam – a možeš li ti? – Mogu – uzvratio je mirno starac, pljesnuvši dlanovima ubio moljca i pokazao mi ga smrvljenog na dlanu. – Misliš li da nije razumeo šta sam mu rekao? – Tako možeš i sveći, gaseći je između dva prsta da pokažeš da postojiš – primetio sam.
– Naravno, ako je sveća u stanju da umre… Zamisli sada – nastavio je – da postoji neko ko zna, dok mi ovo znamo o moljcu, to isto o nama. Neko kome je poznato na koji način, čime i zašto je omeđen ovaj naš prostor, ovo što mi smatramo nebom i uzimamo kao da je neomeđeno – neko ko nije u stanju da nam se približi i da nam da do znanja da postoji sem na jedan jedini način – ubijajući nas. Neko čijim se ruhom hranimo, neko ko našu smrt nosi u svojoj ruci kao jezik, kao sredstvo opštenja s nama. Ubijajući nas, taj nepoznati nas obaveštava o sebi. I mi kroz naše smrti, koje su možda samo pouka nekoj skitnici koja sedi kraj ubice, mi kažem, kroz naše smrti kao kroz odškrinuta vrata sagledavamo u poslednjem trenutku neka nova polja i neke druge međe… "
― Milorad Pavić , Dictionary of the Khazars
4
" It was no easy task to tame the barbarians' language. One quick three-week-old autumn, the brothers were sitting in their cell, trying to write out the letters that men would later call Cyrillic. They were not getting anywhere. Fromm the cell you could clearly see half of October, and in it the silence was one hour's walk long and two hours' walk wide. Then Methodius called his brother's attention to four jugs standing on the window of their cell, but outside, on the other side of the bars. "If the doors were locked, how could I get to one of those jugs?" he asked. Constantine broke one of the jugs, then drew the fragments piece by piece through the bars and into the cell, where he reassembled the jug, bonding it with saliva and clay from the floor beneath his feet. This they now did with the Slavonic language: they broke it in pieces, drew it into their mouths through the bars of Cyril's letters, and bonded the fragments with their saliva and the Greek clay beneath the soles of their feet. "
― Milorad Pavić , Dictionary of the Khazars
7
" It is not I who mix the colors but your own vision,' he answered. 'I only place them next to one another on the wall in their natural state; it is the observer who mixes the colors in his own eye, like porridge. Therein lies the secret. The better the porridge, the better the painting, but you cannot make good porridge from bad buckwheat. Therefore, faith in seeing, listening, and reading is more important than faith in painting, singing, or writing.'
He took blue and red and placed them next to each other, painting the eyes of an angel. And I saw the angel's eyes turn violet.
'I work with something like a dictionary of colors,' Nikon added, 'and from it the observer composes sentences and books, in other words, images. You could do the same with writing. Why shouldn't someone create a dictionary of words that make up one book and let the reader himself assemble the words into a whole? "
― Milorad Pavić , Dictionary of the Khazars
15
" It is not I who mix the colors but your own vision,' he answered. 'I only place them next to one another on the wall in their natural state; it is the observer who mixes the colors in his own eye, like porridge. Therein lies the secret. The better the porridge, the better the painting, but you cannot make good porridge from bad buckwheat. Therefore, faith in seeing, listening, and reading is more important than faith in painting, singing, or writing. "
― Milorad Pavić , Dictionary of the Khazars
17
" The truth is transparent and goes unnoticed, whereas lies are opaque and let in neither light nor gaze. There is a third version, where the two mix, and this is the most customary. With one eye we see through the truth, and that gaze is lost forever in infinity; with the other eye we do not see even an inch through the lies, and that gaze can penetrate no further, but remains on earth and ours; and so we push through life sideways. Hence, the truth cannot be understood on its own, like a lie, but only by comparing it with lies, by comparing the white space with the letters of our Book, because the white spaces in The Khazar Dictionary mark the translucent places of the divine truth and name (Adam Cadmon), and the black letters between the white spaces are where our eyes cannot penetrate beyond the surface. "
― Milorad Pavić , Dictionary of the Khazars
19
" Sometimes bygone springs, full of warmth and scents, blossom yet again inside us. And we carry them through the winter, protecting them with our chests. Then, one day, those bygone springs begin protecting our chests from the frost when we find ourselves on the other side of the window, where winter is not just a picture. It is now the ninth winter that I have had such a spring inside me, and it is still keeping me warm. Imagine, in this winter, two such springs touching like the scents of two meadows. That is what we need instead of overcoats. . . "
― Milorad Pavić , Dictionary of the Khazars
