Western Balkans: Building Linguistic Bridges

Often, reports about wars focus on battle sites or the number of victims. The personal stories of those living in the midst of conflict are frequently overlooked. Yet, these very stories – about love and support, fear during air raids, or birthdays interrupted by bombings – offer insights into the human side of war.

The book "The Moment I Knew War Started", a project by the Serbian office of forumZFD from 2022, tells such stories. In 27 narratives, authors from the post-Yugoslav region share their experiences from that time and the moments when they realized the full extent of the conflict. The book was later translated into Albanian and expanded with three additional contributions by Kosovar-Albanian authors.

In 2023, the translation and cultural exchange project “A Lot of News from the East” was launched, initiated by the universities of Halle, Nikšić, and Novi Sad: For over a year, students from Germany, Montenegro, and Serbia worked on translating selected stories from the book into German and English. After an initial round of translations, the participants met for a week to exchange cultural insights and refine the texts together. Additionally, the stories were recorded in audio format, making them accessible for listening as well as reading.

This project vividly demonstrates how literature can offer new perspectives on issues like war and peace, and promote understanding between different cultures. The stories reveal the war through the eyes of children and adolescents: unfiltered, shifting through time, leaving a lingering feeling of fear and uncertainty.

One example is the story by Boris Mandić, “Ja volim sve” from 2022, translated by Julian Wörfel:

in our village there were many people in uniforms with guns even my dad had a gun and I liked looking at it but dad wouldn’t let me hold it to play war with the other kids I went out to the street to the playground and then the bombs started falling everywhere everyone ran away and I was left alone I was scared and wanted to go to my mom a woman pulled me into the bunker and there I saw my grandma and she hugged me and held me really tight

Stories like these shift the focus away from political events and towards the universal aspects of humanity. As one of the project participants summarized: "When we put aside ideological differences and political agendas, our lives revolve around the same human things: good food and drinks, fun and games with friends, the stress of school or work, and sharing pictures of our beloved pets." At a time when nationalist movements are on the rise again in the Western Balkans, these young people are sending an important signal for understanding and humanity.