The bridge with the three arches

The bridge with the three arches (original title: Ura me tri harqe ) is a novel by the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare from 1978. The German first edition was published in 2005 by S. Fischer Verlag , Frankfurt am Main. It is one of the most famous works by the Albanian author.

action

The year is 1378 and a stone arch bridge is to be built on a river in Albania. But the construction work is repeatedly hampered by sabotage and the residents of the nearby village soon condemn the building as "the backbone of the devil". In their opinion, the spirits of "Evil Water," as the river is called, demand a sacrifice for the bridge. One morning a walled-in man is finally found in the bridge and construction work is successfully completed.

The story is told by the monk Gjon, named by Kadare after the famous priest Gjon Buzuku . It is a symbol of “Albanianism” and the Albanian resistance against the approaching Ottomans who threaten the homeland of Gjon.

Quotes

• Outside, two neighbors stood with dismayed expressions. They had red rims around their eyes. "What is it?" I asked. "What happened?" They put their hands around their throats as if to shake the words out. "At the bridge, Gjon ... under the first arch ... Murrash Zenebisha ... he was walled in." "That can't be!" (Chapter XXXVIII)
• Nobody went over the bridge. Not even the stupid Gjelosh. The cold winds swept over them, drove under the arches, then they too came to rest, and the bridge floated strange and useless in the air. The human footsteps that should have come towards her instead moved away from her, dodged back and forth, they looked for a ford, called in a broken voice for the ferryman, and would even have been willing to swim across the river the risk of being dragged down by eddies and drowning just to avoid setting foot on the bridge. Nobody wanted to pass over the dead person. (Chapter XLVII)
• Yesterday, when I was saying my evening prayer, it happened to me that instead of the words from the Holy Scriptures, "Let there be light!", I quite involuntarily said "Let there be Arberia!" As if Arberia no longer existed ... (Chapter LV)

reception

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung described the novel as "a medieval business thriller that is brilliantly written and exciting to read."

Thomas Kacza mentions that the subject matter and style are based on The Bridge over the Drina (1945) by Ivo Andrić . There is also "xenophobia" and "plenty of nationalistic glitz".

expenditure

• Ismail Kadare : The bridge with the three arches . 2nd Edition. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-596-15763-1 (Albanian: Ura me tri harqe . Translated by Joachim Röhm ).

Web links

• Review of the book on lyrikwelt.de
• Description on perlentaucher.de
• Review on reflectionsonkosovo.wordpress.com (English)

Single receipts

1. ↑ The bridge with the three arches, review . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , October 5, 2002, accessed on November 1, 2011.
2. ↑ Thomas Kacza: Ismail Kadare - revered and controversial . Private printing, Bad Salzuflen 2013 ( PDF ). PDF ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ^ Jean-Paul Champseix: Un pont dans la tourmente balkanique Ivo Andric 'et Ismaïl Kadaré . In: Revue de littérature comparée . n ° 305, no. 1 , 2003, p. 49-60 ( abstract ).