Ćamil Sijarić | |
---|---|
Born |
Bijelo Polje, Kingdom of Montenegro |
18 December 1913
Died | 6 December 1989 Sarajevo, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia |
(aged 75)
Occupation | Novelist |
Ćamil Sijarić (18 December 1913 – 6 December 1989) was a Yugoslav novelist and short story writer. He enrolled in law school in 1936 and earned his degree four years later. Sijarić died in a car crash at the age of 75.
He was born in Šipovice, near Bijelo Polje, in the Kingdom of Montenegro, to Muslim (Bosniak) parents. Both of his parents died while he was a child. Sijarić enrolled in the University of Belgrade's Law School and earned his degree in 1940. He was both a member of Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts, and Academy of Arts and Sciencies of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
He spent most of his life in Skopje, Belgrade and later, Sarajevo, where he died in a car accident in 1989. However, almost all his major works are about Montenegro and the Bihor region around Bijelo Polje. His works have been translated in more than a dozen languages, including Russian, German and French.
Sijarić perished in a car crash in Sarajevo, shortly before his 76th birthday in December 1989.
Not long before his death, Sijarić wrote a poem called Znam (I Know), which appears to show him foreshadowing his own death:
Znam da se u ovu kasnu jesen
U prekasnu jesen
na Šipovicama šipci crvene.
Da hoće vjetar bar malo – bar malo,
njihove boje nanijeti na mene,
na ruke,
na lice -
jer vidim da se ove jeseni
posljednji put za mene
crvene
šipci iz Šipovica
I know that in this late autumn
in this very late autumn
in Šipovica, the rose hips redden
If only the wind would - even a little
Spread their colors over me
on my hands,
on my face -
For I see that this autumn
the rose hips in Šipovica
will redden for me
for the last time