About My Stay in the China and What Happened After That

All started when on 2012 I have been the guest of International Poetic Festival in Qinghai, the
Chinese province, which the director is excellent poet and the cultural workman, Jidi Majia.
About this festival Majia wrote: "From the beginning in 2007 only biennial festival, which is
intended for the poetry in the China, and the only cultural event on the shore of Qinghai Lake,
brightest jewelry in the cap Qinghai-Tibetan Plato, this festival brought on this hills best poets
and took ranking in that artistic form worldwide."

After it the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Publishing of co., Ltd., the agency
from the Beijing which represents of Jidi Majia, suggested to me translating from English and
publishing his collection of selected poems "Words of Fire" and the collection of essays and
speeches "In the Name of Land and Life" to Serbian language. It published in Literary Club
Brcko district of Bosnia and Herzegovina, first publisher which published these books in
countries of Ex Yugoslavia. For this year we plan, with collaboration that agency, publishing of
third book by Jidi Majia, which consists of his newer poems, essays and speeches.

The book "Words of Fire" was presented in 2014 on the Book Fair in Belgrade, the biggest
book fair in Balkan. That year China has been on this fair country guest of honor. On this
occasion I received the special diploma from the agency Foreign Language Teaching and
Research Publishing of co., ltd for the spreading of Chinese culture.

On 2012 I stayed, during September and October, in the Shanghai as guest writer in
residence of Shanghai Writers Society. After it I suggested to the Society that Literary Club
Brcko district of Bosnia and Herzegovina publishes the novel „The Elephant" their respectable
writer Chen Cun. I read that novel in Shanghai and I like it. I was amazed how that novel was
written in postmodern style. The novel is translated from English by my son Leontin from city
Osijek in Croatia, writer, translator and the professor of Croatian language. The club published it
by the grant of Chinese government as other books by Chinese writers.

After it is followed the third and largest project of translating and publishing in the Literary
Club - ten books of classic Chinese literatures. In this project we entered with mediation of the
agency China Intercontinental Press from the Beijing. From ten titles three novels, „Three
Kingdoms" by Luo Guanzhong, „The Dream in the Red Chamber" by Cao Xueqin and „The
Journey to the West" by Wu Chengen, are known long time ago in our area, but they has not
been translated. It is known also for the book „The Art of War" by Sun Tzu, which was
translated into Croatian and Serbian, and we published in this edition a study about it by Guo
Wenping and Zhong Shaoi. Much fewer known, although very popular in China, is the novel
„Outlaws from the Marsh" by Shi Naian. We know, over movie by Tsui Hark for the judge Di,
Chinese Sherlock Holmes. We first time publish translating on Serbian one of novels about him,
which is written in English by Dutch sinologist Hans van Gulik. The rest of four titles are
novelized librettos of four famous Chinese operas – „Palace of Eternal Youth" (the author of
librettos is Hong Sheng), „The Pavilion of Peonies" (the author is Tang Xianzu), „The Romance
of the Western Chamber "(the author is Kong Shangren) and „Peach Blossom Fan" (the author is
Kong Shangren), which all novelized by Teng Jianmin. These mentioned three classic novels,
because of their large, are published shortened. The novel „Three Kingdoms" (adapted by Wang
Guozhen) are written in more than thousand pages and I read it partially on Russian. The novel
"Dream of Red Chamber" is also adapted by Wang Guozhen, and the novel „ The Yourney to the
West" is adapted by Yun-Chong Pan. First five books from this series was been published in
2016, and others five will be published on this year.

The Chinese literature is very important and classic Chinese literary pieces also today
could be read with interest and these are the source of wisdom as well as Chinese fairy tales. But
literary pieces by contemporary Chinese writers are also interesting and frequently seem
amazingly modern. Such is the short novel „The Elephant" by Chen Cun and poems by Tianxin
Cai. Also we published the collection of selected poems "Echoes of Heart" by Ma Kai, which has
been written more in the traditional style.

I had a good occasion that on the festival in Qinghai I was recommended by Gao Xing,
poet, translator and the editor of Chinese literary magazine for the world literature "Word",
which was guest on the oldest literary festival in the Bosnia and Herzegovina - Sarajevo days.

For the writers residence in the Shanghai told me poet Tianxin Cai. I applied for it and
passed as first writer from the area of former Yugoslavia. My impressions about the Shanghai
are excellent. A lot of marvelous I saw and found out there. In the Shanghai I completed my
novel „The Snake from the East", which first time published in Rijeka (Croatia) on 2004, and I
expect publishing of second edition (twice longer than first edition) this year in Tuzla (Bosnia
and Herzegovina). Electronic edition of that novel is published in Novi Sad (Serbia) on 2016.
The plot of the novel takes place partially in Rijeka (where I lived from 1999 to 2006), partially
in Berlin (where I lived several months during 1996), and partially in the Shanghai and that part
is in the second edition got the much more space than in the first one. If I had not been the writer
in residence in Shanghai I could not neither extend my novel.
 Translators of the series of books of Chinese classics are, besides me, also from Brcko -
Ernad Osmic (which worked on the design of some of those books) and Jovana Maric. Other
from Bosnia and Herzegovina are Lidija Pavlovic Grgic and Mirko Bozic. Two books are
translated by my son Leontin from Osijek (Croatia), and other translators are from Serbia: Mila
Gavrilovic, Filip Mujkovic and the Snjezana Djukanovic.

So the Literary club Brcko district of Bosnia and Herzegovina becomes publisher which
published the most of books by Chinese authors in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is unknown that
in the small town Brcko on 1978 have been kept festival of Chinese culture when I was pupil of
grammar school there. I remember that on this occasion there appeared the first translator from
Chinese language in former Yugoslavia, Josip Sever, also known as poet which is early died.
That happen I mentioned in my novel "The Snake from the East".

The Literary club Brcko district of Bosnia and Herzegovina published the collection of
selected poems by Tianxin Cai, "Wings of Remembering", on 2014 in my translation from
English. In area of ex Yugoslavia first time was published in Zagreb the collection of selected
poems by Cai "On Edge of a Water". His poems from French to Croatian are translated by
Tomislav Dretar, poet and translator of Bosnian origin, which lives in Belgium. I was editor of
that book and I wrote the afterword and translated from English several Cai's essays. Cai is great,
modern poet, university professor of mathematics and the globe-trotter. He travelled around the
hundred of countries on all continents, as well as all countries of former Yugoslavia and
published travel books on Chinese. When I stayed on September of 2012 in the wonderful city
Hanghzou, the former capital of imperial China, it was in time of cultural festival. In that city
Cai lives and works. At that time he has not been there, but I met him in Hangzhou on October
that year, again in Baghdad, on the festival of Arab countries on 2014 and in Moscow 2016
where I started my postgraduate study of Russian literature.

Of course I want come again in marvelous China. In the end I would quote the words of
famous writer Arthur Clarke, which referred to the Sri Lanka, and I would equally say it for the
China – the place "where I climb on the altar of gods."

Zarko Milenic, Moscow, March 2017