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Balkan Babel
- University of Wisconsin Press
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51 Bal kan Babel Dur ing dark and trou bled times, my father often trusted in his books when he could not trust in peo ple. My mother often heard his whis per ing over the pages of an opened book. At first, she wor ried that my father would not re turn from his books, but in time she got used to it and under stood Father’s be hav ior when books were at issue. My mother rarely inter rupted my father while he was read ing; by mu tual agree ment she did so only when they needed to dis cuss some curve in the road of life that their chil dren con fronted. My father hoped most of all that his heirs, we chil dren, would study and be come doc tors so we would al ways be of use to peo ple or, for the same rea son, that we would be come en gi neers, but in all his chil dren he con stantly in stilled his love of stud y ing lan guages. We should study the lan guages of our peo ple, the lan guages of those both near to us and far away . . . When there was a ques tion about the children’s school ing, my father would ex change a word or two only with Mr. K., who had stud ied ped a gogy in Paris at the Sor bonne. They al ways reached agree ment. Even though Mr. K. still be lieved that the time would come when the world would have a sin gle lan guage, until then one had to learn the lan guages of those nearby, our neigh bors. Mr. K. once told my father that the Bal kans were cursed, that they were a small Tower of Babel, a Bal kan Babel, but that peo ple in the Bal kans could save them selves if they reached agree ment, if they united and joined to gether through all their lan guages. Here my father and Mr. K. reached com plete agree ment and gave di rec tion to their children’s lives. ...