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Joseph Hitrec (translation) “The Pasha’s Concubine” (1931) is the story of a young girl who catches the eye of a Turkish army officer and is summoned to his house. She appeals to him because of her extreme youth – she is not quite sixteen and the reason he gives for finding this stage attractive establishes one of the themes of the story: “This is the right moment in her life. She was separated from her family, frightened, alone, dependent entirely on him. From time to time she seemed to him like a little animal, which, driven against a cliff, stared at him wide-eyed aand trembling.” The woman’s vulnerability acts as a provocation, a magnet drawing the stronger element by logic of its own. In the story the concubine herself are woven two further tales of victimization of woman, so that together they form a complete statement of the plight of woman as an innocent victim. The theme of the pursuit of a wild animal is developed in the subsidiary account of the rape of a ten-year-old, lured out of town by two youths with a promise of sugar. And in the household where Mara ends her days one of the women has a violent husband who has beaten her regularly since their wedding night. The story of Mara the concubine is developed, as is that of Mustafa Magyar, in such a way as to make them not only vivid individuals in specific circumstances, but also in a way archetypal.
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THE PASHA'S CONCUBINE AND OTHER TALES BY IVO ' ANDRIC The Pasha's Concubine and Other Tales (1968) The Woman from Sarajevo (1965) Bosnian Chronicle (1963) THESE ARE BORZOI BOOKS PUBLISHED IN NEW YORK BY ALFRED A. KNOPF T HE PASHA'S CONCUBINE AND OTHER TALES by lvo Andric Translated from the Serbo-Croatian by Joseph Hitrec NEW YORK: ALFRED 1 9 6 8 ' A '· KNOPF THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 67-111J7 First American Edition Copyright © 1962, 1968 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Distributed by Random House, Inc., New York. Manufactured in the United States of America "The Scythe" was first published in Esquire Magazine. Originally published in Serbo-Croatian as part of the twelve-volume Sabrana djela lve Andric11 (The Collected Works of lvo Andric), Mladost, Zagreb, 1¢3. Note on the Pronunciation of South Slavic Names Phonetic English transliteration of Slavic names-serviceable in the case of the Russians-does not work quite as well with South Slavic names, which are often built in groupings of velars, rolled r's, sibilants of varying hardness, and fixed vowel sounds. Applied with any consistency, this method would yield gargoyles such as Cherkhlintse and Kowkdzhich, for Cerklince and KaukdZ.ic. It seemed better, therefore, to leave them as they are in the original and to trust the visual memory of the reader to keep them in context as he goes along-as doubtless he often does with French, German, and Scandinavian names. For those, however, who would not be fobbed off, here are a few rules of thumb: the Serbo-Croatian a is sounded as in father (never as in fare, fall, fan). E as in there (not here, or herd). I as in seek (not ice, or bird). 0 as in more (not move, mode, or Mom). U as in true (not tune, or thumb). C ts, as in bats. C is always the hard ch, as in chin. is always C is a softer ch, as in Italian ciao. Dj is the English Dz is similar but harder, as in budge. v <