Ćamil Sijarić

Ćamil Sijarić
Born	18 December 1913 Bijelo Polje, Kingdom of Montenegro
Died	6 December 1989 (aged 75) Sarajevo, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia
Occupation	Novelist

Ćamil Sijarić (18 December 1913 – 6 December 1989) was a Yugoslav novelist and short story writer. He enrolled in law school in 1936 and earned his degree four years later. Sijarić died in a car crash at the age of 75.

Life

He was born in Šipovice, near Bijelo Polje, in the Kingdom of Montenegro, to Muslim (Bosniak) parents. Both of his parents died while he was a child.^[1] Sijarić enrolled in the University of Belgrade's Law School and earned his degree in 1940. He was both a member of Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts, and Academy of Arts and Sciencies of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He spent most of his life in Skopje, Belgrade and later, Sarajevo, where he died in a car accident in 1989. However, almost all his major works are about Montenegro and the Bihor region around Bijelo Polje. His works have been translated in more than a dozen languages, including Russian, German and French.^[2]

Sijarić perished in a car crash in Sarajevo, shortly before his 76th birthday in December 1989.^[3]

Not long before his death, Sijarić wrote a poem called Znam (I Know), which appears to show him foreshadowing his own death:

Znam	I Know
Znam da se u ovu kasnu jesen U prekasnu jesen na Šipovicama šipci crvene. Da hoće vjetar bar malo – bar malo, njihove boje nanijeti na mene, na ruke, na lice - jer vidim da se ove jeseni posljednji put za mene crvene šipci iz Šipovica	I know that in this late autumn in this very late autumn in Šipovica, the rose hips redden If only the wind would - even a little Spread their colors over me on my hands, on my face - For I see that this autumn the rose hips in Šipovica will redden for me for the last time

Bibliography

Some of his most important works are

• Ram-Bulja (stories, 1953)
• Bihorci (novel, 1955)
• Mojkovacka bitka ("The Battle of Mojkovac", novel, 1968)
• Sablja (stories, 1969)
• Konak (novel, 1971)
• Carska vojska ("Imperial Army", novel, 1976)
• Francuski pamuk ("French Cotton", stories, 1980)

References

1. "Uz stogodišnjicu rođenja Ćamila Sijarića: Bihorske tišine majstora priče". Pobjeda. 2 November 2013. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
2. "Ćamil Sijarić - Biography". Camo Ceha. Retrieved 13 May 2012.
3. "Ćamil Sijarić, prognanik". Radio Sarajevo. 24 December 2012. Retrieved 6 June 2014.