Đorđe Marković Koder
Encyclopedia
Đorđe Marković Koder (1806 – April 30, 1891) was a Serbian
poet born in Austrian Empire
. Misunderstood, largely forgotten and often considered a marginal figure in Serbian poetry, criticized for his cryptic style littered with incomprehensible words and obscure metaphors, Koder was nevertheless a unique phenomenon in the 19th century Serbian literature
, sometimes cited as the first Serbian modernist
.
or Bingula, in Fruška gora
, present-day Serbia. Soon after that his family moved to Sremska Mitrovica
, where his father worked as a merchant
and ran a general store
. After finishing German elementary school in Mitrovica, Koder was sent to Szeged
, Hungary, where he finished Piarist
high school. In 1831 he graduated from the two-year Protestant
law school, where he found a job as a fencing
instructor with the army.
In 1837 Koder obtained a passport with the aim of going to Istanbul
, via Bucharest
and Athens
. However, as he didn't manage to raise the money for the journey, he was compelled to move to Trieste
, where his brother Jovan worked as an accountant for an American company. He lived in a poor suburb of Trieste, dedicating his time to writing and trying to procure a job. He corresponded with his relative Marija Popović-Punktatorka, the soon-to-be wife of Sima Milutinović Sarajlija
. As he failed in the latter, in 1838 he moved back to Szeged and then Budapest
, where he attended university lectures in various disciplines, such as medicine
, astronomy
and aesthetics
. At the same time he tried to learn and perfect multiple languages - English, French, Greek and Sanskrit
.
In 1839 Koder suddenly decided to move to Kragujevac
, Serbia, where he became a fencing and gymnastics
instructor for Mihailo and Milan, the sons of prince Miloš Obrenović. He also worked as an interpreter for the prince. When Milos Obrenovic abdicated from power, in June 1839, Koder moved to Belgrade
, where he worked at odd jobs until he managed to open a fencing school in 1844. The funding for the school was provided by Jovan Ninić, a wealthy Serbian patriot
from Belgrade. One year later Koder returned to Szeged, then to Timisoara
, then back to Belgrade, where he found a house in the poor suburb of Palilula
and became friends with Jakov Ignjatović
, a famous Serbian novelist and prose writer, and writer Milan Savić. Both Savić and Ignjatović left vivid remeniscences of him in their respective memoirs.
In 1852, Serbian magazine Svetovid, from Timisoara, published two Koder's poems: Grlica (Turtle Dove) and Leptir (Butterfly). In September 1858 he had almost completed his master poem, Romoranka, for which he unsuccessfully tried to organize a public reading in Belgrade. In a Letter to his relative Marija Popović-Milutinović (better known as Punktatorka) we read that he's about to finish Romoranka, about to write Tolkovka as an addition to it, and that he was about to write another book called Milogorka i Devecilje. Next month he got a permanent job as a fighting instructor in the Artillery School in Belgrade, and in 1859 he applied for Serbian citizenship
. He continued his work on Romoranka, and in 1860 published an advertisement calling for subscribers.
When a series of uprisings against the Ottoman government broke out in Montenegro
and Herzegovina
in 1861, Serbian government sent Đorđe Marković Koder as an emissary and a negotiator between warring sides, carrying letters on the behalf of the European Commission. Marković's role in the negotiations remains unclear and the historical data are scarce.
In 1861. Koder moved to Novi Sad
, where he managed to publish a couple of his poems in the magazines Danica and Javor, the latter edited by Jovan Jovanović Zmaj
. His main poem, Romoranka, which integrated and extended many of the motives exhibited in his previous poems, was finally published in September 1862.
Milka Grgurova, an actress from Novi Sad, left a vivid account of her visit to Koder's rented room, shown in by the poet's landlady as he wasn't at home at the time of the visit. Her account gives us an interesting insight into his lifestyle.
"When we entered the room… The things that we saw! First we heard a piglet, that came right to us. It probably thought that its master, Koder, had come home. White rabbits, chicken, ducklings and whatnot! And all that crowd greeted us with much noise and affection. All that four-legged and feathery two-legged company lived in perfect harmony. What's more, the whole menagerie
lived with Koder, in a single room furnished in a very original way. In one corner there was a bed, with straw mat covered by a thick blanket. By the window there was a simple merchant's chest, which he used as a writing desk, on top of which there was a whole mess of papers, books, goose quilts and an earthen inkstand
. In the mess I could discern a book titled Romoranka, which he later gave me as a gift, as well as some poems by Branko Radičević
" .
After publishing Romoranka, Marković left Novi Sad for Istanbul, where he spent a couple of years working as an interpreter for various embassies. In 1867 he was back in Timosoara. A letter has been preserved, written to him by Dragiša Milutinović, to inform Koder that the book "A Grammar of the Persian Language" had been procured and sent to him, as he had requested. In February 1868 he undertook a long journey around Italy
, after which he returned to Bucharest and then to Timisoara, where he continued studying Turkish
and Arabic
, planning to translate Romoranka to the latter. In May 1872 he returned to Istanbul, where he got a job at the British embassy. As an interpreter for Arabic and Turkish, he went on a number of missions with the British embassy staff, including at least one journey to northern Africa
.
Some 16 years later, when most of his friends had believed he had been long dead, he suddenly returned to Novi Sad in 1888. Despite his age (82) he was in good health. He stayed with his friend Đoka Kamber, whom he informed that he had come to Novi Sad to die and be buried there. In 1890 he lived in "Ubogi dom", a refuge for homeless people
in Novi Sad. He died on April 30, 1891.
In his attempt to explain and describe his vision of the world by means of poetry, Koder had to construct a number of notions and corresponding terms. Most of his terminology is based on Serbian language
, but derivatives of foreign words were also used, as well as a number of archaisms, compound nouns and words whose meaning can be inferred from the sound rather than the semantics
. His dictionary contains most of his terminology, but many notions were explained using other incomprehensible constructs, obscure wording or recursive definitions. What's more, the dictionary does not follow alphabetical order, which makes it even more complicated to comprehend. Some of the definitions in the dictionary were given in different languages, while some terms were explained by drawings and mathematical formulas.
Koder's personal mythology
often features various species of plants and birds, as well as dreams, spirits, fairies and cosmical forces, whose complex interplay forms the very basis of our existence. Even though generally coherent and consistent in itself, his work is extremely hermetic and self-contained, almost impenetrable even to the most educated readers.
Jovan Skerlić
, a prominent Serbian literary critic of the time, described Koder's Romoranka as "the most insane book of our romanticism, a blurry symbolic description of lives of birds and plants." Koder's "preposterous language" was, according to Skerlić, "a sickly original vocabulary", and his whole opus could only be described as "the jester's hat on the head of Serbian literature".
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
poet born in Austrian Empire
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
. Misunderstood, largely forgotten and often considered a marginal figure in Serbian poetry, criticized for his cryptic style littered with incomprehensible words and obscure metaphors, Koder was nevertheless a unique phenomenon in the 19th century Serbian literature
Serbian literature
Serbian literature refers to literature written in Serbian and/or in Serbia.The history of Serbian literature begins with theological works from the 10th- and 11th centuries, developing in the 13th century by Saint Sava and his disciples...
, sometimes cited as the first Serbian modernist
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
.
Biography
Đorđe Marković Koder was, by his own account, born in 1806 in the village of VizićVizic
Vizić is a village located in the Bačka Palanka municipality, in the South Bačka District of Serbia, although it is not geographically located in Bačka, but in Syrmia. The village is situated in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina...
or Bingula, in Fruška gora
Fruška Gora
Fruška Gora is a mountain in north Syrmia. Most part of the territory is located within Vojvodina, Serbia, but a smaller part on its western side overlaps the territory of Croatia...
, present-day Serbia. Soon after that his family moved to Sremska Mitrovica
Sremska Mitrovica
Sremska Mitrovica is a city and municipality located in the Vojvodina province of Serbia, on the left bank of the Sava river. As of 2002 the town had a total population of 39,041, while Sremska Mitrovica municipality had a population of 85,605...
, where his father worked as a merchant
Merchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
and ran a general store
General store
A general store, general merchandise store, or village shop is a rural or small town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general...
. After finishing German elementary school in Mitrovica, Koder was sent to Szeged
Szeged
' is the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county town of Csongrád county. The University of Szeged is one of the most distinguished universities in Hungary....
, Hungary, where he finished Piarist
Piarists
The Order of Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools or, in short, Piarists , is the name of the oldest Catholic educational order also known as the Scolopi, Escolapios or Poor Clerics of the Mother of God...
high school. In 1831 he graduated from the two-year Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
law school, where he found a job as a fencing
Fencing
Fencing, which is also known as modern fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing, is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons.Fencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games...
instructor with the army.
In 1837 Koder obtained a passport with the aim of going to Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, via Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
and Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
. However, as he didn't manage to raise the money for the journey, he was compelled to move to Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
, where his brother Jovan worked as an accountant for an American company. He lived in a poor suburb of Trieste, dedicating his time to writing and trying to procure a job. He corresponded with his relative Marija Popović-Punktatorka, the soon-to-be wife of Sima Milutinović Sarajlija
Sima Milutinovic Sarajlija
Sima Milutinović "Sarajlija" was a Bosnian–Serbian poet, hajduk, translator, historian, philologist, diplomat and adventurer.-Biography:...
. As he failed in the latter, in 1838 he moved back to Szeged and then Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, where he attended university lectures in various disciplines, such as medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
and aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
. At the same time he tried to learn and perfect multiple languages - English, French, Greek and Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
.
In 1839 Koder suddenly decided to move to Kragujevac
Kragujevac
Kragujevac is the fourth largest city in Serbia, the main city of the Šumadija region and the administrative centre of Šumadija District. It is situated on the banks of the Lepenica River...
, Serbia, where he became a fencing and gymnastics
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...
instructor for Mihailo and Milan, the sons of prince Miloš Obrenović. He also worked as an interpreter for the prince. When Milos Obrenovic abdicated from power, in June 1839, Koder moved to 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...
, where he worked at odd jobs until he managed to open a fencing school in 1844. The funding for the school was provided by Jovan Ninić, a wealthy Serbian patriot
Patriot
A patriot is someone who feels a strong support for his or her country. See Patriotism.Patriot or Patriots may also refer to:- Politics :* Patriot Party , various political parties...
from Belgrade. One year later Koder returned to Szeged, then to Timisoara
Timisoara
Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the...
, then back to Belgrade, where he found a house in the poor suburb of Palilula
Palilula
Palilula may refer to:*Palilula Belgrade, a municipality in the city of Belgrade, Serbia*Palilula Niš, a municipality in the city of Niš, Serbia*Palilula , a village in the municipality of Svrljig, Serbia...
and became friends with Jakov Ignjatović
Jakov Ignjatovic
Jakov Ignjatović was a famous Serbian 19th century novelist and prose writer from Hungary. He also wrote in Hungarian.-Biography:...
, a famous Serbian novelist and prose writer, and writer Milan Savić. Both Savić and Ignjatović left vivid remeniscences of him in their respective memoirs.
In 1852, Serbian magazine Svetovid, from Timisoara, published two Koder's poems: Grlica (Turtle Dove) and Leptir (Butterfly). In September 1858 he had almost completed his master poem, Romoranka, for which he unsuccessfully tried to organize a public reading in Belgrade. In a Letter to his relative Marija Popović-Milutinović (better known as Punktatorka) we read that he's about to finish Romoranka, about to write Tolkovka as an addition to it, and that he was about to write another book called Milogorka i Devecilje. Next month he got a permanent job as a fighting instructor in the Artillery School in Belgrade, and in 1859 he applied for Serbian citizenship
Citizenship
Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
. He continued his work on Romoranka, and in 1860 published an advertisement calling for subscribers.
When a series of uprisings against the Ottoman government broke out in Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
and Herzegovina
Herzegovina
Herzegovina is the southern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. While there is no official border distinguishing it from the Bosnian region, it is generally accepted that the borders of the region are Croatia to the west, Montenegro to the south, the canton boundaries of the Herzegovina-Neretva...
in 1861, Serbian government sent Đorđe Marković Koder as an emissary and a negotiator between warring sides, carrying letters on the behalf of the European Commission. Marković's role in the negotiations remains unclear and the historical data are scarce.
In 1861. Koder moved to Novi Sad
Novi Sad
Novi Sad is the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Bačka District. The city is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain on the Danube river....
, where he managed to publish a couple of his poems in the magazines Danica and Javor, the latter edited by Jovan Jovanović Zmaj
Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj
Jovan Jovanović Zmaj was one of the best-known Serbian poets. He was a physician by profession, like his literary predecessor writer Jovan Stejić ....
. His main poem, Romoranka, which integrated and extended many of the motives exhibited in his previous poems, was finally published in September 1862.
Milka Grgurova, an actress from Novi Sad, left a vivid account of her visit to Koder's rented room, shown in by the poet's landlady as he wasn't at home at the time of the visit. Her account gives us an interesting insight into his lifestyle.
"When we entered the room… The things that we saw! First we heard a piglet, that came right to us. It probably thought that its master, Koder, had come home. White rabbits, chicken, ducklings and whatnot! And all that crowd greeted us with much noise and affection. All that four-legged and feathery two-legged company lived in perfect harmony. What's more, the whole menagerie
Menagerie
A menagerie is/was a form of keeping common and exotic animals in captivity that preceded the modern zoological garden. The term was first used in seventeenth century France in reference to the management of household or domestic stock. Later, it came to be used primarily in reference to...
lived with Koder, in a single room furnished in a very original way. In one corner there was a bed, with straw mat covered by a thick blanket. By the window there was a simple merchant's chest, which he used as a writing desk, on top of which there was a whole mess of papers, books, goose quilts and an earthen inkstand
Inkstand
An inkstand is a stand or tray used to house writing instruments, with a tightly-capped inkwell and a sand shaker for rapid drying. A penwiper would often be included, and from the mid-nineteenth century, a compartment for steel nibs, which replaced quill pens...
. In the mess I could discern a book titled Romoranka, which he later gave me as a gift, as well as some poems by Branko Radičević
Branko Radicevic
Branko Radičević , an influential Serbian poet, within a short space of time contrived to enhance Serbian literature with several perennially attractive poems.- Biography:...
" .
After publishing Romoranka, Marković left Novi Sad for Istanbul, where he spent a couple of years working as an interpreter for various embassies. In 1867 he was back in Timosoara. A letter has been preserved, written to him by Dragiša Milutinović, to inform Koder that the book "A Grammar of the Persian Language" had been procured and sent to him, as he had requested. In February 1868 he undertook a long journey around Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, after which he returned to Bucharest and then to Timisoara, where he continued studying Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
and Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, planning to translate Romoranka to the latter. In May 1872 he returned to Istanbul, where he got a job at the British embassy. As an interpreter for Arabic and Turkish, he went on a number of missions with the British embassy staff, including at least one journey to northern Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
.
Some 16 years later, when most of his friends had believed he had been long dead, he suddenly returned to Novi Sad in 1888. Despite his age (82) he was in good health. He stayed with his friend Đoka Kamber, whom he informed that he had come to Novi Sad to die and be buried there. In 1890 he lived in "Ubogi dom", a refuge for homeless people
Homelessness
Homelessness describes the condition of people without a regular dwelling. People who are homeless are unable or unwilling to acquire and maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or lack "fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence." The legal definition of "homeless" varies from country...
in Novi Sad. He died on April 30, 1891.
Work
Đorđe Marković Koder was an active and relatively prolific writer, even though he only managed to publish one book, Romoranka, containing his 10.000 verses long poem together with the author's notes and explanations. His four other long poems - San Matere Srbske, Devesilje, Mitologije and Iskoni - were collected and published in 1979 by Božo Vukadinović, in a book titled Spevovi. He also wrote Slovar, a dictionary aimed at expounding and clarifying the notions used in his poetry. It was published in 2005 by Narodna biblioteka "Vuk Karadžić".In his attempt to explain and describe his vision of the world by means of poetry, Koder had to construct a number of notions and corresponding terms. Most of his terminology is based on Serbian language
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
, but derivatives of foreign words were also used, as well as a number of archaisms, compound nouns and words whose meaning can be inferred from the sound rather than the semantics
Semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....
. His dictionary contains most of his terminology, but many notions were explained using other incomprehensible constructs, obscure wording or recursive definitions. What's more, the dictionary does not follow alphabetical order, which makes it even more complicated to comprehend. Some of the definitions in the dictionary were given in different languages, while some terms were explained by drawings and mathematical formulas.
Koder's personal mythology
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
often features various species of plants and birds, as well as dreams, spirits, fairies and cosmical forces, whose complex interplay forms the very basis of our existence. Even though generally coherent and consistent in itself, his work is extremely hermetic and self-contained, almost impenetrable even to the most educated readers.
Criticism
When it was published, in 1862, Romoranka attracted some attention in Serbian literary circles in Novi Sad and Belgrade, but the main problem with it was that hardly anyone could understand what it was about. Even though Koder claimed to have used the words he learned from old women and peasants all around Serbia, it is possible that many of those words were actually invented by himself. Romoranka was described by Jovan Jovanović Zmaj as "incomprehensible, obscure and impossible to understand, despite the explanations that comprise one third of the book."Jovan Skerlić
Jovan Skerlić
Jovan Skerlić was a Serbian writer and critic. He is regarded as one of the most influential Serbian literary critics of the early 20th century, after Bogdan Popović.- Biography :...
, a prominent Serbian literary critic of the time, described Koder's Romoranka as "the most insane book of our romanticism, a blurry symbolic description of lives of birds and plants." Koder's "preposterous language" was, according to Skerlić, "a sickly original vocabulary", and his whole opus could only be described as "the jester's hat on the head of Serbian literature".