Alojz Gradnik
Encyclopedia
Alojz Gradnik was a Slovenia
n poet
and translator
.
in the Goriška Brda
region, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire and is today in the Goriška
province of Slovenia
. His father was a Slovene from Trieste
who came from a poor working family background, but created a considerable wealth by winemaking
. His mother was an ethnic Friulian
from the County of Gorizia and Gradisca. His younger brother Jožef later served as mayor of the village.
Gradnik attended the multilingual State Gymnasium
in Gorizia
. He lived in a student home run by the Catholic Church. Among his friends from this period were Avgust Žigon, who later became a renowned literary scholar, the Slovene writer Ivan Pregelj
and the Friuli
an prelate Luigi Fogar, who later served as bishop of Trieste. After finishing high school, he went to study law
in Vienna
. After graduation in 1907, he served as a district judge in the Istria
n city of Pula
, in Gorizia and in other smaller towns throughout the Austrian Littoral
. During this period, he was active in Slovene and Croat cultural and political associations. Between 1913 and 1915, he frequented the intellectual circles of young Slovene national-liberals in Gorizia. Among his friends from the period were Andrej Gabršček, the leader of the National Progressive Party
in Gorizia and Gradisca, the young historian and jurist Bogumil Vošnjak
and the lawyers Dinko Puc and Drago Marušič, who all later became prominent liberal politicians in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
.
In 1924, he married Mira Potokar, with whom he had a son, Sergij.
In 1920, after the Italian annexation of the Julian March
, he emigrated to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
, where he continued his career as a judge. In the late 1920s, he worked as an expert consultant at the Ministry of Justice in Belgrade
. He was later appointed member of the High Court for the Security of the State, in which political trials were conducted. From 1936 and 1941 he served as a member of the "Bank of the Seven" (Stol sedmorice), the court of cassation which had jurisdiction on all former Austro-Hungarian parts of Yugoslavia
. The court was located in Zagreb
and during his stay in the Croatia
n capital, Gradnik enjoyed the company of Croat
intellectuals like the writer Vladimir Nazor
, historian Antun Barac
, and poet Ivan Goran Kovačić
.
After the Axis
invasion of Yugoslavia
in April 1941, he was expulsed by the new Fascist authorities of the Independent State of Croatia
. He moved back to Ljubljana. Between 1942 and 1943, he was internated in the Gonars concentration camp
by the Italian Fascist
occupation authorities. The concentration camp experience would strongly influence his later poetry. After the end of World War II
, he returned to Ljubljana
, where he spent the rest of his life as a pensioner. After September 1947, when the Slovenian Littoral
was annexed to Yugoslavia
, he regularly visited his native village, spending most of the summer season writing poetry.
Gradnik was a polyglot
: besides Slovene, he was fluent in Italian
, Friulian
, German
, Serbo-Croatian
, English
, and French
. He also spoke Russian
, Hungarian
, and Spanish
, and knew Latin
and Ancient Greek
. He studied several oriental languages, such as Sanskrit
, Persian
, Bengali
and Mandarin.
He died in Ljubljana.
and Ivan Pregelj
, Gradnik belonged to the second generation of modernist
authors in Slovenian literature
(the first was composed by Ivan Cankar
, Oton Župančič
, Dragotin Kette
, and others). Gradnik was most influenced by the work of the poet Josip Murn Aleksandrov
, and was probably among the first ones who acknowledged Murn's poetic genius. As Murn, Gradnik incorporated impressionist visions of the countryside and peasant life into his poetry. Gradnik's style and vocabulary was simple, but his motives and contents complex.
Gradnik's early poetry was strongly inspired by both the older generations of Slovenian poets (the modernists, but also Simon Gregorčič
and France Prešeren
) and the European decadent movement
. One of the specific traits of Gradnik's early period was his intense focus on the relationship between Eros
and Thanatos
: that is, between erotic passion and the motive of death. He later moved away from decadentism
, rediscovering his Roman Catholic faith and turning to more mystical
themes, maintaining a simple and plain language. He also wrote patriotic songs, in which he conveyed intimate sentiments of pain, hope and frustration for the tragedies in the contemporary Slovenian history
.
Gradnik was also very influenced by the visual arts, especially painting and sculpture. He wrote a book on the Slovene impressionist painter Rihard Jakopič
. The and maintained a close friendship with the painter Ivan Grohar
, illustrators Riko Debenjak and Miha Maleš and with the sculptor Jakob Savinšek
. Several painters strongly influenced his work, especially Eugène Carrière
, Božidar Jakac
and the Brueghel
s.
Gradnik was also an important translator. Among others, he translated the first two parts of Dante
's Divine Comedy into Slovenian. He also translated works of other important authors, such as Francesco Petrarca, Giacomo Leopardi
, Rabindranath Tagore
, Giosuè Carducci
, Romain Rolland
, Omar Khayyam
, Jovan Jovanović Zmaj
, Vuk Karadžić, Ivan Mažuranić
, Petar Petrović Njegoš, Ugo Foscolo
, Anton Chekhov
, Juan Ramón Jiménez
, John Erskine
, Federico García Lorca
, Sándor Petőfi
, Endre Ady
and others.
He also wrote children literature.
Today, Gradnik is considered to be the most important Slovenian poet in the interwar period, next to Oton Župančič
, and one of the most important Slovene poets of the 20th century. In his lifetime, however, he was mostly disregarded by critics. With his traditional style and a conservative worldview, he remained outside the contemporary literary mainstream. However, he influenced the work of some highly talented non-conventional authors such as Lili Novy
and France Balantič
.
After the establishment of a Communist regime in Yugoslavia
after 1945, his position deteriorated. Gradnik was an anti-Fascist, he sympathised with the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People
, and even wrote several poems about the Yugoslav People's Liberation War in Slovenia. Nevertheless, his deep Christian
religious sentiment and his magical realistic style were seen as reactionary
by the Communists. His membership in the High Tribunal for the Security of the State, which condemned several Communist activists, was a further reason for his fall into disgrace during Josip Broz Tito
's regime. He did not suffer any persecution, but he was pushed away from public life. Between 1945 and 1967, he published mostly translations and none of his new poetry was published. There was no public commemoration upon his death and he was not included into the canon thought in schools. In Yugoslavia, no street or institution was named after him until 1990. Nevertheless, many of his poems gained much popularity in his home region and a local school in the Italian commune
of San Floriano del Collio
was named after him in the late 1970s.
He was rediscovered in the late 1980s, when he was elevated to a truly national poet for the first time. He became a major source of influence for the younger generations of postmodern authors, such as Brane Senegačnik, Nevin Birsa
, Aleš Šteger
and others.
Since the mid 1996, an annual festival is held in August in his home village of Medana, called "Days of Poetry and Wine" (Dnevi poezije in vina), to which young international poets are invited.
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
n poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and translator
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
.
Life
Gradnik was born in the village of MedanaMedana
Medana is a village in the Brda municipality in the Slovenian Littoral region of Slovenia.The Parish Church in the village is dedicated to The Assumption of Mary and belongs to the Diocese of Koper....
in the Goriška Brda
Brda (Slovenia)
Brda is a municipality in western Slovenia. It is located in the Slovenian Littoral region, extending from the Italian border to the river Soča...
region, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire and is today in the Goriška
Goriška
Goriška is a traditional region in western Slovenia on the border with Italy. The name means "the Gorizia region" because it is named after Gorizia, Italy. It is part of the wider traditional region of the Slovenian Littoral . Its principal urban center is Nova Gorica...
province of Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
. His father was a Slovene from 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...
who came from a poor working family background, but created a considerable wealth by winemaking
Winemaking
Winemaking, or vinification, is the production of wine, starting with selection of the grapes or other produce and ending with bottling the finished wine. Although most wine is made from grapes, it may also be made from other fruit or non-toxic plant material...
. His mother was an ethnic Friulian
Friulians
Friulians or Furlans are a linguistic minority living in Italy and elsewhere. About 530,000 of them live in the provinces of Udine and Pordenone and in parts of Gorizia and Venice. Their language, the Friulian language, is the second largest minority language in Italy. About 170,000 Friulians live...
from the County of Gorizia and Gradisca. His younger brother Jožef later served as mayor of the village.
Gradnik attended the multilingual State Gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
in Gorizia
Gorizia
Gorizia is a town and comune in northeastern Italy, in the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. It is located at the foot of the Julian Alps, bordering Slovenia. It is the capital of the Province of Gorizia, and it is a local center of tourism, industry, and commerce. Since 1947, a twin...
. He lived in a student home run by the Catholic Church. Among his friends from this period were Avgust Žigon, who later became a renowned literary scholar, the Slovene writer Ivan Pregelj
Ivan Pregelj
Ivan Pregelj was a Slovene writer, playwright, poet, and critic.- Life :Pregelj was born to a tailor's family in Most na Soči . His father died while Pregelj was still a child. He attended school with the help of the parish priest...
and the Friuli
Friuli
Friuli is an area of northeastern Italy with its own particular cultural and historical identity. It comprises the major part of the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, i.e. the province of Udine, Pordenone, Gorizia, excluding Trieste...
an prelate Luigi Fogar, who later served as bishop of Trieste. After finishing high school, he went to study law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. After graduation in 1907, he served as a district judge in the Istria
Istria
Istria , formerly Histria , is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner...
n city of Pula
Pula
Pula is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, situated at the southern tip of the Istria peninsula, with a population of 62,080 .Like the rest of the region, it is known for its mild climate, smooth sea, and unspoiled nature. The city has a long tradition of winemaking, fishing,...
, in Gorizia and in other smaller towns throughout the Austrian Littoral
Austrian Littoral
The Austrian Littoral was established as a crown land of the Austrian Empire in 1849. In 1861 it was divided into the three crown lands of the Imperial Free City of Trieste and its suburbs, the Margraviate of Istria, and the Princely County of Gorizia and Gradisca, which each had separate...
. During this period, he was active in Slovene and Croat cultural and political associations. Between 1913 and 1915, he frequented the intellectual circles of young Slovene national-liberals in Gorizia. Among his friends from the period were Andrej Gabršček, the leader of the National Progressive Party
National Progressive Party (Slovenia)
The National Progressive Party was a political party in the Carniola region of Austria-Hungary. It was established in 1894 by Ivan Tavčar as the National Party of Carniola and renamed in 1905 to The National Progressive Party...
in Gorizia and Gradisca, the young historian and jurist Bogumil Vošnjak
Bogumil Vošnjak
Bogumil Vošnjak, also known as Bogomil Vošnjak was a Slovene and Yugoslav jurist, politician, diplomat, author and legal historian...
and the lawyers Dinko Puc and Drago Marušič, who all later became prominent liberal politicians in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
.
In 1924, he married Mira Potokar, with whom he had a son, Sergij.
In 1920, after the Italian annexation of the Julian March
Julian March
The Julian March is a former political region of southeastern Europe on what are now the borders between Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy...
, he emigrated to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
, where he continued his career as a judge. In the late 1920s, he worked as an expert consultant at the Ministry of Justice in 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...
. He was later appointed member of the High Court for the Security of the State, in which political trials were conducted. From 1936 and 1941 he served as a member of the "Bank of the Seven" (Stol sedmorice), the court of cassation which had jurisdiction on all former Austro-Hungarian parts of Yugoslavia
State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs
The State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs was a short-lived state formed from the southernmost parts of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy after its dissolution at the end of the World War I by the resident population of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs...
. The court was located in 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 during his stay in the Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
n capital, Gradnik enjoyed the company of Croat
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
intellectuals like the writer Vladimir Nazor
Vladimir Nazor
Vladimir Nazor was the first head of state of modern Croatia. A member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia , he led the Croatian World War II wartime assembly, the ZAVNOH, and later served as the President of the Presidium of the People's Assembly of PR Croatia - the head of state of the People's...
, historian Antun Barac
Antun Barac
Antun Barac , was a Croatian historian.-Biography:Barac graduated at the Faculty of philosophy at the University of Zagreb in 1917, and received his Ph.D. as a high school professor on Sušak in 1918, with the thesis on Vladimir Nazor's poetry. Since 1930 he is a regular professor at the Faculty of...
, and poet Ivan Goran Kovačić
Ivan Goran Kovacic
Ivan Goran Kovačić was a prominent Croatian poet and writer of the 20th century.-Early life and background:He was born in Lukovdol , a town in Gorski Kotar, to Croatian father Ivan and Jewish mother Ruža . His middle name Goran stems from that...
.
After the Axis
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
invasion of Yugoslavia
Invasion of Yugoslavia
The Invasion of Yugoslavia , also known as the April War , was the Axis Powers' attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II...
in April 1941, he was expulsed by the new Fascist authorities of the Independent State of Croatia
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...
. He moved back to Ljubljana. Between 1942 and 1943, he was internated in the Gonars concentration camp
Gonars concentration camp
On February 23, 1942 the Italian fascist regime established a concentration camp in Gonars, a town with approx. 4,600 inhabitants near Palmanova in the Province of Udine in northeastern Italy.Most of the prisoners were from present day Slovenia and Croatia...
by the Italian Fascist
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
occupation authorities. The concentration camp experience would strongly influence his later poetry. After the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he returned to Ljubljana
Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
, where he spent the rest of his life as a pensioner. After September 1947, when the Slovenian Littoral
Slovenian Littoral
The Slovenian Littoral is a historical region of Slovenia. Its name recalls the historical Habsburg crown land of the Austrian Littoral, of which the Slovenian Littoral was a part....
was annexed to Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
, he regularly visited his native village, spending most of the summer season writing poetry.
Multilingualism
Multilingualism is the act of using, or promoting the use of, multiple languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of...
: besides Slovene, he was fluent in Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, Friulian
Friulian language
Friulan , is a Romance language belonging to the Rhaeto-Romance family, spoken in the Friuli region of northeastern Italy. Friulan has around 800,000 speakers, the vast majority of whom also speak Italian...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. He also spoke Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
, and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, and knew Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
. He studied several oriental languages, such as 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...
, Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
, Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
and Mandarin.
He died in Ljubljana.
Work
Gradnik was a prolific author. During his lifetime, between 1916 and 1944, he published nine collections of poems and left a large number of unpublished works. Together with Izidor CankarIzidor Cankar
Izidor Cankar was a Slovenian author, art historian, diplomat, publicist, translator, and liberal conservative politician...
and Ivan Pregelj
Ivan Pregelj
Ivan Pregelj was a Slovene writer, playwright, poet, and critic.- Life :Pregelj was born to a tailor's family in Most na Soči . His father died while Pregelj was still a child. He attended school with the help of the parish priest...
, Gradnik belonged to the second generation of 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...
authors in Slovenian literature
Slovenian literature
Slovene literature, meaning the literature in the Slovene language, starts with Freising manuscripts around 1000. From first printed Slovene religious books in 1550 it is followed by these literary periods and notable authors:-Middle Ages:-Folk poetry:...
(the first was composed by Ivan Cankar
Ivan Cankar
Ivan Cankar was a Slovene writer, playwright, essayist, poet and political activist. Together with Oton Župančič, Dragotin Kette, and Josip Murn, he is considered as the beginner of modernism in Slovene literature...
, Oton Župančič
Oton Župancic
Oton Župančič was a Slovene poet, translator and playwright.Župančič is regarded, alongside Ivan Cankar, Dragotin Kette and Josip Murn, as the beginner of modernism in Slovenian literature...
, Dragotin Kette
Dragotin Kette
Dragotin Kette was a Slovene Impressionist and Neo-Romantic poet. Together with Josip Murn, Ivan Cankar and Oton Župančič, he is considered as the beginner of modernism in Slovene literature.-Life:...
, and others). Gradnik was most influenced by the work of the poet Josip Murn Aleksandrov
Josip Murn Aleksandrov
Josip Murn, also known under the pseudonym Aleksandrov was a Slovene symbolist poet. Together with Ivan Cankar, Oton Župančič, and Dragotin Kette, he was regarded as one of the beginners of modernism in Slovene literature...
, and was probably among the first ones who acknowledged Murn's poetic genius. As Murn, Gradnik incorporated impressionist visions of the countryside and peasant life into his poetry. Gradnik's style and vocabulary was simple, but his motives and contents complex.
Gradnik's early poetry was strongly inspired by both the older generations of Slovenian poets (the modernists, but also Simon Gregorčič
Simon Gregorcic
Simon Gregorčič was a Slovene poet and Roman Catholic priest.- Biography :Gregorčič was born in the small mountain village of Vrsno above the river Soča in the County of Gorizia and Gradisca. In 1851, he attended primary school in Libušnje, but was in 1855 sent to school in Gorizia. After...
and France Prešeren
France Prešeren
France Prešeren was a Slovene Romantic poet. He is considered the Slovene national poet. Although he was not a particularly prolific author, he inspired virtually all Slovene literature thereafter....
) and the European decadent movement
Decadent movement
The Decadent movement was a late 19th century artistic and literary movement of Western Europe. It flourished in France, but also had devotees in England and throughout Europe, as well as in the United States.-Overview:...
. One of the specific traits of Gradnik's early period was his intense focus on the relationship between Eros
Eros (love)
Eros is one of the four words in Ancient Greek which can be rendered into English as “love”. The other three are storge, philia and agape...
and Thanatos
Thanatos
In Greek mythology, Thanatos was the daemon personification of death. He was a minor figure in Greek mythology, often referred to but rarely appearing in person...
: that is, between erotic passion and the motive of death. He later moved away from decadentism
Decadentism
Decadentism was an Italian artistic style based mainly on the Decadent movement in the arts in France and England around the end of the 19th century. The main authors associated with decadentism were Antonio Fogazzaro, Italo Svevo, Giovanni Pascoli and Gabriele D'Annunzio...
, rediscovering his Roman Catholic faith and turning to more mystical
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
themes, maintaining a simple and plain language. He also wrote patriotic songs, in which he conveyed intimate sentiments of pain, hope and frustration for the tragedies in the contemporary Slovenian history
History of Slovenia
The history of Slovenia chronicles the period of the Slovene territory from the 5th Century BC to the present times. In the Early Bronze Age, Proto-Illyrian tribes settled an area stretching from present-day Albania to the city of Trieste. The Holy Roman Empire controlled the land for nearly 1,000...
.
Gradnik was also very influenced by the visual arts, especially painting and sculpture. He wrote a book on the Slovene impressionist painter Rihard Jakopič
Rihard Jakopic
Rihard Jakopič was a Slovenian painter. He was the leading Slovenian Impressionist painter and theoretician. Together with Matej Sternen, Matija Jama and Ivan Grohar, he is considered the pioneer of Slovenian impressionist painting.- Life :Jakopič was born in Ljubljana, then part of the...
. The and maintained a close friendship with the painter Ivan Grohar
Ivan Grohar
Ivan Grohar was a Slovene Impressionist painter. Together with Rihard Jakopič, Matej Sternen and Matija Jama, he is considered one of the leading figures of Slovene impressionism in the fin de siecle period.- Life :...
, illustrators Riko Debenjak and Miha Maleš and with the sculptor Jakob Savinšek
Jakob Savinšek
Jakob Savinšek, was a Slovene sculptor, illustrator and poet.- Life :Savinšek was born in the Upper Carniolan town of Kamnik, then part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes , where he spent his youth. After finishing secondary school in Ljubljana, he studied medicine at the University of...
. Several painters strongly influenced his work, especially Eugène Carrière
Eugène Carrière
Eugène Anatole Carrière was a French Symbolist artist of the Fin de siècle period. His work is best known for its brown monochrome palette. He was a close friend of the sculptor Rodin and his work influenced Picasso...
, Božidar Jakac
Božidar Jakac
Božidar Jakac was a Slovene Expressionist, Realist and Symbolist painter, graphic artist, art teacher, photographer and filmmaker. He produced one of the most extensive oeuvres of pastels and oil paintings , drawings and, above all, graphics in Slovenia...
and the Brueghel
Brueghel
Brueghel or Bruegel was the name of several Dutch/Flemish painters from the same family line:* Pieter Bruegel the Elder — The most famous member of the family and the only one to sign his paintings as 'Bruegel' without the H....
s.
Gradnik was also an important translator. Among others, he translated the first two parts of Dante
DANTE
Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
's Divine Comedy into Slovenian. He also translated works of other important authors, such as Francesco Petrarca, Giacomo Leopardi
Giacomo Leopardi
Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi was an Italian poet, essayist, philosopher, and philologist...
, Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...
, Giosuè Carducci
Giosuè Carducci
Giosuè Alessandro Michele Carducci was an Italian poet and teacher. He was very influential and was regarded as the official national poet of modern Italy. In 1906 he became the first Italian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.-Biography:...
, Romain Rolland
Romain Rolland
Romain Rolland was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915.-Biography:...
, Omar Khayyam
Omar Khayyám
Omar Khayyám was aPersian polymath: philosopher, mathematician, astronomer and poet. He also wrote treatises on mechanics, geography, mineralogy, music, climatology and theology....
, 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 ....
, Vuk Karadžić, Ivan Mažuranić
Ivan Mažuranic
Ivan Mažuranić was a Croatian poet, linguist and politician—probably the most important figure in Croatia's cultural life in the mid-19th century...
, Petar Petrović Njegoš, Ugo Foscolo
Ugo Foscolo
Ugo Foscolo , born Niccolò Foscolo, was an Italian writer, revolutionary and poet.-Biography:Foscolo was born on the Ionian island of Zakynthos...
, Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
, Juan Ramón Jiménez
Juan Ramón Jiménez
Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón was a Spanish poet, a prolific writer who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956. One of Jiménez's most important contributions to modern poetry was his advocacy of the French concept of "pure poetry."-Biography:Jiménez was born in Moguer, near Huelva, in...
, John Erskine
John Erskine (educator)
John Erskine was a U.S. educator and author, born in New York City and raised in Weehawken, New Jersey. He graduated from Columbia University ....
, Federico García Lorca
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
, Sándor Petőfi
Sándor Petofi
Sándor Petőfi , was a Hungarian poet and liberal revolutionary. He is considered as Hungary's national poet and he was one of the key figures of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848...
, Endre Ady
Endre Ady
Endre Ady was a Hungarian poet.-Biography:Ady was born in Érmindszent, Szilágy county . He belonged to an impoverished Calvinist noble family...
and others.
He also wrote children literature.
Influence and legacy
Oton Župancic
Oton Župančič was a Slovene poet, translator and playwright.Župančič is regarded, alongside Ivan Cankar, Dragotin Kette and Josip Murn, as the beginner of modernism in Slovenian literature...
, and one of the most important Slovene poets of the 20th century. In his lifetime, however, he was mostly disregarded by critics. With his traditional style and a conservative worldview, he remained outside the contemporary literary mainstream. However, he influenced the work of some highly talented non-conventional authors such as Lili Novy
Lili Novy
Lili Novy née Haumeder was a Slovene poet and translator of poetry. She is considered the first Slovene female lyric poet as well as one of the most important Slovene female poets in general....
and France Balantič
France Balantic
France Balantič was a Slovene poet. His works were banished from schools and libraries during the Titoist regime in Slovenia, but since the late 1980s, he has been re-considered as one of the foremost Slovene poets of the 20th century.- Life :Balantič was born in a working class family in Kamnik,...
.
After the establishment of a Communist regime in Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
after 1945, his position deteriorated. Gradnik was an anti-Fascist, he sympathised with the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People
Liberation Front of the Slovenian People
On 26 April 1941 in Ljubljana the Anti-Imperialist Front was established. It was to promote "an international massive movement" to "liberate the Slovenian nation" whose "hope and example was the Soviet Union"...
, and even wrote several poems about the Yugoslav People's Liberation War in Slovenia. Nevertheless, his deep Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
religious sentiment and his magical realistic style were seen as reactionary
Reactionary
The term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...
by the Communists. His membership in the High Tribunal for the Security of the State, which condemned several Communist activists, was a further reason for his fall into disgrace during Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
's regime. He did not suffer any persecution, but he was pushed away from public life. Between 1945 and 1967, he published mostly translations and none of his new poetry was published. There was no public commemoration upon his death and he was not included into the canon thought in schools. In Yugoslavia, no street or institution was named after him until 1990. Nevertheless, many of his poems gained much popularity in his home region and a local school in the Italian commune
Comune
In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...
of San Floriano del Collio
San Floriano del Collio
San Floriano del Collio is a comune in the Province of Gorizia in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about 40 km northwest of Trieste and about 6 km northwest of Gorizia, on the border with Slovenia. , it had a population of 807 and an area of 10.6 km². It is...
was named after him in the late 1970s.
He was rediscovered in the late 1980s, when he was elevated to a truly national poet for the first time. He became a major source of influence for the younger generations of postmodern authors, such as Brane Senegačnik, Nevin Birsa
Nevin Birsa (Slovene poet)
Nevin Birsa was a Slovene poet.Birsa was born in the village of Branik in the Vipava Valley, in western Slovenia. He studied at the Pedagogic Academy of the University of Ljubljana...
, Aleš Šteger
Aleš Šteger
Aleš Šteger is a Slovene poet, writer, editor and literary critic. His poetry has been translated into numerous languages and published in over two hundred literary journals and magazines internationally....
and others.
Since the mid 1996, an annual festival is held in August in his home village of Medana, called "Days of Poetry and Wine" (Dnevi poezije in vina), to which young international poets are invited.
Sources
- Taras KermaunerTaras KermaunerTaras Kermauner was a Slovenian literary historian, critic, philosopher, essayist, playwright and translator.- Life :...
, Gradnikova pot k Bogu (Nova Gorica: Zveza kulturnih organizacij, 1997). - Fedora Ferluga Petronio, "Alojz Gradnik - Pesnik goriških Brd: mednarodni simpozij ob 125. obletnici pesnikovega rojstva", Primorski dnevnikPrimorski dnevnikPrimorski dnevnik is a Slovene language daily newspaper published in Trieste, Italy. It is the only Slovene daily in any country other than Slovenia, and one of the three newspapers in Italy published in a language other than Italian...
, yr. 69, n. 113 (May 13, 2007). - Danila Zuljan Kumar, "Z referati osvetlili njegovo poezijo: Gradnikov simpozij na Univerzi v Vidmu, Briški časnik, y. 11, n. 47 (2007).