Mediha Šehidić, Death and sweet quince
WRITTEN BY: Zerina Arnaut
We could say that life and death are reconciled companions of this collection, a journey that the sensibility of Mediha Šehidić has shaped into a work of art that will surely find its readers, and which will then accompany us on our life's journey.
Death and sweetness of quince is a new collection of poetry by the Bosnian author Mediha Šehidić, known to readers through her prose works Na-opako i po-prijeko , Brodska cesta bb and Kapija . This collection brings to the space of contemporary B&H poetry a raw reflection on complex human emotions and the relationship between life and death, without prejudice and the influence of pathos. Both in prose and poetry, Mediha Šehidić is guided by her own life experience, traumas, losses and loves, which makes her literature an authentic act of artistic expression. Already the opening poem, entitled "Una palabra, un aliento", offers us a view of the literary models on which this collection rests. The lyrical subject talks about Baudelaire's and Neruda's verses, about a girl's desire to be loved the way women are loved in their verses, until at one point she becomes aware of entering a dark world accompanied by the fear of the madness of the dead poet, Sylvia Plath, who decides to put her head in the oven .
From the title alone, we can guess that this is a book that questions the eternal struggle of life and death. The poet actually confesses, she admits that life cannot exist without death, that her life was marked by the constant confrontation with the deaths of others, she devotes herself to the feeling of loss, detachment and emptiness, while on the other hand there is a firm belief in life after death. This is what the song "U nekome jivije" talks about, which ends with the lines: We have to live somewhere! To die in someone/Sometimes to put your head on someone's shoulder/ And to be silent/ To be silent until the final awakening . It is no coincidence that we are introduced to the collection by verses from the Iliad that talk about exactly that, about worldly satiety and sensuality that is short-lived. Certain verses from the Iliad appear as light motifs throughout the entire collection, they are the messengers of the songs that follow. With that, Death and Sweet Quince gets a special rhythm, where between the verses of Mediha Šehidić, an echo of the prophet's words of the Iliad sneaks in: no man has escaped death, I think/ be he a rust or a hero, when his mother once gave birth to him .
The collection is characterized by a style that is, very often, narrative, which makes it accessible and sincere. Mediha Šehidić criticizes the strained sadness , fake sighs , invented pain and lies , and does not turn her head away from the problems in contemporary society. Accordingly, the poem "How to Kill a Woman" can be read as a feminist pamphlet, as a reaction of one human being to the violent deaths of women who opposed the training, blows and evil tongues of the collective, who were killed, and who continue to live as dolls, cocoons, voiceless pets.
The eerily precise style that turns without reservation towards darkness, passions, deaths, everyday life without embellishment, is brought to a climax in the poem “The Last Hymn” which, fittingly, concludes this collection. Here, death is presented as a companion of life, a companion of poetry. We could say that life and death are reconciled companions of this collection, a journey that Mediha Šehidić’s sensibility has shaped into a work of art that will surely find its readers, and which will then accompany us on our journey through life.