THE DANUBE WEREWOLF
Modern, postmodern and after-postmodern, novel by Nikola Kitanovic (You can read here part of this novel)
Nikola Kitanovic present part from his novel The Danube Werewolf, modern novel, postmodern novel, after postmodern novel, werewolf, warriors of the light, fiction, angels and more
Radovan heard Ivans's call. When he appeared in the yard, the animals licking his feet. An animal also has a soul - a small one, but at least a soul. Have you seen a approached him, puppy holding onto his mother? Can it do such a thing without a soul? Without love? You love your children, and so do animals love theirs. You can feel pain, and an animal, fear of pain. It' not a sin to eat meat, but those who don't eat meat ennoble their souls, their natures and their friends. An animal is not meant for bothering - this is just an excuse for destroying nature - but for life itself. Animals should live. We must left them live.
A wise man learns equally from books and from nature. The Danube, a plum flower, a simple need can teach us something. This is not simply the administration of nature but a real lesson. Have you noticed how silently plum petals fall, without a scream or a cry? How white the ground looks from the soft leftovers of perfection? The balance is not ruined, when a thousand blossoms die. The beauty remains, the air is clear, and refreshing, as if it contained the infinite existence of the world. Are you sad when you step into garden with a thousand white petals on the ground? Of course not; their appearance erases your sadness. You enjoy the scenery and beauty even though so much death surrounds you. It surely is useful to learn not only for experience, books or formulas, but also from plum petals.
Air, a splendid silence falling on plants and ground as if it where the basic meaning of everything that exists, is the invisible, or what links us to the invisible. Where is the beginning or end to my father the wind or my mother the storm? There is no beginning, no ending, to that streaming thorough the chest, thorough the ennobled soul. The wind teaches you inside that there is neither birth nor death, there is only changing of the seasons, high and low tide; everything is in motion from one to the other. What can you learn from summer shower? Fresh water pours from the sky to the hot ground, lasts for but a while, and then the sun comes again. What is the cause of this? Does it make sense? Thirsty plants celebrate every drop of that fresh water. The air around us becomes filled with joy and optimism - as if we have just remembered something - when? Maybe before we were born? I don't know. But the water is here - without any sense of cause, pleasant and important. There is no difference between a summer shower and poetry. If the water here has no meaning, no cause, it is the more pleasurable and necessary. If we learn poetry from summer shower and poetry itself gives meaning to nature, appearance must be then "half way" between those two things - it is the spot where rain transforms into poetry and poetry into rain. Transformation happens in our very own private place which is our soul.
The soul is the spot where natural laws cross with our desire to create. Our ideals are within us and not outside us, so ideal expression is possible only within us, when we direct our creativity towards the knowledge of nature. When an artist claims he has expressed his true self in a work of art, he is close to the truth.
Ivan was looking at Radovan's calm face, thinking how he really didn't know him, that he was a stranger. It sometimes happens that when we look at a friend's face, that face looks unfamiliar, unknown. Sometimes, even a mother's face looks the same way. Only a child is never a stranger to his own mother.
- You've changed.
Ivan needed courage to say that, fearing that Radovan would laugh at him, or notice his uneasiness.
- Maybe.
- Perhaps the heat has something to do with it, or... something has happened to you tonight... you seem so different.
- The way one looks is usually deceptive.
- Why do you say that?
- It is relevant just now.
- You confusing me again.
- No, it meant nothing more than that.
- You've been posing puzzles all night.
- Could be. But no, it's just your imagination. The heat got to your head. let's go inside. You might cool down.
They went in silently. Radovan made no sound. he walked slowly, in harmony with surroundings. Ivan was confused by the silence, the harmony, the peace. He was very anxious to see what would happen next:
- Do you know what bothers me about you?
- What?
Silence.
TRANSLATED BY: Aleksandra Spalevic, TRANSLATION POLISHED BY: Deryn P. Verity, PROOFREADER Olivera Zurovac
