The Bridge on the Drina

Around this time, other monumental events come to define life in Višegrad. One such event involved the Osmanagić family; their large size meant that they had branches of the family in the nearby village of Velje Lug and the town itself. The head of the house is Avdaga Osmanagić, a big man who suffers from asthma and who is “generous and brave” (105). Avdaga is well-respected in the market; he has five sons and a daughter named Fata, a girl of exceptional beauty whose marriage becomes a topic of discussion in the community. All of Fata’s suitors are rejected, creating around her “an enchanted circle, made of hatred and envy” (105).

Across the valley from the village of Velje Lug is the village of Nezuke, in which half of the land is owned by the Hamzić brothers. The head of the Hamzić family is Mustajbeg, who owns the largest house in Nezuke and has four daughters and one son, named Nail. For years, Nail has “admired [Fata’s] beauty” (107) but she has rejected him. Eventually, the matter comes under the purview of Mustajbeg, who goes to Avdaga and they arrange the marriage between their son and daughter. The marriage is seen as a “downfall and humiliation” (108) for Fata, due to her previous rejection of Nail. Gossip spreads through the town as wedding preparations are made. Fata prepares, even though she believes that she will never “see Nezuke” (109). She sits up late, contemplating existence and hears her father suffering from his asthma. She is determined to find a means of escape. Obsessing over what to do, she thinks of the bridge.

The day of the wedding arrives. Fata is led into town beneath a “heavy new black veil” (111). The marriage is announced in the courthouse, keeping her father’s word, then they head to Nezuke for the ceremony. However, when they cross the bridge, Fata throws herself from her horse into the Drina. Her body washes ashore the next day, where she is found by Salko Ćorkan and two fishermen. She is buried near Velje Lug. That night, the men in the taverns pester Salko to hear of the beautiful girl’s naked body when it washed ashore, but he stays silent. Avdaga never comes down to the town again; he dies the following winter “without speaking a word to anyone of the sorrow that had killed him” (113). Nail marries another girl. Most people forget about Fata, though the songs about her “beauty and wisdom shone above the world as if [they] were immortal” (113). 

Another Serbian insurrection breaks out. Houses on both sides are burned. Decapitated heads of Serbians begin to appear again on the bridge. Even after peace is agreed, it is uneasy, with many rumors of the Austrian army invading Bosnia. The mufti struggles to motivate the people of Višegrad to fight. The most resistant is Alihodja Muteveli­ć—a descendent of Dauthodja, the keeper of the caravanserai—who loathes “the foreign Christian power and all that it would bring” (115) but believes a fight against the Austrians would only bring suffering to the people of Višegrad. The Višegrad Turks meet on the kapia and discuss the potential for war. The mufti’s assistant, Osman Effendi, becomes annoyed by the local reticence, eventually only giving one answer: “the time has come to die” (116). Alihodja retorts that “we too know how to die, Effendi, even without your assistance” (117). The discussion degenerates into bitter arguments. The mufti and his men depart for Sarajevo.

News comes that the Austrians have invaded Sarajevo. The “routed Turkish bands” (117) are crushed and stragglers begin to appear in the town. Some begin to try to fortify Višegrad, even though Bosnia has already fallen. Among them is Osman Effendi, against whose furious anger Alihodja is the only man able to stand up. Though Alihodja tries to reason with Osman, it has no effect. Osman tries to raise a new force, wielding local folk lore to prove his point. When this too fails, he turns his anger onto Alihodja and threatens to “nail the obstinate hodja to the kapia” (120).

The Austrians arrive and make short work of the soldiers. In the confusion and chaos, Osman follows through on his threat. Alihodja is nailed by his ear to an “oak beam wedged between two stone steps on the kapia” (120). As the Austrians march into town, the people hide and leave Alihodja nailed to the beam. The already-ruined caravanserai is damaged by canon fire. The Austrians remove the nail from Alihodja’s ear and put up a notice in the local languages. The notice proclaims that a Council of Nations has decided that Austria-Hungary will take control of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The words pain Alihodja, who sees the proclamation as cutting in half the bridge “like a silent explosion” (124). 

Official Austrian occupation begins the next day. The town is silent and the streets are empty. The leaders of the community are summoned to meet with the Austrian commandant on the kapia. When the commandant is late, the leaders sit down on the bridge “as they had done when they were young and carefree” (125). Pop Nikola, the Christian priest, is the oldest. His father had been executed on the bridge by Turks but Nikola is calm in his old age. He is respected by everyone in the town; they all call him ‘grandad’ and greet him in the street, regardless of religion. His one regret is that he is childless but he never complains. The Turkish cleric, Mula Ibrahim, is “not much younger” (127) than Nikola. He has a stutter and is known for “his goodness and generosity” (127). Hussein Effendi is the local schoolmaster, considered the most learned man in the town, though he has a very high opinion of himself. David Levi is the local rabbi; he is “timid and silent” (129) and does not cope well with speaking in public. All four wait on the bridge.

The rabbi and the schoolmaster seem scared; all agree that Nikola should handle the introduction. The close friendship of Ibrahim and Nikola is the stuff of local legend. A messenger announces the commandant’s imminent arrival. It is the first time that they have seen “the real ‘power and force’ of an Empire” (131). Once he dismounts, the Austrian colonel seems to be an “undistinguished, overtired, unpleasant and aggressive man” (132). Nikola begins to speak to him through a translator. After barely listening, the Austrian curtly agrees and then begins to walk along the bridge, ignoring the other men. Deflated and consumed, they return to their people to assure them that everything will be well. Nikola sits down in his house and thinks about the Austrian colonel, hearing a bugle sound in the distance. 

Life continues in the town, seeming “essentially unchanged” (135). Soldiers are everywhere, taking up so much space on the kapia that locals no longer spend as much time on the bridge. When the soldiers leave, they are replaced by bureaucrats and artisans from across the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Their commitment to hard work astonishes the locals, as does the way they document everything. More regulations are instituted, though the townspeople live and work “as they had always done” (137).

Shemsibeg Branković embodies “the struggle between the old and the new” (137). One of the town’s richest men and head of a small family, Shemsibeg refuses to acknowledge the occupation. Other Turks vent their bitterness regarding the newcomers to Shemsibeg but he remains silent. Not wanting to see any evidence of the Austrians’ presence, he eventually stops going into the town and the other Turks begin to regard him “as a sort of living saint” (139). He dies in the third year of the occupation.

Renovations and rebuilding work change the appearance of the town. The older townspeople regard “this unhealthy activity as a bad omen” (139). One day, they begin work on the ruined caravanserai, tearing it down and building an ugly barracks instead. Streetlighting is introduced, even on the bridge and the kapia. Those who resent this occasionally smash the lanterns. Once a year, on the Emperor’s birthday, the bridge experiences a “great illumination” (142). Women also begin to come to the kapia for the first time. The Austrian women are “a cause of scandal to all, some more some less” (143). Despite all these changes, the bridge seems to have “remained unchanged” (143). 

Life on the kapia becomes “even livelier and more varied” (144). Some people, like Milan Glasičanin, choose to ignore those on the kapia. Milan’s family arrived in the town at the height of the Serbian insurrection with a supposed great fortune. Milan, however, has had troubles with gambling. Some 14 years before, he plays cards with a stranger in an inn and loses money. When Milan stops going to the inn, the stranger seeks him out and they go to sit on the kapia. They play cards on the bridge. Soon, Milan runs out of money. On the stranger’s suggestion, Milan gets more and they continue playing. He does this again and somehow begins to win. Before long, however, he has lost all of his money.

The stranger proposes that they raise the stakes to “cattle, land and property” (148). Milan cannot help but play. He loses everything. The stranger makes one final proposal: “I will wage all that I have gained tonight and you your life” (149). If Milan loses, he must throw himself from the bridge. They play. Milan loses. In a moment of clarity, Milan realizes that he has lost everything. A cock crows. A sudden gust forces Milan to close his eyes. When he opens them, the stranger is gone. Milan walks home and spends the next two months in a fever. When he recovers, he is a changed man. He becomes a serious man and forsakes gambling. His story spreads through the town. The day after Milan’s fateful game, a young Jewish boy finds a golden ducat between the stones on the kapia. He takes it to the inn and gambles for the first time; he wins, turning one ducat into four. Within months, he has become “a gambler and a vagabond” (153). He leaves town and is never heard from again.