1. KIŠA BI PALA, PASTI NE MOŽE

“Kiša bi pala, pasti ne može” is one of many famous and beautiful love songs. Halid Varatanović from Sarajevo relays the following story about the origins of this song: “When the Austrians came to Bosnia, there were many hojas and muallims teaching the children and they were not particularly pleased by the Austrian presence. Kustura Hodža’s family is actually from Novi Pazar, but they moved here, to Sarajevo, a long time ago where he belonged to this group of people. So, they were sitting together with his paternal uncle… who was Hafiz, whom I knew, their name was actually Sokolović, but since Kustura’s nickname was Kustura this nickname was adopted as his last name. This Hoja Kustura was a spell-maker and he was (wont) (used to help people) to helping people whenever there was someone who was sick or if there was something else going on in their lives. So, it happened once that a wife of some Austrian officer came to him to see what her future held. He had a book and in that book he always kept a needle…it was not as if he kept it near the book or something, he always kept it in the actual book. So, he told her ‘You have a husband,’ ‘Yes I have,’ she replied, ‘And he is cheating on you,’ ‘Yes he is,’ ‘He is cheating on you with such and such woman,’ ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘You have a mole under your left arm of such and such shape and size,’ ‘Yes,’ she confirmed… So, basically, he told her everything he saw in her future and one day she came running to him expressing a wish to convert to Islam. What happened later, how it happened, we don’t know, but this was the reason she divorced her husband… Anyhow, this episode was, at the same time, the reason why Hoja got blamed for their divorce. People accused him of spellmaking and went absolutely crazy demanding that he be hanged in Vrace. My aunt told me this, entire she actually remembers when it happened… my father’s sister… she remembers that when they took him and led him to Vrace to be hanged, there was a great unhappiness amongst the people. They did hang him, but as soon as they did, it started to rain. People say that, when he washanged, there was such a flood lasting three days that people didn’t dare leave their houses. The word was all over the place: ‘Kustura has been killed.’ This may have happened a couple of years after the entry of Austria.”

2. U TREBINJU GRADU, VEL’KA ŽALOST KAŽU

“U Trebinju gradu, velk’a žalost kažu” is also a very popular sevdalinka. This is atrue story which speaks about the love and death of Fata Zubčević, the oldest of three children of a renowned merchant from Trebinje, Sadik Zubčević who lived in the XIX century. His daughter Fata did not live to meet the people from Stolac who came to ask for her hand. Fata died very young (she was only 16) from tuberculosis which was, at that time, an incurable disease. Fata died on Sunday, not living long enough to welcome these wedding guests who came from Stolac. Indeed, the people who came to ask for her hand came on Thursday, and Fata was already dead. Nevertheless, her last wish was respected: her wedding guests were welcomed in a very pleasant manner, they were all given wedding gifts and her husband was given a handmade scarf. It is believed that Fata Zubčević died around 1880 and that her grave lay untouched in Trebinje until the beginning of the Second World War. Vehid Gunić also relates the fact that, there were no recorded descendants of Sadik Zubčević before the aggression to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992, but Sadik Zubčević’s house is in Trebinje. This song was written down by the famous Czech melodist Ludvik Kuba who visited Trebinje in 1893. The version that he published in the bulletin of the “Zemaljski muzej” (“State museum”) in 1910 is authentic and faithful and is somewhat shorter than the popular version. This is Kuba’s text of this song which he wrote down in Trebinje:

3. KO SE ONO BRIJEGOM ŠEĆE

This famous sevdalinka from Banja Luka “Ko se ono brijegom šeće” also speaks about love between very real people. Paša-kada Bahtijarević, daughter of Suljaga Bahtijarević, is from Gornji Šeher (the song identifies her as “Suljaga’s daughter from Šeher”), and she really was dating, and later on got married to, Smail-beg Džinić just as in the song: “And when Smail-beg came, I came to my senses!”
4. NA OBHODJI PREMA BAKIJAMA (MOŠĆANICE, VODO PLEMENITA)

This popular sevdalinka from Sarajevo “Na Ophođi prema Bakijama/Mošćanice, vodo plemenita” also tells a story of two real people, but, the name the real hero of the event, Ćamila Fazlagić, was substituted with one of the following names: Džehva, Zlata, Fata, Ajka, Safa, etc. This song tells about the love between Ćamila Fazlagić and Mustafa Nurudin effendi Šerifi, who lived in the second half of the XVIII and the beginning of the XIX century. Recently Alija Bejtić has proved that Ćamila Fazlagić was a real person and a daughter of Omer-aga Fazlagić, married to Mustafa Nurudin-effendi. She died in 1848 and was buried together with her husband in the cemetery at Alifakovac beside the road that leads to Kozja Ćuprija which is why Ćamila Fazlagić in the song sends a message to her beloved across the three rivers: Mošćanica, Miljacka and Bosna. The reason for his absence is that her beloved, Mustafa Nurudin ef. Šerifija, actually escaped the incoming Black Death and went to his father’s estate in Posavina.

5. KAD JA PODJOH NA BENTBAŠU

The song “Kad ja pođoh na Bentbašu” is one of our most popular sevdalinkas. This song speaks about the famous location in Sarajevo, Bentbaša, which is often pronounced as Bembaša in songs and amongst the people. The origin of this word is from the Turkish word bent which means dam. Indeed, from 1462 to 1875 there was a dam in Miljacka, in the vicinity of Šeher-Ćehaja’s bridge, which was built by the founder of Sarajevo, Isa-beg Ishaković in 1462. It is equally important to emphasize that the original melody for this song was most probably a spiritual Sephardic song which is still sometimes performed (there are opinions that the music for this song comes from theTurkish military march “Vatan Marşi” composed by Rif’at Bey in 1877). It is also interesting that this popular sevdalinka was performed in the German film “Die Letze Brücke,” which strongly influenced the spread of its popularity.



6. POGLEDAJ ME, ANADOLKO

The history of the popular song “Pogledaj me Anadolko, Muhameda (Dina) ti” is also very interesting. During the Crimean war (1853-1856) between Turkey and Russia, Turkey received aid from England, France and Sardinia so, among its other visitors, Istanbul’s military barracks also hosted a company of Scottish soldiers. The latter had unusual uniforms which, along with their military march which is played with pipes, drew the citizens to them. This march melody soon became the melody of a Turkish folk song translated as follows:

The sweets that this girl sends to her beloved are the symbol of her emotions, and Uskudar is a suburb of Istanbul. While she was looking for him, he was already near her, wearing a starched shirt, i.e. uniform, since these were the new uniforms in European style which Sultan Mohamed II had introduced However, it is not known how this song reached Bosnia and Herzegovina where it got adapted to the musical expression of the Bosnian environment. This slightly modified song is also sung in Southern Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Macedonia. Bulgarian film director Adela Peeva made an excellent movie “Whose song is this” in 2002 about the origins of this song, and presented it at several international movie festivals including the “Sarajevo Film Festival” where the film was presented in the summer of 2003.

7. KOLIKA JE DŽENETIĆA AVLIJA

This beautiful Sarajevo sevdalinka “Kolika je Dženetića avlija” tells of the beauty of Mulija Dženetić whose real historical existence was proved by Hamdija Kreševljaković and Alija Bejtić. Mulija Dženetić was born around 1842 and it is assumed that this song could have been created about 1860. It was first written down by the Czech melodist Ludvik Kuba who was travelling through Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1893. The time period of the memory of the main actress in the song is not at all long if we take into account the fact that the Dženetić family is one of the most famous in Sarajevo. The historical existence of theother personalities mentioned in this song, Šaćir-beg from Bendbaša and Bakarović Avdaga, have not been, until now, proven. The existence of Ali-beg Dženetić is also rather questionable since the person of that name lived much earlier, in XVII century, so it is possible there wasfurther substitution of the names in this song, since Ali-beg and Alija are fairly frequent names in Bosnian folk songs.

8. ALI-PAŠA NA HERCEGOVINI

The song “Ali-paša na Hercegovini” is one of those superb sevdalinkas that have attracted the literati for years because of the sheer loveliness in the different interpretations of the intense love events on which it is based The secret of the message or the response, contained in the paradox of two verses “If you asked for my hand, I wouldn’t give it to you/If you married someone else, I’d poison you,” has been interpreted in many ways, but it seems that the readers who saw nothing weird or extravagant in pretty Mara’s message were right. They saw in this, proof of the contradiction of the experience of our life in the past, where successive ?expression of one’s own will which opposed strict patriarchal rules, could not have been imagined without the tragic end of the hero. There are many geographic locations named “Girl’s Cliff” across our country, bearing witness to that often described girl’s leap into the abyss, because there was no other way out. The basis of this sevdalinka is forbidden love that, in some folks’ ballads, made their heroines take that desperate plunge into death. As for this sevdalinka’s hero Ali-paša, mention of the name of this famous vizier from Herzegovina in the mid-last century, as often happens in folk songs, is probably a result of substitution for a less famous name of a more likely participant in this local event which attracted oral poets.

9. POŠETALA HANA PEHLIVANA

The sevdalinka “Pošetala Hana Pehlivana” is interesting for several reasons. This is an example of a song in which a local landmark has been put in a second plan although the mention of a Captain, family Firdus tells us that Livno is most likely the location of its origin. We still do not know who the song immortalizes in the unusual name of the heroine, which remained the same in all preserved versions of the song, but it is certain that she was a girl or a woman who was famous in the region of Livno for her decorative clothes. Hana Pehlivana in the oral lyricism of Bosnia and Herzegovina thus becomes an archetype of a dandy (vain?) heroine. This song is unique because it is written in a form of sequential questions, creating a very graphicimage of a woman in her elemental role – the desire to be liked.

10. JA KAKVA JE ĐULBEGOVA KADUNA

The sevdalinka “Ja kakva je Đulbegova” is one of those sevdalinkas that describe the haughtiness and beauty of a girl. Prof. Munib Maglajić says: “… The unusual appraisal of the beauty of a certain Đulbeg’s kaduna or wife belongs to this type of sevdalinka: the description of her fine clothes is accompanied by the wonder before love that begins and ends this song: the beauty of a woman is measured with a comparison that there is none prettier ‘all the way to Istanbul.’ Fine clothes, described in careful detail, indirectly indicate that they can be equalled only by the beauty of kaduna in question. The purpose of the unknown writer of this song, probably female, suggesting that the glitter of the fine clothes reflects exactly the glitter of the beauty, is completely achieved.

11. BUTUM TUZLU OPASALA GUJA

The song “Botum Tuzlu opasala guja” or “Donju Tuzlu opasala guja” as it is often sung, is one of the most performed and popular sevdalinkas. The snake which is mentioned in this song is actually a metaphor for Omer-pasha Latas, who (among other things) drowned in blood the rebellion of the Bosniak aristocracy in Eastern Bosnia in 1850. After he quashed the rebellion, Latas pitched tents on the hill Kicelj situated between Tuzla’s neighbourhoods Džindić mahala and Gradina, where he stayed for several days. This is the origin of the “snake” that surrounded Tuzla. The locations mentioned by this song are situated in Donja Tuzla so it is completely wrong to sing ‘Gornja Tuzla’s enclosed by a snake’ as many singers have done in the past.

12. DVORE GRADI KOMADINA MUJO

A sevdalinka native to Mostar “Dvore gradi Komadina Mujo” is also one of our very beautiful sevdalinkas (especially when performed by the late Himzo Polovina). This song tells about the famous Mujo Komadina (1839-1925), “one of the most prominent citizens of Mostar.” “Amongst many enthusiastswho enhanced Mostar during the Austro-Hungarian administration by installing many priceless monuments, the most obvious meritorious contribution was that of Mostar’s mayor Mujaga Komadina. Several imposing buildings were built due to his initiative of which Mostar was proud until 1992 when, almost all of them, were almost completely or completely burned and destroyed by Chetniks [Serb nationalists] and Ustasha [Croatian nationalists]… No mayor of this city on the banks of Neretva river has succeeded in making such a deep impact on work that was done in the city as Mujaga Komadina.” The following buildings were built by his praiseworthy efforts: The Municipality building, the Municipal court, the City spa, the Main High School built in moorish style, the concrete bridges built in the portLuka [port] and the customs office Carina the mosque in Gornja Drežnica, the girl’s maktaba [school] in Brankovac, etc.
Here are some interesting facts from Mujaga’s life: During his visit and sightseeing of Vienna, asked to estimate the value of this city, Mujaga gave a laconic answer: “It’s worth as much as the timely and good rain in Herzegovina!” Once, Mujaga was sitting at the side of the table although, as a mayor, he should have been seated at the top. One of the representatives told him just that and asked him to get seated where he should be. Mujaga told him: “The top of the table is not where you tell me it is, but where I am sitting!”

13. DVIJE SU SE VODE ZAVADILE

This amous sevdalinka (“poem of the plain” type) “Dvije su se vode zavadile” recorded a true event in the area of the XVIII century Foča. Ittells thestory of the biggest flood that ever befell Foča in the period between 19 February and 9 March 1731. The level of the Drina and Ćehotina rivers rose and flooded all the bridges and seven of Foča’s neighbourhoods: the Hasan-Nazir’s or Aladža’s neighbourhood, Mustafa-pasha’a, Devo’s, Ali-pasha’s, Muminbeg’s, Džaferbeg’s and Sheikh Pirija’s. About 200 houses were destroyed in those neighborhoods. The level of the Ćehotina rose so much that it surpassed the level of the Drina River and reached the big cemetery, and the level of Drina rose so much that it reached the stone towers on the bridge in Brod which an anonymous citizen of Foča recorded in the following manner:

Dvije su se vode zavadile,
Cehotina i zelena Drina;
Cehotina Drini govorila:
"Drino vodo, sto si se pon'jela,
Zar dje valjas drvlje i kamenje?
Pricekaj me i sutra do podne,
Dok ja dodjem mutna i krvava,
I pronesem Ireiza dvore,
I u njima lijepu djevojku!

Zehra Deović gives us unsurpassed interpretation of “Dvije su se vode zavadile.”

14. DJEVOJKA VIČE S VISOKA BRDA

The folk song “Djevojka viče s visoka brda” most probably originates from the time of the reign of Sultan Selim III, i.e. between 1789 and 1807 when Travnik was a centre of thepasha’s district, as this song emphasizes. According to the story recorded by that meritorious researcher of Bosnian patrimony, Alija Bejtić, this song could have originated at the moment when Sultan Selim III issued an order banning nightly movement in the city. This ban really disrupted nightly activity, including dating which was normally done in the night at the ledges of semi- opened windows. This led to the rebellion of the female heart which expressed itself in the shape of a folk song and directed its message at the Sultan himself, bypassing mutesellim, the Bosnian vizier, etc. It is assumed that one such order which “provoked” the creation of this beautiful song could have been created during the Dubica war which lasted from 1788 to 1791. According to the chronicles of Sarajevo native Mullah Mustafa Bašeskija, almost all able bodied men were mobilized and sent to the battlefield.

15. SAN ZASPALA

The classical version of the song “San zaspala” which is, however, rarely sung, mentions Mujaga Zlatarević who was actually a goldsmith by trade, but was also a prominent Sarajevo janissary. He was born at the end of the XVIII century and died in 1863. It is important to mention that Mujaga Zlatarević was a close associate and right hand to the captain [not a military, but administrative rank] Husein Gradaščević (“Zmaj od Bosne,” “Dragon of Bosnia”) during the latter’s movement for the autonomy of Bosnia which lasted from 1831 to 1832. When, after the relative success of his struggle, Captain Husein moved from Sarajevo to Travnik, he installed Mujaga Zlatarević as his deputy and musellim of Sarajevo. After the fall of the rebellion, Mujaga initially escaped across the Sava, but eventually returned to Sarajevo where he continued to practice his trade for the rest of his life. Alija Bejtić suggests that this popular song could have been created between 1820 and 1831.

16. PUT PUTUJE LATIF-AGA

“During the Austro-Hungarian reign, according to what I have heard from my parents, Latif and Nail Tetarić weremerchants, living in Donji Sitari,” goes the memory of retired professor Mehmed Selman nicknamed Medo who is the author of several chronicles about old Banja Luka. “The rather long road from the spring in Đurđevac to Podgaj was called Gornja and Donja Stupnica. A bit farther on, from the location of Džinić Mlin in Vrbas in the direction of Donji Šeher, there was a macadam road towards neighbourhoods called Gornji and Donji Sitari inhabited by a predominant Muslim majority. The family of Tetarić brothers consisted of their sister Habiba who married Mujaga Selman, estate lord or subasha in the villages Manjače, Šljivno, Radmanovići, Han-Kola, and the area of Vodički Vrh, as well as (being guardian to) the guarding of) the children of the Ćejvan family who had serfs in the time of Austro-Hungarian reign. Habiba gave my grandfather Mujaga sons Hamdija and Ćamil, and daughters Kada, Hafiza and Sejda. Hafiz Ahmed-effendi Selman of Gornja Stupnica, also originates from that family as well as my grandfather’s brother’s son whose name was Sulejman. When Sulejman came of age, he was a handsome young man and was taken to the army during the Austro-Hungarian reign. He was, people say, a good soldier; he completed the school for Artillery and became a noncommissioned officer. He remained in the Austro-Hungarian army until the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908. When he took off the uniform, he continued being friends with Latif-aga singing and partying on the banks of Vrbas, but also at the inns and coffee shops in the business centre of Mala and Kul neighbourhood… That was a particularly hard period for the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina who were at that time called Benjamin-Kalaj’s Mohammedans, which was the reason why, in their desire to find a prettier and better homeland, many of them headed up to Turkey. Merchants and friends Latif-aga Tetarić of Donji Sitari and Sulejman Selman were some of those who headed to “Turkei” as the then administration called Turkey. Latif-aga returned to his Bosnia after the First World War, and his friend Sulejman continued to serve in the Turkish army at the fortress in the Dardanelles as a commander of artillery. He got married there and started his own family, and after the war started to work in business and became the owner of a factory producing domestic dishes. On every dish, pan and cattle piece of cutlery, he engraved the logo of the company and the name of the owner, and my sister brought one such dish after the Second World War… Upon his return to Bosnia, Latif-beg opened in Čelinac, some 15 kilometers from Banja Luka, a shop and on the property that he bought besides theVrbanja, in the middle of Čelinac, he built a sawmill with two saws, thus becoming richer and even more famous… I heard that there is a descendant of Latifaga still living in Čelinac. His name is Irfan Tetarić, he is a history professor and former school principal,” said Mehmed Selman Medo, chronicler of old Banja Luka and finished his story.



17. OTKAKO JE BANJA LUKA POSTALA

“… There is a famous sevdalinka which many claim is linked to Gradiska, because it mentions the widow of the first captain of Gradiška, Džafer-beg, although we have preserved other versions on the origins of this song. As we mentioned before, Džafer-beg was the first known captain (of the captainship) in Gradiška in the XVI century. According to the Croatian historian Vjekoslav Klaić, Džafer-beg was married to a daughter of a great vizier Rustem-pasha, a grandson to the Sultan Suleiman. Since, for some time, it became dangerous to live in Gradiška, Džafer-beg’s family lived in nearby Banja Luka. It so happened during a military expedition to Croatia in 1560, that Džafer-beg got killed. He left behind him a young widow mentioned in this song.”

18. KONJA JAŠE PRIMORKINJA

The late Vlado Milošević relays the following interesting story about this “ashlamar” song: “Abid Novljanin sang this song very often during dinner parties, but also during the cherry (ashlam) picking season. A long time ago there were in Hiseti about 2000 cherry trees (according to Ibris Čardžić) and, when the time came to pick the cherries, the natives of Hiseti sang the so- called “ashlamar” songs such as: “Adem-aga sijene kosi, hoće curu da isprosi” (“poem of the plain”), “Titrala m’se djevojčica,” “Put putuje Latif-aga,” “Razbolje m’se Đerzeleze” and others. These songs are not much different from other songs. The Hiseti area is very famous for its singing. Natives of Hiseti would start a song, and the ones “from the other side,” from the right side of the Vrbas river, natives of Nostrani, would carry the song to the next(its other) strophe, and then the natives of Hiseti would bring it back home in the third one, thus competing who could sing louder and better. If that time was characterized by a lot of singing, that also means that a great deal of time and passion were put into maintaining social life which is evident from these rhymes: 
"Drugarice, rekla sam ti doci, al' ne mogu Hiseta proci od cošeta i od mušebaka, od momaka i od djevojaka, od krnice Ahmeta Halilice…"

19. VRBAS VODA NOSILA JABLANA

Vrbas voda nosila jablana,
Na jablanu kujundžija Mujo,
Na jablanu kujundžija Mujo.

"Kujundžija, tako ti tvog nama,
Skuj ti meni ašik momka mlada.
Uzmi urnek iz našeg džemata.

Sa ljepote Smail-efendije,
Sa visine age Edhem-age,
Sa dva bega dva Džinica mlada.

Sa ponosa bega Mustajbega,
Sa jordama bega Hasan-bega,
Skuj ti meni takvog momka mlada."

“These are the verses from a famous sevdalinka from Banja Luka which went through a transformation after the Second World War because there was no place for begs or agas in the media of that time. We cannot claim that these are original verses because there are no original verses of the old sevdalinka, there are only versions, but we would like to draw your attention to the beauty of this sevdalinka, to the manner in which the imagination of a girl creates her beloved and what he should look like.
The sigh, resulting from girls’ yearning and imagination is realized only in the realm of the unconscious, but with such intensity that it charges the song with emotionality intermingled with the facts of the real event. The realm of imagination deals only with the certain persons from certain environment.
The song “Kujundžija, tako ti tvog nama” whose title “Vrbas voda nosila jablana” is much more known to the public, and expresses an event in the life of a girl which is, in actuality, the echo of her yearning for the imaginary man who should havethe virtues of the best men from Banja Luka at that time: the handsomeness of Smail-effendi Ekić, the slim figure of Edhem-aga, the arrogance of Mustaj-beg and his brother Hasan-beg Džinić. These men really existed. Theespected hajji Himzaga Bahtijarević was the mayor of Banja Luka at the end of the XIX and the beginning of the XX century. He had a very nicely decorated house consisting of several storeyss and numerous premises. Edhem-aga Bahtijarević was one of his sons who were schooled in Vienna. Edhem-aga was very sociable and spent a great deal of his time with his peers. As some of them played musical instruments and sang, Bahtijarević’s house was a venue for very pleasant parties, especially on Friday nights. The girls, who would meet in the house across the street, listening to the playing of instruments and singing on their own, started fantasizing which led to the creation of this song.”
However, there was a widely accepted shorter version of this song:

Vrbas voda nosila jablana,
na jablanu kuje kujundžija:
"Kujundžija, tako ti zanata,
Skuj ti meni, od zlata junaka.
Nemoj plava, tako ti zanata,
Vec garava, k'o što sam i sama!"

20. U GRADIŠCI, NA OBALI SAVE

Haki-beg from this song is a famous Haki-beg Reufbegović of Bosanska Gradiška who is originally from Prijedor; he died in Golnik in Slovenija at the beginning of the Second World War. Haki-beg was so rich that he could have “taken a trip on his own horse through his own estate from Gradiška to the entrance of Banja Luka.” He had racing horses Grom and Munja with whom he participated in the horse races in Vienna and Budapest. Unfortunately, the only thing that remained from his vast riches is the memory contained in this beautiful folk song which was performed by the late Zaim Imamović.


21. PIVO PIJU AGE SARAJLIJE

The shorter version of this song is interpreted by the late Himzo Polovina.
One of the heroes of this song, Ibrahim Bajraktar nicknamed Pinjo, lived in the first half of the XIX century. In addition to this song, Bajraktar Pinjo is mentioned in some other folk songs such as “Pita Paša svoga terdžumana,” while Bosniak poetess Umihana Čuvidina mentions him in her 1813 poem “Sarajlije idu na vojnu protiv Srbije.” He participated in many conflicts in the first half of the XIX century. He was a representative of “Kolobara” which, at that time, was a meeting place for all the agas of Sarajevo. There is still a street in Bjelave with his name.
The famous Morić brothers are also mentioned in this song: Hajji Mehmed, also called Pašo, and Ibrahim, both subjects of one of the most beautiful Bosniak ballads. This ballad speaks about their tragic end, their March 1757 execution. The Morić brothers are subjects of many other folk songs. There are around 30 versions of the “Balada o Morićima” (“Ballad of the Morić brothers”).
Other family names mentioned in this song are famous family names originating in Sarajevo and also frequently mentioned in other folk songs, such as the Dženetić family. All the locations mentioned in this song still existing Sarajevo.

22. MAJKA FATU KROZ TRI GORE VIČE

Safvet-beg Bašagić left an interesting note about this excellent song:
“My father told me that when there was the first session of the Turkish parliament, Fehim effendi Đumišić invited to his place for dinner all the representatives from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Fehim effendi heard from someone that there was, at that time, in Istanbul a certain woman from Sarajevo who was an excellent singer. Aiming to entertain his guests in true Bosnian manner, he brought this singer to his house to entertain them. Hikmet,* who came over bringing his own friends, because he was wont to partying, was one of his guests. Everybody knew about Hikmet’s weakness and no one thought of it as a shortcoming. My late father said that he was observing Hikmet and his emotional state throughout the party. He was sitting calmly, which was rare for him, he was watching the show seriously and listening to it with a sort of a deep respect and childish enthusiasm. The girl from Sarajevo sang, among others, the following sevdalinka:
Upon hearing this, Hikmet jumped up and cried in exasperation: “My people are the greatest poets!” and then he started interpreting to the people the Arabic poetics of that love song. Everybody was amazed at everything that Hikmet saw in that song…” 

* Hikmet (Arif Hikmet-beg Rizvanbegović-Stočević) Bosnian poet who was writing in Turkish, died in 1903.

23. NA VRATNIKU POD ORAHOM

This song was written down by our prominent historian Muhamed Hadžijahić (1918-1986)
He says in his notes to this song that it was Derviša Svrzo whose last name when she married became Mašić, the one who Ahmed Sočo wanted to marry but she refused him, was the one who actually wrote this song. According to the legend, this song was written by Pandžo’s Ajiša who moved to Turkey at the end of the XIX century. 
“Pod orahom” (“Under the Oak Tree”) is the name of a street in Vratnik. 

24. NAŠA BOSNO, NAŠE VELIKO DOBRO

This song was written down in 1967 from Hatidža Sirćo of Mostar, a Bosnian immigrant living in the village of Jerdin in Turkey, by an author, linguist and folklorist Alija Nametak (1906-1987). Professor Nametak records a living connection between those who (forcibly) emigrated to Turkey and their homeland Bosnia and Herzegovina, emphasizing the fact that all these people still speak the Bosniak language (almost theentire villageof Jerdin is settled with Bosniaks from Herzegovina from Trebinje, Bileća, Gacko, Ljubuški, Mostar, etc. Even their representative in the Turkish parliament was a Bosniak). One Bosniak said the following to prof. Nametak: “Our children will not forget the Bosniak language until the end of time. We first teach them Bosniak, and then Turkish.”
Professor Nametak says that Hatidža Sirco, singing the verse from “Naša Bosno, naše vel’ko dobro” “sighed so deeply from the bottom of her soul that she gave me goosebumps.”
It should be mentioned at the end that the homonyms “adpazar” and “ćutahija” are Turkish, but that the song is obviously Bosnian. It is such a shame that no musical notation exists of this and other songs the late Nametak wrote down from our immigrants in Turkey.

25. POD SKOČIĆEM TRAVA POGAŽENA

This excellent sevdalinka is interpreted by saz artist and singer Selim Salihović from Janja in Bijeljina and Himzo Polovina. According to Salihović, this song commemorates Derviš-beg Begzadić who had the fastest race horses in northeastern Bosnia. This song was created by the girls from Dubrave near Tuzla during the horse races at their hippodrome. TheBegzadić family and its members were mentioned in several other folk songs (“U Gradačcu gradu bijelome,” “U Zvorniku, u malome gradu,” etc.).

26. U STAMBOLU, NA BOSFORU

This song was first recorded by sevdalinka connoisseur and actor Muhamed Ćejvan from Banja Luka who heard it for the first time from some engineer from Kakanj in 1928 who studied in Prague and who heard the version of this song there. The Czech version will, later on, be performed in Ćejvan’s interpretation and in the Bosnian language. This song is Turkish by origin. Edo Ljubić recorded this song in the USA in 1942. What is interesting is that there were many sevdalinkas, sung mainly by singers from outside Bosnia and Herzegovina, which were recorded in the USA during the period 1912-1942. Himzo Polovina was the best interpreter of this song in the period after the Second World War. This song is genuine proof that true art and quality know no borders.




Bibliography:

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