By BILJANA MITRINOVIC
The return of Ducic, accompanied by representatives of the Serbian diaspora in the U.S., thus accidentally became an event far more significant than simple respect for his final wishes. As Ducic's lyric, life and religious predilections changed over time, so his three final wishes came to be. In the first, the advocate of the idea of Serbian Europeanism and libertarianism requested that his grave be marked only with black marble. In the last phase of his life, as an emigrant to America listening to stories of crimes against Serbs in the Second World War, Ducic was already a hardcore Orthodox believer and nationalist (which cost him 57 years of posthumous exile). At that time, he established a fund for his burial in his native Trebinje where "an exquisite Orthodox church" was to be constructed.
Time passed and nothing stayed the same, neither the Serbs nor Ducic's work which, purged of its ideological ballast, represents the pinnacle of Serbian poetry in this century. Changes, it was apparent on Thursday at the airport, did not spare the Serbian emigrant community, the descendants of the "protectors" of Ducic's tomb in the U.S. city of Libertyville.
"For a long time, the emigrant community was not prepared to return Ducic to the fatherland and great expenses were involved as well," Branko Tupanjac, an American businessman born in Trebinje and the trustee of "Ducic's church", whom we easily recognize among the party accompanying the casket at the airport by a gold tie pin with "Branko" written on it with diamonds, tells "Reporter". The burial of Ducic's remains in his native city, Tupanjac says, represents "the joining of wealth and the wish to give back to one's people after 32 years of life as an emigrant".
A controversial poet, essayist, travel writer and diplomat, first Yugoslav and then Serbian nationalist, Ducic caused a sensation 57 years after his death. Upon opening his tomb in the monastery cemetery in Libertyville near Chicago, it turned out that the relatively well preserved body of the poet was buried with a book of poetry, "Lyrics 1943", a sword, two military decorations and a white laurel wreath. Even though Ducic's life in no way resembled that of a saint, some of the Serbian emigrant public was wont to call the preserved remains holy relics [mosti]. Such beliefs were dismissed by senior church officials who explained that the body had been artificially preserved [mummified]. An expert on Ducic's life and works, poet Rajko Petrov Nego says: "I will leave it up to the church to adopt a stance toward this phenomenon. I personally do not think that Ducic should be proclaimed a saint because he led a life of vice but had he not, his poetry would not exist".
Also testifying to Ducic's greatness without superfluous mystification was Serb Patriarch Pavle, who held a liturgy for the deceased and a requiem [parastos] in the cathedral in Belgrade and stated in the commemoration of the poet "who belongs among the best of the greatest" that the servant of God, Jovan Ducic, "toward the end of his life turned to Christianity" and that his spirit was certainly joyful upon his return to his place of origin.
One of the most succinct observations on Ducic was left by literary historian Milan Kasanin, who described him as "a mixture of child and experienced diplomat, brilliant wit in cosmopolitan society and lonely poet, connoisseur of both the spiritual and material values of this world, a man fascinated by both people and books, and ideas and dreams who remained wise in his everyday dealings".
Upon the release from the press of this issue of "Reporter", Ducic's remains will either already be on their way from Podgorica to Trebinje or still in the monastery at Ostrog, where the casket is expected to spend the night. The remains of the great poet will be transported and reburied in the Hercegovinian Gracanica, the newly built church near his native Trebinje.
Ducic's entry into the everyday political exchange of potshots began with the visit of Mirko Sarovic, RS vice-president and vice-president of the Committee for the Transfer of the Remains of Jovan Ducic, to see the new Yugoslav president, Vojislav Kostunica, at the beginning of last week. Milorad Dodik was the first to accuse Sarovic of "going to Belgrade without the knowledge of the rest of the Committee", using this, says the RS premier, "for election propaganda and political purposes in order to gain cheap political point for the SDS" (the Serb Democratic Party). Dodik also criticized Sarovic for "attempting to impose upon the public that the SDS is the chief financier and initiator of the whole project", even though "the RS Government invested 1,200,000 marks in the construction of the church and accompanying infrastructure on Church property".
The flames were fanned when it was learned that Kostunica accepted Sarovic's invitation to visit Trebinje (that is RS, BH) on the day of Ducic's burial. The BH ministry of foreign affairs "expressed its surprise" that Kostunica had not previously asked for permission from Sarajevo to visit Trebinje. The Party of Democratic Action (SDA) noted that this represented "crude disregard for the integrity of BH", while Lagumdzija's Social Democrats termed Kostunica's intentions as inappropriate. Oslobodjenje in the above mentioned commentary lasciviously reads Kostunica's mind which contains thoughts that "RS is a part of integral Serb political territory" and that the entire affair with Ducic will serve for "the revitalization of Greater Serbian nationalism in BH". Mirza Hajric, advisor to Alija Izetbegovic, expressed on behalf of 400,000 natives of Sarajevo "disappointment but hardly surprise because we are aware that he is a nationalist". Finally, impassioned Bosniak calls for revolt were calmed by Kostunica himself who, following a meeting with Wolfgang Petritsch, sent an official letter to BH minister of foreign affairs Jadranko Prlic in which he informed him that his visit was "of a completely private nature".
The level of bitterness was only increased by the pleiad of half-weaned representatives of the Milosevic regime who felt invited to pay their respects to the great poet. The column was headed by Serbian chief academician Dejan Medakovic who announced the inexorable arrival of "a test of conscience, patriotism, humanity and reconciliation" at a formal academy of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU). When asked two years ago why the Academy did not express support for the request of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) for the departure of Milosevic, he replied: "The SPC has the support of the Holy Spirit whereas the Academy does not."
The man who remembered to comment on Milosevic only after he was surprised to learn that the latter was no longer appearing on state news broadcasts obviously needs to attend a course on "Ducic, a re-reading". Written somewhere he would find: "Serbian politics needs to get closer to science and history, and to recognize irrational appearances of national and religious madness in a timely fashion."
By S. DURMANOVIC
Ducic's departure from Bijeljina was, in fact, an expulsion by the Austro-Hungarian authorities by order of the regional representative Czerny after a search of his apartment revealed two poems of incriminatory content: "Fatherland" ("You are not woken by the horror of poverty, you are not woken by the horror of wounds/You sleep peacefully, dear mother, lulled into a heavy sleep") and "O, Bosnia". Because of them Ducic was placed under investigation and subsequently, in May of 1894, expelled by the authorities from the city. Immediately after his expulsion, the poet was unable to find a teaching assignment anywhere and so became employed in the monastery school in Zitomislic...
Professor Lukic says that Jovan Ducic briefly lived in the house of Magdalena Nikolic-Zivanovic which she shared with her sister. After the break up of her relationship with Ducic, Magdalena swore that she would never again leave the house. "Like a romantic heroine, she lived on memories and found her only happiness in reading the poems and letters of the man whom she loved," concludes Professor Lukic. Ducic's secret fiancee requested in her last will that her gravestone be inscribed with the following words which even today can be found at the cemetery in Bijeljina:
"Maga Nikolic-Zivanovic, 1874-1957, A poet herself and the first great inspiration of poet Jovo Ducic"
Twenty years prior to Magdalena's (Maga's) death, Ducic, an appointed minister of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia at that time, received a request which, according to Professor Lukic, testifies to the deep influence which Ducic left in Bijeljina among his friends, acquaintances and co-citizens. In a letter addressed to Ducic by the Serbian Singing Society "Srbadija", the minister is asked for his assistance in the construction of a hall for the use of the society. "First and foremost, in this ideal task, the society would like to advise You that it would like - and that it would be most happy should You concur - that the hall of 'Srbadija', once built, should be called the Hall of the Poet Jovan Ducic - Srbadija" says this letter mailed to Minister Ducic on November 1, 1937. In the margins of the letter (source: the Ducic Collection in the Trebinje Library) we find written in Ducic's hand: "Sent a donation of 1,000 dinars on December 6, 1937. Asked that they should without fail name their hall after the great poet Filip Visnjic, their closest compatriot".
But the building was not built and the Serbian Singing Society "Srbadija", restored in 1992, still has no facility. The house of Magdalena Nikolic-Zivanovic was looted during the most recent war. A notebook with Maga's poems, which Mrs. Lukic assumes existed and which, if found, would give further details of the great love of Ducic and the Bijeljina poetess was stolen from it.
Magdalena's gravestone at the Bijeljina cemetery has become run down over the course of the years, just like her house located (today) at 2 Zmaj Jovina Street number.