Lili Novy née Haumeder (24 December 1885 – 7 March 1958) 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 ...

and

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 ...

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 ...

. She is considered the first Slovene female

lyric poet Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person. It is not equivalent to song lyrics, though song lyrics are often in the lyric mode, and it is also ''not'' equi ...

as well as one of the most important Slovene female poets in general.

Biography

She was born in Graz as Lili Haumeder to an

ethnic German , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

father named Guid Haumeder and a Slovene mother Ludvika Ahačič. She was educated privately and began writing poetry in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

. In her mid twenties she began to include herself in the Slovene literary scene and began translating Prešeren's German poems into Slovene and vice versa and also began publishing in literary magazines. She also translated a lot of

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...

into Slovene. Gradually, under the influence of Alojz Gradnik, she began writing her own poetry in Slovene. During her lifetime only one collection of her own poems was published: ''Temna vrata'' (Dark Door) (1941). After spending an entire life on the move with a husband in the military, Lili Novy eventually settled in

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 ...

Death and legacy

Novy died in 1958 at Ljubljana. She was 72 years old. Her bust marks the house in the centre of the old town where she lived. One of the halls in the

Cankar Hall The Cankar Centre or Cankar Hall ( sl, Cankarjev dom) is the largest Slovenian convention, congress and culture center. The building was designed by the architect Edvard Ravnikar and was built at the southern edge of Republic Square in Ljubljana b ...

Cultural Centre in Ljubljana is also named after her. In the 1970s, the essayist Jože Javoršek published a monograph on Novy which led to a positive reassessment of her work.

Published work

* ''Temna vrata'' (Dark Door) - poetry collection (1941) * ''Oboki'' (Arches) - poetry collection (1959) * ''Pikapoka'' - collection of children's poems (1968) * ''Majhni ste na tem velikem svetu'' (You are Small in this Big World) - collection of children's poems (1973)

External links

RTV Slovenia programme on Lili Novy (in Slovene)

Lili Novy - Poezija in mišljenje
{{DEFAULTSORT:Novy, Lili 1885 births 1958 deaths Slovenian women poets Slovenian poets Slovenian translators German–Slovene translators Slovenian people of German descent Writers from Graz Writers from Ljubljana 20th-century poets 20th-century women writers 20th-century translators German people of Slovenian descent Burials at Žale