Ivan Goran Kovačić: Difference between revisions

| death_date = {{death date and age|1943|7|1312|1913|3|21|df=y}}

| death_place = Vrbica[[Vrbnica (Foča)|Vrbnica]], [[Independent State of Croatia]]

'''Ivan "Goran" Kovačić''' ({{IPA-|sh|ǐʋan ɡǒran kǒʋatʃitɕ|pron}}; 21 March 1913 – 1312 July 1943) was a prominent YugoslavCroatian poet and writer of the 20th century.

He was born in [[Lukovdol]] (part of [[Vrbovsko]]), a town in [[Gorski Kotar]], to a [[Croat]] father, Ivan Kovačić, and [[Transylvania]]n [[Jew]]ish mother Ruža ([[Married and maiden names|née]] Klein).<ref name="hakol">{{hrin iconlang|hr}} Ha-Kol (Glasilo Židovske zajednice u Hrvatskoj); Nataša Maksimović Subašić; Zora Dirnbach – Svjetionik s one strane nacionalizma; stranica 4; broj 110, lipanj/srpanj/kolovoz 2009.</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nacional.hr/clanak/89793/tko-je-tko-i-odakle-strani-velikani-hrvatske-kulture|title=Tko je tko i odakle: strani velikani hrvatske kulture|publisher=[[Nacional (weekly)|Nacional]]|language=Croatianhr|trans-title=Who is who and where from: Giants of Croatian culture|date=24 August 2010|accessdateaccess-date=24 July 2012|archivedatearchive-date=2423 JulyMay 2012|deadurlurl-status=yesdead|archiveurlarchive-url=https://wwwweb.webcitationarchive.org/69Ofh8L1k?url=web/20120523183731/http://www.nacional.hr/clanak/89793/tko-je-tko-i-odakle-strani-velikani-hrvatske-kulture|author=Predrag Matvejević}}</ref>

During World War II, in the harsh winter of 1942, Kovačić and [[Vladimir Nazor]] volunteered for the [[Partisans (Yugoslavia)|Partisan]] forces to set an anti-fascist example for the world. At that time, Goran was already ill with tuberculosis and Nazor was advanced in age, but they were motivated by their consciences. Kovačić was killed by Serbian [[Chetnik]] troops in an east-Bosnian village of Vrbica near [[Foča]] on 13 July 1943.{{cncitation needed|date=April 2018}}

His death is described as follows: “Like in an ancient tragedy, the one who is most opposed to evil will most cruelly die from evil. The poet who raised his voice against the UstashanCroatian massacre[[Ustaše]] onmassive innocentkilling and torturing of Serbian peoplecivilians (women and children mostly) had his throat cut by Serbian Chetniks….A few reliable witnesses confirm that Goran survived the hell of the fifth offensive, but when he returned to help his ill, left-behind, friend, Dr Simo Milošević, the fascists killed both the Croatian poet and the Serbian scholar without distinction. Fascism did not look on poets or scientists anywhere in the world as being of value.”<ref>[[Predrag Matvejević|Matvejević, Predrag]], ''Goranov odlazak u partizane'', in: ''Život i djelo Ivana Gorana Kovačića'', ed. Anđelko Novaković (1989), Zagreb: Globus, pg. 134<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed -->{{hrin iconlang|hr}}</ref>

Death is a central theme in much of Kovačić's poetry,<ref name="The pit">[https://allpoetry.com/The-Pit The pit Ivan Goran Kovacic]</ref> however this is not a reflection on his life outlook. His melancholy subjects came from outside events—such as his own and his brother’sbrother's affliction with tuberculosis—rather than from an internal disposition toward the morose. Jure Kaštelan, one of Kovačić's contemporaries, expressed that Kovačić was inclined both toward romanticism and realism in his poetry, and that Kovačić had an intense perception of life.<ref>{{cite book|last=Pavletić|first=Vlatko|title=Goran: Njim Samim|year=1963|location=Beograd|pages=183, 213|chapter=U svijesti Drugih}}</ref>

His best known work is ''"Jama"'' (''"The Pit"'').<ref>A. Kroupa, Sto moderních básníků, pg. 158, Prague 1967</ref><ref>Dušan Karpatský, in: Sto moderních básníků, pg. 158, Prague 1967</ref> He penned it during the war, while in service near the citytown of [[Livno]], [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]]. The poem was written out of intellectual and ethical responsibility that condemns atrocities and massacres done by the Croatian [[Ustaše]]. It has been described as a metaphor about the sufferer, martyr, and victim: “The sufferer is when a person without fault suffers. The martyr is when nonhumans torture a person. The victim is when the whips of injustice extinguish life. That is Goran’s metaphor. And his life.”<ref>{{cite book|last=Milačić|first=Božo|title=Riječ i Svjetlost|year=1961|publisher=Izdavački zavod Jugoslavenske akademije znanosti i umjetnosti|location=Zagreb|pages=8}}</ref> His work is an example of [[anti-war]] poetry with messages against torture, mass murders and war crimes. "Jama" was studied in elementary schools throughout the [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]].{{cncitation needed|date=April 2018}}

The poem starts with a striking metaphor of blood replacing both light and darkness as victim's eyes were plucked out with a knife. That common torture was probably a mere sadism, since the victims were mass-murdered by Croatian [[Ustaše]] after that anyway:

:''Blood is my daylight and darkness too.''

:''Blessing of night has been gouged from my cheeks''

:''Bearing with it my more lucky sight.''

:''Within those holes, for tears, fierce fire inflamed''

:''The bleeding socket as if for brain a balm –''

:''While my bright eyes died on my own palm''

{{unsourced|unreferenced section|date=April 2018}}

[[Category:Austro-Hungarian Jews from Austria-Hungary]]