Ivan Minatti (22 March 1924 – 9 June 2012) was a Slovene

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

, and editor. He started writing poetry before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, but principally belongs to the first postwar generation of Slovene poets. He is one of the best representatives of Slovene Intimism.

Life

Minatti was born in 1924 in

Slovenske Konjice Slovenske Konjice ( or ; german: Gonobitz, in older sources also ''Gannobitz'') is a town in northeastern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Slovenske Konjice. The area is part of the traditional region of Styria. History and town s ...

in northeastern

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

. His family moved first to Slovenj Gradec and then to

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the are ...

while he was still a child. He attended Gymnasium in Ljubljana, finished it in 1943, and then enrolled in medical studies, but postponed his education to join the Partisans in 1944. After the war, he studied Slavic studies at the

Faculty of Arts A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges ...

of the

University of Ljubljana The University of Ljubljana ( sl, Univerza v Ljubljani, , la, Universitas Labacensis), often referred to as UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 39,000 enrolled students. History Beginnings Although certain ...

and graduated in 1952. He worked as an editor at Mladinska Knjiga publishers from 1947 until his retirement in 1984. He became a regular member of the

Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( sl, Slovenska akademija znanosti in umetnosti (SAZU)) is the national academy of Slovenia, which encompasses science and the arts and brings together the top Slovene researchers and artists as members ...

in 1991. He died at the age of 88 and was buried at

Žale Žale Central Cemetery ( sl, Centralno pokopališče Žale), often simply Žale, is the largest and the central cemetery in Ljubljana and Slovenia. It is located in the Bežigrad District and operated by the Žale Public Company. History The ce ...

in Ljubljana.

Work

Minatti's poems, influenced by the horrors of the war, are lyrical and deal with modern-age resignation and melancholy. According to the poet

Boris A. Novak Boris A. Novak (born 3 December 1953) is a Slovene poet, dramaturge and editor. Novak was born in 1953 in Belgrade where he also spent his early childhood. He completed secondary schooling in Ljubljana and studied Comparative literature and ...

, his work signified a radical break with collectivist postwar poetry and the start of a personal poetry, making Minatti one of the breakthrough Slovene poets of the 20th century. The poet and translator Veno Taufer characterised him as a rock-steady and at the same time of a soft heart and ascribed his success to his expression of human as well as social distress in the postwar Communist Slovenia. Minatti is known for his references to nature. According to the poet Ciril Zlobec, he used nature as a source of deep symbols and

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...

s for man and his life.

Awards

Minatti won the Prešeren Fund Award in 1964 for his poetry collection ''You Have to Love Somebody'' ( sl, Nekoga moraš imeti rad). In 1972, he won the Sovre Award, bestowed for the best translations into Slovene, for his translations of lyrical poems by the Macedonian poet Kočo Racin and the Bosnian poet

Izet Sarajlić Izet Sarajlić (16 March 1930 in Doboj – 2 May 2002 in Sarajevo) was a Bosnian historian of philosophy, essayist, translator and poet. Sarajlić was Bosnia and Herzegovina's best-known poet after World War II, and the former Yugoslavia's most wi ...

. In 1985, he won the

Prešeren Award The Prešeren Award ( sl, Prešernova nagrada), also called the Grand Prešeren Award ( sl, Velika Prešernova nagrada), is the highest decoration in the field of artistic and in the past also scientific creation in Slovenia. It is awarded each yea ...

for his poetry collection ''I Listen to the Silence Inside Me'' ().

Poetry collections

* ''Off-Trail'' (, 1947) * ''And the Spring Will Come'' (, 1955) * ''You Have to Love Somebody'' (, 1963) * ''The Wind Sings'' (, 1963) * ''The Pain of the Unexperienced'' (, 1964) * ''Poems'' (, 1971) * ''The Face'' (, 1972) * ''When I Am Silent and Good'' (, 1973) * ''The Poems'' (, 1977) - with

Janez Menart Janez Menart () (29 September 1929 – 22 January 2004) was a Slovene poet, best known for his Intimist poetry. He translated a number of classic French and English poetry and drama works into Slovene, including Shakespeare' ...

and

Lojze Krakar Lojze Krakar (21 February 1926 – 24 December 1995) was a Slovene poet, translator, editor, literary historian, and essayist. He also wrote poetry for children. Krakar was born in Semič in White Carniola in 1926. He studied Slavic languages ...

* ''I Eavesdrop on the Silence Within Me'' (, 1984) * ''Behind the Closed Eyelids: Chosen Poems'' (, 1999) * ''Minatti – Chosen Lyrical Poetry'' (, 2004)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Minatti, Ivan 1924 births 2012 deaths Slovenian poets Slovenian male poets Slovenian editors Slovenian translators Yugoslav poets Yugoslav editors Yugoslav translators Prešeren Award laureates Members of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts University of Ljubljana alumni 20th-century poets 20th-century translators People from the Municipality of Slovenske Konjice Yugoslav Partisans members