Sul Campo Del Mare - Vilenica

V2-2010.PM52656/13/100, 12:14 PMWhy My Name Is Marko(Excerpt)Goran VojnovićTranslator’s NoteThe language of Goran Vojnović’s debut novel Čefurji raus! (Southern Scum GoHome!) is an amalgam of Slovene and the Central South Slavic diasystem, comprisingthe Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian and Montenegrin languages. Due to the specificsocial atmosphere in Fužine, a neighborhood of Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana, inhabitedmostly by immigrants from the Balkan states, as well as the great similarity of itscomponents, the novel’s spontaneous language enters into the realms of both animmigrant sociolect as well as slang. Vojnović’s innovation in his pioneer and mostsuccessful attempt at putting down this living and breathing language, referred toas »čefurščina« or »fužinščina« (»the language of čefurs« or »the language of Fužine«),lies in slight lexical and syntactical changes, used in order to better illustrate theschizophrenic nature of the protagonist’s tale. Marko, a second-generation immigrant,is suffering because of the wearisome intrinsic racism of the dominant Sloveneculture and the inability to fully relate to his domestic, Bosnian-Serbian culture.His inner schism is best expressed in his flowing, unique language, where he alternatesbetween Slovene and Serbian, while at the same time makes extensive use ofthe vivid Fužine slang.* * *Ranka was born in Derventa but her fam then moved around Bosnia a lot.So she went to elementary school in Banja Luka and to a trade high schoolin Zenica. Then they moved to Visoko, where she then met Radovan, whowas on vacation, because my aunty Ružica got married to Milan. Ranka wasalso at the naptchials because her brother Dragiša was a friend of Milan.Radovan and Ranka got acquainted at this naptchials and then Radovancalled Slovenia and arranged to extend his leave a little. Fuck it, socialismand all. And he did for a few months and Ranka and he got married. Thenhe called Slovenia again to get his job back and they took him back. Hedidn’t want to stay in Visoko out of muleborm cause his pops Đorđe hadsent him to Slovenia so he decided to stay there even if he couldn’t grubanything. Ranka didn’t want to go at first but she changed her mind causeRadovan was nagging her so much. Then they came to Slovenia and lived ina one-room flat together with Almir and Enisa for half a year. Almir andRadovan worked together while Ranka and Enisa were like looking for ajob and found it in some TOZD 1 , in the accountancy, although they couldn’tcut the mastard. Socialist bull again. Radovan and Ranka then rented someroom in Šiška and decided to start a family there. In a rented room, some 90square feet. But Ranka had an abortion due to some complications and thenhad surgery at the hospital and then another one and some doctor Josip,who was from some island near Zadar, told Radovan that Ranka was nevergoing to be able to have children. And then they almost got divorced.Radovan was getting plastered and then he kept talking about having three1Basic Organization of Associated Labour265