On Serbian Aphorisms

Posted on December 13, 2007
Filed Under Aphorisms |

On December 2, the New York Times ran an article on Serbian aphorisms, Dark One-Liners Shine a Light on the Mood of Serbs, that includes many of the Serbian aphorists featured in Geary’s Guide. The piece was prompted in part, I think, by Satira Fest 2007, a celebration of satirical prose organized by Fund Radoje Domanovic and the Association of Serbian Writers and held in Belgrade. “There were a lot of aphorists from Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia,” Serbian aphorist Dejan Tofcevic reports. “Most of them were reading their aphorisms … We were performing on four sites and heard four lectures about modern satire and the aphorism from university professors.” One aphorism was crowned best of the fest:

Oh God, if you exist, help us. If you don’t exist, tell us not to expect anything.

Thanks to Boris Mitic, who translated the Serbian aphorists in Geary’s Guide and is making a film about the Belgrade Aphoristic Circle, I’ve been able to regularly blog about Serbian aphorists and their sayings. Dejan estimates that there about 500 aphorists at work in the Balkans, “more than anywhere else in the world,” he says. Given the continued political volatility of the region, they sure have lots to write about…

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3 Responses to “On Serbian Aphorisms”

  1. Candadai Tirumalai on December 14th, 2007 2:04 pm

    God and Anonymous used to be great aphorists.

  2. Lori Ellison on December 21st, 2007 6:23 pm

    Humor stems from terror management, grief management and anger management.
    With terror one gets irony and the absurd in the fore,
    with anger satire with a background of pointing out and possible reform,
    and with grief the black humor that is exemplified by the title of a film from the former Yugoslavia that if I remember correctly was titled Pretty Village Pretty Flames - the Serbian I was working with at the time (1998) explained it was from a saying in his language the gist of which was the prettier the village the more beautiful it looks while burning to the ground. War would bring out all three forms of defense against the otherwise unspeakable, but grief would be in the fore when death is right in front of you.

  3. nenad corilic on February 29th, 2008 9:41 pm

    Here are some of my (Serbian) aphorisms for you:

    WE’LL CATCH ALL HUMAN RIGHT VIOLATORS. AND PUT THEM IN CHAINS.

    LANGUAGE REFORMS ARE ON THE WAY. THOSE WHO CANNOT READ BETWEEN THE LINES WILL BE CONSIDERED ILLITERATE.

    OPPOSITION DOESN’T LIKE ITS POSITION.

    HE WAS NOT A DICTATOR. ALL OF HIS DECISIONS WERE MADE UNANIMOUSLY.

    MY BEING MODEST DOESN’LET ME PRAISE ANYONE ELSE BUT ME.

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