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Chapter 5 The Cycle Bdenja from Pet lirskih krugova* With Bdenja the Five Lyrical Cycles enter a new phase, though still a variation of the two preceding cycles. Morning and evening poems are followed logically by Vigils, thoughts in the night. Thus, just as most of the poems in the preceding cycles are based on a concrete, immediate situation, those of Bdenja tend to be increasingly metaphoric and abstract, befitting thoughts rather than the immediacy of existence. So “Osama na trgu” replaces the more concrete experience of “Djurdjevci,” and “Grobnoj” the poem “Sestri u pokoju .” Vigils suggests an inner, rather than external, confrontation of events.1   In his selection of the early versions of Nastasijević’s poetry, Stanislav Vinaver included only a small number of pieces and few of them dated. Among those poems Vinaver did include are early versions of “Frula,” “Rumena kap” (“Večernja pesma”), “Roditelju,” and others. One poem not included was the earlier version of the first poem of this cycle, “Molitva,” which was published with the title “Večernja” in Srpski književni glasnik in 1922.2 The title pre- * Originally published in Serbian Studies 4: 1–2 (Fall–Spring 1986–87): 29–51. 1 See Patar Mirosavljević, Poetika M. Nastasijevića (Novi Sad: Matica srpska, 1978). Mirosavljević sees Bdenja as a new turning point in the poetry. It is no longer maternja melodija, but a turn towards thought. This is partly true, yet the actual form of the language remains much the same. In any case it is not thought as much as the experience of thought, and the change is really in the later cycles. Perhaps Mirosavljevi ć allows himself to be misled by approaching Nastasijević too much through his essays on poetry and language and their development. Poetika is one thing, poetry another. 2 The version “Večernja,” published in Srpski književni glasnik, is as follows: Smagnem li ovo dubinom u večernju, Ili je poj, il’ dubina se otvori gde bolelo? Tiho po muci brodim, smerni rab. Pakao meni, Oče, boljezan, draču na put, Rastoči, o rastoči raba. Dublje dno duši no trpljenju. 82 The Escaped Mystery sents a question for anybody reading Bdenja. Among Vinaver’s selections are “Večernja pesma” as well as “Jutarnja pesma,” both suggesting the influence of Dučić and Rakić on early Nastasijević. The singular use of the word večernja may suggest the noun rather than the adjective, in other words not “evening” but “Vespers” in the sense of night prayers, even prayers for the dead, the Russian moleben. In Bdenja the title has changed to “Molitva,” and the entire poem is tightened rhythmically into a quite different experience. Yet the meaning of the first lines depends on such an interpretation of večernja, and tihi poj then becomes the soft chanting of hymns. This would distinguish it from its meaning in the title of the cycle Večernje. It suggests the generally more religious tone of Bdenja and also a reflection on the foregoing cycles. One may be tempted to see them as Matins, Vespers, and Vigils, despite the overtly pagan tones of the earlier cycles. At least this adds a further ambiguity and dimension to the poems, one which, whether accepted or not, scarcely contradicts but indeed lends force to the essence of their striving after connection and meaning.   The poem “Molitva” opens with a formal reference to “Frula,” but the tone has changed, although, surprisingly, the technique has not. Change is to come in the final cycles, Gluhote and Reči u kamenu. Molitva Smágnem li óvo dubínom u véčernju, íli je tíhi pój, il’ dubína se ótvori gde bólelo? Tího po múci bródim smérni ráb. Pákao meni, óče, bóljezan, dráču na pút. Rastóči, o rastóči rába. A Prayer Dárken I thís with profúndity at véspers, Or ís it the sóft chánt, Or did profúndity ópen where it húrt? A humble sláve, sóftly I wáde through súffering. Héll to me, fáther, Síckness, thórns on my páth, Let wórms, oh let wórms devóur this sláve. Bez dna reč ova smerna u večernju. Rastoči, o rastoči raba, Korenu ovom daj crva da nagrize: Jer i pakao je tvoj, i propoje. Iz ove oporine zalapim toplo...

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