Viktor Vida (October 2, 1913 – September 25, 1960) was a

Croat The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are also a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, Ge ...

ian writer.

Early life

Vida was born in

Kotor Kotor (Montenegrin Cyrillic: Котор, ), historically known as Cattaro (from Italian: ), is a coastal town in Montenegro. It is located in a secluded part of the Bay of Kotor. The city has a population of 13,510 and is the administrative c ...

. After completing his ''

matura or its translated terms (''Mature'', ''Matur'', , , , , , ) is a Latin name for the secondary school exit exam or "maturity diploma" in various European countries, including Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech ...

'' in

Podgorica Podgorica (Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Подгорица, ; Literal translation, lit. 'under the hill') is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Montenegro, largest city of Montenegro. The city was formerly known as Titograd ...

in 1932, he moved with his parents to Zagreb, where he graduated from the

University of Zagreb The University of Zagreb ( hr, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, ; la, Universitas Studiorum Zagrabiensis) is the largest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of ...

in south Slav literature, Italian language and literature, and French and Russian. From 1939, he worked as a librarian in the Institute of Italian Culture ( it, Istituto di Cultura Italiana) in Zagreb. In 1941 he taught at the . His first poetry was published in ''Slobodna misao'' weekly in

Nikšić Nikšić ( cnr, Никшић, italic=no, sr-cyrl, Никшић, italic=no; ), is the second largest city in Montenegro, with a total population of 56,970 located in the west of the country, in the centre of the spacious Nikšić field at the foot ...

Emigration

From 1943 he worked in Rome. He emigrated to

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

with his family in 1948. In Argentina he contributed to the Croatian emigrant publication ''

Hrvatska revija ''Hrvatska revija'' ( en, Croatian Review or HR) is a Croatian quarterly published by Matica hrvatska (MH) based in Zagreb. History and profile The magazine's original run lasted between 1928 and 1945 when it was published by MH and during which ...

''. His

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

is in the bohemian tradition of Antun Gustav Matoš and

Tin Ujević Augustin Josip "Tin" Ujević (; 5 July 1891 – 12 November 1955) was a Croatian poet, considered by many to be the greatest poet in 20th century Croatian literature. From 1921, he ceased to sign his name as Augustin, thereafter using the sig ...

, which he was inspired by after meeting the circle of writers around

Ljubo Wiesner Ljubo Wiesner (February 2, 1885 in Zagreb – July 3, 1951 in Rome) was a Croatian poet. He was a follower of Antun Gustav Matoš's work.

and Nikica Polić. He committed suicide in Buenos Aires on September 25, 1960. His tombstone in the

La Chacarita cemetery Cementerio de la Chacarita in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is known as the National Cemetery and is the largest in Argentina. Location The cemetery is in the barrio or district of Chacarita, in the western part of Buenos Aires. Its main entrance i ...

bears the inscription "

Ars longa, vita brevis ''Ars longa, vita brevis'' is a Latin translation of an aphorism coming originally from Greek, roughly meaning, "skilfulness takes time and life is short". The aphorism quotes the first two lines of the ''Aphorismi'' by the ancient Greek phys ...

Legacy

With Croatian independence in 1991, there was renewed availability and interest in his work. The Association of Croatian Writers held an academic conference on him in 1993.SVIBOR - Collecting Data on Projects in Croatia
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Works

Poetry collections: * ''Svemir osobe'' (Buenos Aires, 1951) * ''Sužanj vremena'' (Buenos Aires, 1956) * ''Sabrane pjesme'' (Buenos Aires, 1962) * ''Otrovane lokve'' (Zagreb, 1971) * ''Izabrane pjesme'' (Zagreb, 1994) Non-fiction: * ''Otključana škrinjica'' (Zagreb, 1997)

References

Bibliography