KULTURNA INTERAKCIJA IZMEĐU ORIJENTA, BOSNE I EVROPE NA PRIMJERU PRIJEVODA RUMIJEVE MESNEVIJE NA BOSANSKI JEZIK
CULTURAL INTERACTION BETWEEN THE “ORIENT”, BOSNIA AND EUROPE IN THE BOSNIAN TRANSLATION OF RUMI’S MASNAVI

Summary/Abstract: The Masnavi, as the best-known book of 13th-century Persian poet and Islamic thinker Jalaluddin Rumi, has enjoyed high esteem in the cultural tradition of Bosnia and Herzegovina for centuries. This reverence can be traced in an interesting tradition of public readings and commentaries of its verses and stories, critiques of the book authored by Bosnian scholars, and its influence on the work of Bosnian poets, writing primarily in Persian and Turkish languages, but also in Arabic. The integral text of the Masnavi has not yet been translated into Bosnian from its original Persian, but Fejzullah Hadžibajrić translated the first two of its six volumes. It is interesting to note that this translation of the Masnavi is accompanied by a large number of comments added to the end of the book. Nevertheless, the translator gave priority to interpreting and explaining certain concepts and terms in the original text, ahead of finding translation equivalents in Bosnian. Such an attitude reveals the translator’s specific approach in translating the Masnavi, and is evidence of strong cultural connections between Bosnia and the “Orient”, even though the translation came a long time after Bosnia ceased to be a part of that world. However, this translation appears to be incomprehensible and “inadequate” to younger readers. The problem of “inadequacy” to those who are less familiar with Islamic culture than with European cultural traditions shows this translation’s connection to Islamic culture, while simultaneously placing it into the heart of cultural interactions between the “Orient”, Bosnia and Europe.

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