Ivan V. Lalic
Encyclopedia
Ivan V. Lalić was a Serbian poet with a reputation as one of the finest European poets of his time.
was a celebrated composer. As a child he experienced the trauma of seeing many of his school-friends perish in an air-raid. Lalić said that "my childhood and boyhood in the war marked everything I ever wrote as a poem or poetry".
Lalić lived in both Zagreb
and Belgrade
, and spent the summers with his family in the Istrian town of Rovinj
. He was survived by his Croatian wife, Branka, and his younger son.
In her obituary of him, Celia Hawkesworth spoke of "the central place in his work of memory: fragile in the face of the collapse of civilisations, but all we have. Memory allows the poet to recreate brief instants of personal joy as well as to conjure up a sense of the distant past. It allows each of us, as individuals condemned to solitude, to connect with a shared inheritance and feel, for a moment, part of a larger whole."
Biography
Lalić was born into a cultured family in Belgrade; his father, Vlajko, was a journalist, and his grandfather Isidor BajićIsidor Bajic
Isidor Bajic was a Serbian composer, pedagogue, and publisher.He was born in Kula...
was a celebrated composer. As a child he experienced the trauma of seeing many of his school-friends perish in an air-raid. Lalić said that "my childhood and boyhood in the war marked everything I ever wrote as a poem or poetry".
Lalić lived in both Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
and Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, and spent the summers with his family in the Istrian town of Rovinj
Rovinj
Rovinj is a city in Croatia situated on the north Adriatic Sea with a population of 13,562 . It is located on the western coast of the Istrian peninsula and is a popular tourist resort and an active fishing port...
. He was survived by his Croatian wife, Branka, and his younger son.
Poetry
Lalić was awarded with the most prestigious literary prizes in Yugoslavia. He was admired abroad and books of his poems have been translated into six languages (English, French, Italian, Polish, Hungarian and Macedonian). Individual poems have appeared in more than 20 languages.In her obituary of him, Celia Hawkesworth spoke of "the central place in his work of memory: fragile in the face of the collapse of civilisations, but all we have. Memory allows the poet to recreate brief instants of personal joy as well as to conjure up a sense of the distant past. It allows each of us, as individuals condemned to solitude, to connect with a shared inheritance and feel, for a moment, part of a larger whole."