| Stone Sleeper Contributor(s): Dizdar, Mak (Author), Jones, Francis R. (Translator), Mahmutcehajic, Rusmir (Afterword by) |
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ISBN: 0856463973 ISBN-13: 9780856463976 Publisher: Anvil Press Poetry OUR PRICE: $17.06 Product Type: Paperback Published: November 2009 Annotation: "Apple Blossom" "Snowflakes are falling ever thicker and blacker like sins "So will we still have eyes Inspired by medieval tombstones and their inscriptions, the haunting poems of this major work by Bosnia's greatest postwar poet (19171971) express a universal vision of life and death that owes much to the Gnostic traditions, Christian and Muslim, depicting life as a passage between "tomb and stars." The book includes an explanatory afterword by Rusmir Mahmutcehajic, a leading Bosnian literary expert. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Poetry | European - General |
| Dewey: 891.831 |
| Physical Information: 0.6" H x 5.4" W x 8.4" (0.50 lbs) 160 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Inspired by tombstones and their inscriptions, Mak Dizdar's rich and haunting poems in Stone Sleeper, his most famous work, are a journey into the mysterious heart of medieval Bosnia. The poems form a three-way dialogue between the modern poet, the Christian heretics awaiting Judgement Day beneath their enigmatically-carved tombstones, and the heretic-hunters. Beneath the local and temporal, Dizdar explores universal issues: the value of resistance, though it might be futile; of faith, though it might be illusory; and of life, though it ends in death. Francis R Jones's inventive and beautiful translations convey his deep understanding of Dizdar's purpose. In addition a penetrating analysis of Stone Sleeper's historical, religious and spiritual background is given by the distinguished scholar Rusmir Mahmutcehajic, whose book Across the Water: On the Poetry of Mak Dizdar is published by Fordham University Press. Mehmed Alija Mak' Dizdar (1917-1971), considered one of the greatest Yugoslav writers, was born in Stolac, southern Bosnia. After the war, in which he was a partisan in Tito's army, he became a prominent figure in Bosnian cultural life, working as newspaper editor, as book publisher and, finally, as President of the Writers' Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He died in Sarajevo. |