Hotel Bregava

Ugljen in God

Almin Kaplan, 8 November 2018

It is such a house that, when man enters it, it enters him at the same time.
And then the man is a church in the church.
Jergović

When I tell people where I come from
From Dubrave near Stolac, well
People almost always, when hearing the word Stolac
Ask me if Ugljen's hotel is still alive, a little bit at least

Hardly, I tell them, but it is alive and it always quivers
The finger of my pal Igor, when we are close to its walls
Unlike me – you know - he remembers it
There it is, Igor tells me. But he can't explain it.

Out of all, several wooden objects have survived
I have one; there it is, in my house
You know – that is Zlatko Ugljen’s total design:
Guests gather around it like flies around the Bethlehem light

Nothing special, a wooden vessel that serves for nothing
Except for one purpose – to give nobility to the void
And you know what else - to let silence toss its dust into it
So, it is still alive, the Ugljen's hotel

And, at times, it quivers in the finger of my pal Igor
He used to enter the hotel and the hotel is now in him
In the bramble, alongside the Bregava River, distant both in God and in time.