Collected Works:
FIRST DAY
ESSAY ON GOD
On Relativity and Symmetry Regarding the Death of Grandpa John
POLITICS, BREAD AND BOOKS
PHILOSOPHY AND BELIEF
Introduction to the Thought of Contradictory Whole
FIFTY YEARS TO THE WAR
Six Stories of Socialism from a Personal Point of View
THE PATTERN AND KANT
Six Stories of Human Nature from our Point of View
THE KISS
THE STORY ABOUT FATHER AND FATHERLAND
THE LITERARY AUTOBIOGRAPHY
THE FOUR SEASONS
Mister X's Ode of Joy
THE OTHER LONG DAYS
The Detective Documentary Story in Witch Also the Author Might Be Killed
Copyright © Milan Nesic
Milan Nesic
Through Socialism to War
THE HOLY TRINITY
Therefore, here we are at last!
Face to face with God himself, with that infinitely impartial YES with which everything begins in trust and joy; face to face with that unrelentingly just NO before which all and young trembles in fear; that exalted and wise BOTH YES — AND NO in which all that is powerful and all that is weak finds finally its peace. That is our Hope, our Fear, our God, that trinity of the
THESIS: In the Universe, there is no reason for anything specific and determinate...
ANTITHESIS: The All-Encompassing possibility as an infinite set of all Something is the only manner of existence of Nothing...
SYNTHESIS: In the Universe, there is no reason for anything specific and determinate except that the specific and determinate nonetheless must exist...
And that is all that is for us: faced with the cognition of the only original cradle and original cover, we stand on an equal footing with all stars in the sky, on a completely equitable footing with all the cosmos that will go on when we are gone, and our bodies mutely and of their own volition bow deeply in awe and admiration. We seem to be kissing the robe of the sun itself, we are brimming with the feeling of might and truth. And suddenly we live the thousand fold life of all those blinking stars in the black sky. We know all that they know, we remember all that they remember. At long last we have the key. And like our Grandpa John in whom life faded and God was born, we hold it tightly, as our last amulet. With it we enter all mysteries of Nothing. We can grasp everything, we can understand, explain everything. We follow trustingly and unhesitatingly the age‑old path of our ancestors. And in this world full of uncertainty and pain, we suddenly feel strong enough to persist. Even to swear that we believe! Wherever we get, there will be truth behind us. Our truth, the truth of all our forebears. The age‑old truth! And we make another deep bow filled to the brim with gratitude and bliss. A thought is born in us: we shell erect a monument to Grandma Nata as straight and simple as she herself was. A chunk of granite and nothing else. It will read only: God had no special reason for her existence — and yet she lived and gave birth. With gratitude Her Grand‑Daughter Natalie.
(From ESSAY ON GOD,
Translated by Miroslava Jankovic)