Dane Zajc () (26 October 1929 – 20 October 2005) was a
Slovenia
Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...
n
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 (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
and
playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just
Readin ...
. He served as president of the
Slovene Writers' Association (1991–1995), and was awarded the prestigious
Prešeren Award for lifetime achievement (1981). Together with
Edvard Kocbek and
Gregor Strniša, he is considered the most important Slovenian poet of the second half of the 20th century.
Life
He was born as Danijel Zajc in the
Upper Carniolan village of
Zgornja Javoršica near
Moravče, in a relatively wealthy peasant family. He was traumatized by the experience of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. At the age of 13, he witnessed the brutal death of his father, when the
Nazi
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
s burned his home, throwing his father in the flames. Two of his brothers fell in the
Partisan resistance. During the war years, he dropped out of school. He continued his education after 1945, first in a special course for young war victims in
Domžale, and then in
Kamnik and
Gornja Radgona.
In 1947, he enrolled in
Poljane Grammar School in
Ljubljana
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.
During this time, he befriended several young writers and poets. Together with
Lojze Kovačič,
Viktor Blažič in
Janez Menart, he founded the youth literary magazine called ''Mi, mladi'' (We, the Young); where he published his first poems.
In 1951, he was arrested by the
Communist authorities, and sentenced to three months in prison. As a result, he was expelled from the Poljane Grammar School. After his release from prison, he was drafted to the
Yugoslav People's Army. Bad experiences with the Yugoslav Communist regime affirmed his skepticism against the Communist ideology, turning him into a lifelong
anti-Communist.
Between 1953 and 1955, he worked as a clerk at the post office. In 1955, he got a job at the City Library of Ljubljana, where he worked until retirement in 1989. In 1958, he completed his high school with external exams, but was not allowed to enroll to the university.
In the mid-1950s, Zajc became part of a circle of critical Slovene intellectuals, known as the ''
Critical generation''. The group was formed by poets (besides Zajc, also
Gregor Strniša and
Veno Taufer), writers (
Lojze Kovačič,
Marjan Rožanc,
Rudi Šeligo), playwrights (
Dominik Smole,
Primož Kozak), and theoreticians (
Taras Kermauner,
Veljko Rus,
Janko Kos,
Jože Pučnik). They introduced contemporary existentialist currents in Slovenia, opening a series of discussions regarding philosophical, cultural and political issues of the time. Zajc was member of the editorial board of the alternative journal ''
Revija 57'', the first independent journal in Slovenia after 1945, and of the journal ''
Perspektive''.
After both journals were banned by the Communist regime, Zajc withdrew from public life, but continued writing and publishing his poetry and plays. He again returned to the public scene in the late 1980s, during the
Slovenian Spring, becoming a vocal supporter of the
Slovenian Democratic Opposition. During the 1990s, he served as president of the
Slovenian Writers' Association.
He died in
Ljubljana
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.
The American singer and songwriter
Chris Eckman released a CD in 2008 called ''The Last Side of the Mountain''. It contains more than 10 adaptations of poems by Dane Zajc, translated into English by Eckman's Slovenian wife
Anda Eckman.
Work
He was an author of
neo-expressionist poems about irresolution and fear of contemporary man (''Požgana trava'', ''Ubijavci kač''), poetical dramas based on Slovenian folklore (''Mlada Breda'', ''Voranc'', ''Jaga baba'', antique and other motifs (''Otroka reke''. Paris: Les Éditions de l'Amandier, 2003. Traduit par Jana Pavlič).
References
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Zajc, Dane
1929 births
2005 deaths
People from the Municipality of Moravče
Slovenian male poets
Members of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Prešeren Award laureates
Presidents of the Slovene Writers' Association
Levstik Award laureates
Deaths from cancer in Slovenia
20th-century Slovenian poets