Serbs know Iran mostly for its cinema

1397/02/19-18:14

Serbian writer and journalist Muharem Bazdulj Said in an Interview at the 31st Tehran International Book Fair that the people of his country know Iran rather for its films rather than books.

As a special guest of the 31st Tehran International Book Fair (TIBF), the celebrated Serbian writer regarded the participation of his country as the guest of honor of this event very constructive and a reasonable beginning for boosting cultural ties between the two countries.

Born in 1977, Bazdulj is one of the leading writers of the younger generation to appear in the countries of the former Yugoslavia. He writes in a wide variety of genres, including novels, short stories, poetry, and essays; he is also active as a journalist and a translator.

He said that in his first visit to TIBF is so impressed by the extent of this event, the number of visitors and the variety of Iranian publishers. 

“My visit to Iran and TIBF was so valuable and here I met many Iranian writers and publishers and coordination for the translation of two books by me into Persian has been handled,” Serbian author said.

Bazdulj works which have been translated into 10 languages. He expressed his hope about debt cultural interaction between the two countries of Iran and Serbia will be strengthened, and felt sorry that until now only two books have been translated from Serbian to Persian.

Speaking on the book market and readership in his country, the Serbian author stated: “Although we have only 7 million people, all people are so interested in book reading especially in the field of literature. One can see the extent of such enthusiasm in Belgrade Book Fair which is held annually in October.”

Referring to the participation of Iran as the guest of honor in Belgrade Book Fair two years ago, he pointed out that the culture ministers of Iran and Serbia have stressed on developing cultural relations.

“Unfortunately works translated from Persian to Serbian are limited to the Iranian classic literature and we don’t have any book of contemporary Persian literature in Serbian,” Bazdulj said. 

Expressing his interest in translating books from Iranian writers and poets into Serbian, he added “The Iranians are so good in book illustration and layout. They have translated numerous works from the western languages into Persian; however, the West does not have a positive attitude toward Iran,”

“I’m so interested to attend the next edition of Tehran Book Fair, so I hope to achieve this goal with one of my books translated into Persian, and I wish generally that more Serbian books will be released in your language,” Bazdulj added.

به ما بپیوندید: