Nobel winner Handke misses Serbia: "Paris is sad, I'll be having wine next to Morava River in July"

"I would like to see the Danube and the Morava. Just to sit and look at the river. And to drink a glass of Serbian wine."

That's how Nobel Prize winner Peter Handke talks about his intentions and aspirations these days. There is every chance that his wish will soon come true. Emergency measures are slowly being lifted. The decision to reopen European borders in mid-June is expected with great hopes. Just in time for the Brussels decision to coincide with the writer's plans, the daily Novosti writes.

"I'm thinking of going to Serbia for a while, at the end of June, maybe, or at the beginning of July. My trip will be organized by my friends," reveals Handke.

And, some higher thoughts and sublime variations on the same theme.

"I would like to be elsewhere, but not to travel!"

Still, it's nice to travel. For now, the easiest way around Europe is on a bus. And the longest. The planes are still reluctant.

"My friends from Salzburg go to Belgrade by road. I would love to do that, too. But, years have caught up with me. It's a long trip."

He will take the plane.

It's interesting by car. It's exciting when landscapes pass and the destination is slowly getting nearer. The goal is slowly materializing. As soon as he enters Slovenia of his origin, everything becomes domestic. The smell of the former Yugoslavia.

"Well put!"

Until now, ever since the scourge of coronavirus locked us up, he's only managed to travel to Paris, some 15 kilometers away. With a mask, using transport.

"I went the other day, for the first time in two months. Paris is sad. I arrived around eight o'clock in the evening. There was nowhere to go. Even the parks were closed and the benches inaccessible. The whole thing is disappointing."

Everyone in the Paris region is still under a special regime. The virus is buzzing around us. The parks were only unlocked this weekend, restaurant gardens open on Tuesday. The capital is slowly waking up.

"Here in Chaville we can at least go to the forest" - the morning star looked own on him in his regular activities.

When Handke asks you how you're doing, and you answer, good - he may surprise you by asking you to explain why you are good. Really, how are we?

"I'm fine," Handke explains his condition precisely. "I'm looking at swallows in the sky."

And asks immediately:

"How do you say 'swallow' in Serbian?"

Then he quickly remembers, and answers his own question:

"Lastavice!"

He still remembers Slovenian.

It's hard to have this conversation with the song of the birds in the background.

"Those are blackbirds. There are a lot of them here."

Their song overpowers the words of a Nobel laureate.

"What a racket these birds are making!," he says, joyful in his paradise-like environment.

For now, that's the most that can be obtained from the earthly life.

"I'm going back to being lazy!"

This coronavirus is no good for the pen, either.

"I don't want to find refuge in writing. Writing, after all, must be a need that comes from within."

It was nice to meet. But, on another occasion. Distance is still the main word in the modern Parisian dictionary. That glass of wine will, after all, happen in Belgrade.

"We will celebrate non-stop!"

See you soon, in the Serbian language.

(Telegraf.rs)