Message from a country

Provokingly somebody asks
Who, what, where is, excuse me
How is that Bosnia
Tell me

And promptly comes the answer
There was, forgive me, a land
Bosnia
Poor and arid
Cold and chilly
And moreover

Forgive me
Proud
And full of dreams.

© Mak Dizdar (Bosnia- Herzegovina)

From "The Stonesleeper”
Translated by Robert Stallaerts – Germain Droogenbroodt

 

Mehmedalija Dizdar was born on the 17th October 1917, in Stolac, Herzegovina. At fifteen, he won the state literary prize "Cvijeta Zuzoria" which paved his way into literary circles. At eighteen, he started working as a professional journalist and had his first collection of poems published entitled Vidovopoljska noa (The Night of Vidovopolje). The book came out substantially censured by the police. Towards the end of the Second World War he was forced to go underground. This caused the family tragedy. Unable to capture the poet or his elder brother they arrested his mother and sister, to be taken to the concentration camp Jasenovac where they died.

After the war, Dizdar became a reporter and editor main editor of the TANJUG - press agency. In 1954 he financed the publication of a collection of poems entitled Plivaeica (A Swimmer). The public was so shocked by its modern poetic expression that they  ignored  it. Only much later did the critics realise that this poem opened a new chapter in the poetic tradition. The same year he wrote Gorein, a cult poem which marked the beginning of his unique poetic style.
In 1961, he published the collection Okrutnosti kruga (Cruelties of the Circle). Five most prolific years followed: with the  poetry collections Koljena za madonu (Knees for Madonna), Minijature (Miniatures) and Ostrva (Islands), culminating with Gorein. He finished has master work Kameni spavae (Stone Sleeper) published in 1966.

Mak Dizdar's last book was published in 1971, the year of his death, entitled Modra rijeka (Blue River). A year before, the poem Blue River won him a prestigious literary prize, Zlatni vijenac (the Golden Wreath) at the "Struga Evenings" international festival of poetry in Macedonia. POINT Editions published Kameni spavae (Stone Sleeper) in Dutch in 2003.