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134 pages
ISBN: 978-09834736-1-9
5.9 ounces
This revised edition offers a new English translation of Jovan Dučić’s poetry.
Dučić appeared at the turn of the century, a crucial point in the history of Serbian Literature when the era of Romantic and Realist poetry was coming to an end and another, Modernism, was just beginning. By introducing new themes and sources of inspiration, Dučić was instrumental in setting Serbian poetry on a new course. He was an aesthete who possessed a cultivated and refined taste as well as an aristocratic spirit. He is the foremost practitioner of l’art pour l’art in Serbian Literature. In his poetry, he strove for formal excellence expressed through clarity, precision, elegance, musical quality, and imagery. His subject matter and unique style reflect the manner of French verse Parnassian, Symbolist, Decadent. Unlike previous Serbian poets who were either romantically or realistically oriented, Dučić was attracted to esoteric, sophisticated, thought-provoking, and soul-searching themes, so he created his own imaginary world and reacted to it. His poetry reveals an artist with an essentially pessimistic disposition, for which he has sometimes been criticized; it also reveals his embrace of art for art’s sake. His supreme craftsmanship, however, is undeniable.
About the author
Jovan Dučić (1871–1943) was a Serbian poet-diplomat. He is the most influential Serbian modernist poet of the first half of the twentieth century
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A WILLOW BY THE SEA
The top of the world is a willow by the sea,
Its plaited leaves are long, green, fanned,
Resembling a nymph who has been damned
To become a rustling, melancholy tree.
She hears the mountain song at sunrise,
The sea’s agony in silent evenings.
She’s transfixed amid promiscuous things:
Clouds and wind, and waves and time.
And she whispers to them, slowly yielding
A leaf to the wind, a branch to the sea,
And like a heart being torn apart, breaking,
Sadly rustling with life. A willow by the sea....
134 pages
ISBN: 978-09834736-1-9
5.9 ounces
This revised edition offers a new English translation of Jovan Dučić’s poetry.
Dučić appeared at the turn of the century, a crucial point in the history of Serbian Literature when the era of Romantic and Realist poetry was coming to an end and another, Modernism, was just beginning. By introducing new themes and sources of inspiration, Dučić was instrumental in setting Serbian poetry on a new course. He was an aesthete who possessed a cultivated and refined taste as well as an aristocratic spirit. He is the foremost practitioner of l’art pour l’art in Serbian Literature. In his poetry, he strove for formal excellence expressed through clarity, precision, elegance, musical quality, and imagery. His subject matter and unique style reflect the manner of French verse Parnassian, Symbolist, Decadent. Unlike previous Serbian poets who were either romantically or realistically oriented, Dučić was attracted to esoteric, sophisticated, thought-provoking, and soul-searching themes, so he created his own imaginary world and reacted to it. His poetry reveals an artist with an essentially pessimistic disposition, for which he has sometimes been criticized; it also reveals his embrace of art for art’s sake. His supreme craftsmanship, however, is undeniable.
About the author
Jovan Dučić (1871–1943) was a Serbian poet-diplomat. He is the most influential Serbian modernist poet of the first half of the twentieth century
——————————————————————————
A WILLOW BY THE SEA
The top of the world is a willow by the sea,
Its plaited leaves are long, green, fanned,
Resembling a nymph who has been damned
To become a rustling, melancholy tree.
She hears the mountain song at sunrise,
The sea’s agony in silent evenings.
She’s transfixed amid promiscuous things:
Clouds and wind, and waves and time.
And she whispers to them, slowly yielding
A leaf to the wind, a branch to the sea,
And like a heart being torn apart, breaking,
Sadly rustling with life. A willow by the sea....