Odisejevo utočište - Bibliotok / Library Island

Projekt "Ulysses'Shelter" je u svojem drugom ciklusu (2019.-2022.) okupio tridesetak pjesnika, pisaca i prevoditelja iz pet zemalja: Grčke, Slovenije, Srbije, Ujedinjenog Kraljevstva i Hrvatske. Od pet ponuđenih književnih rezidencija (Larissa, Ljubljana, Beograd, Canaveron i Mljet), njih je dvanaestero odabralo Mljet. Prvi su došli prije početka pandemije koronavirusa, neke je početak pandemije zatekao baš na otoku, a neki su se odvažili putovati već nakon prvog vala, iako je otok tijekom cijele pandemije bio relativno siguran, a sama rezidencija na lokalitetu Kulijer nalazi se doslovno u izolaciji od ostatka civilizacije, na sjevernom vrhu otoka, u srcu Nacionalnog parka Mljet, koji je partnerski podržao projekt dolaska mladih književnika od samog početka. Neki od tekstova pred vama i napisani su na Mljetu, ali svima im je zajednička želja za slobodom i istraživanjem književnih pejzaža, što ovu knjigu čini svježim daškom vjetra s mora, za koji pak nikad ne znate kada će se pretvoriti u orkan.

A group of young poets found itself in a shipwreck of hope, crashing against the cliffs of deep crisis and warmongering of world powers. The poets jumped ship, diving into the stormy seas, but since it was a rainy night and the waves were high, they couldn’t tell how very far they were from the coast. The only way they could stick together was by shouting encouragement at each other. They finally spotted the dark silhouette of the steep and wooded shores of an island. It looked entirely inhospitable. Still, they reached the shore and managed to climb up onto the rocky land.

Each of them had only brought along the poems and stories they could narrate. They often said them aloud in order to keep them in memory, each in their own language. And thus they said of themselves that, together with the island, they formed a library - a Library Island. The shelves of that library were the island’s woods, paths, olive groves, fields, rocks and bays, and the books resting on those shelves were the poets, writers and translators who write there, translate and plot their return to the World.