Musa Ćazim Ćatić ( sr-Cyrl, Муса Ћазим Ћатић; 12 March 1878 – 6 April 1915) was a Bosnian poet of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Renaissance at the turn of the 20th century.

Life

Ćatić completed

Sharia Law Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the Five Pillars of Islam, religious precepts of Islam and is based on the Islamic holy books, sacred scriptures o ...

studies in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

. He worked as the editor of

Behar Behar, BeHar, Be-har, or B'har ( — Hebrew language, Hebrew for "on the mount," the fifth word, and the Incipit, first distinctive word, in the parashah) is the 32nd weekly Torah portion (, ''parashah'') in the annual Judaism, Jewish cycle of Tor ...

and Biser magazines and in the Muslim Library of Mostar. He is today featured on the 50

convertible mark The convertible mark ( Bosanski: , sign: KM; code: BAM) is the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is divided into 100 or (/) and locally abbreviated ''KM''. While the currency and its subunits are uniform for both constituent polities of B ...

banknote of

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

Poetic style and influence

Esoteric

Ćatić was a poet by vocation and emotional structure who poetically experienced and imaginatively sublimated everything he came into contact with. Ćatić's poetry was life, the meaning of existence, the atmosphere of reality, and the medium in which his spirit ranged.

Mystic

The poetic theme of Ćatić is situated, mainly, between two poles:

eroticism Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, sculp ...

by instinct and

mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in u ...

by spiritual endeavor, respectively. The combination of these motives sometimes occurred with a certain sense of spiritual distress, while sometimes sublimated in the form of sin, life and repentance as visioned by

Epicurus Epicurus (; grc-gre, Ἐπίκουρος ; 341–270 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and sage who founded Epicureanism, a highly influential school of philosophy. He was born on the Greek island of Samos to Athenian parents. Influenced ...

and Khayyám. Mysticism though never separates Ćatić from reality and life; his mysticism, which draws on that of Turkish and Persian poets, rejects the pessimistic escapism of the spirit, similar to

Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited fro ...

on whom Ćatić likewise draws.

Impact

Ćatić began in the style of his predecessor

Safvet-beg Bašagić Dr. Safvet-beg Bašagić ( sr-cyrl, Сафвет-бег Башагић; 6 May 1870 – 9 April 1934), also known as Mirza Safvet, was a Bosnian writer who is often described by Bosniak historians as the "father of Bosnian Renaissance", and one of ...

, standardized, with conventional instruments of versification and metrics, and a limited fund of metaphors from female folk songs and Eastern poetic symbols. But he soon made ground in the limited and underdeveloped poetic heritage surrounding him, spurring a small school of literary followers who would represent the second phase in the development of modern Bosnian poetry.

Works

*''Pjesme od godine 1900.-1908.'' (1914, compiled 1900-1908) *''Izvorna poezija'' and ''Izvorna i prevedena proza'' (1962, as "Sabrana dijela")

References

External links

Musa Ćazim Ćatić
{{DEFAULTSORT:Catic, Musa Cazim 1878 births 1915 deaths Bosniaks of Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina Muslims People from Odžak Bosnia and Herzegovina writers Bosniak writers Bosniak poets Bosnia and Herzegovina poets Austro-Hungarian poets