Gregor Strniša (18 November 1930 – 23 January 1987) 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

, and

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

. He is considered one of the most important Slovene-language poet of the second half of the 20th century. He spent most of his life away from public light, and has gained widespread recognition only after his death.

Life

Strniša was born in

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

, then part of the

Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe, Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" () h ...

, to his father Gustav Strniša (1887–1970), himself a

young adult fiction Young adult literature (YA) is typically written for readers aged 12 to 18 and includes most of the themes found in adult fiction, such as family dysfunction, substance abuse, alcoholism, and sexuality. It is characterized by simpler world build ...

writer, and mother Alojzija, as their fourth child. He was accused together with his parents, who were involved in helping Slovene political emigrants across the border to the West, of "organizing an underground anti-Communist opposition and of revealing state secrets" by the

Titoist Titoism is a Types of socialism, socialist political philosophy most closely associated with Josip Broz Tito and refers to the ideology and policies of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (LCY) during the Cold War. It is characterized by a br ...

regime and was in 1949 sentenced to four years in prison, but was released after two years on probation while a high school student at the Classical

Grammar School A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

of Ljubljana.http://s2.ned.univie.ac.at/lic/autor.asp?paras=/lg;26/aut_id;16554/& He went on to study languages at the

University of Ljubljana The University of Ljubljana (, , ), abbreviated UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 38,000 enrolled students. The university has 23 faculties and three art academies with approximately 4,000 teaching and re ...

where he got his diploma in 1961 after studying the German and English languages. During his study he also attended classes in ancient languages and learned

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

, and the basics of Sumerian and Akkadian. As a co-founder of the alternative journal '' Revija 57'', he joined young Slovene intellectuals and dissidents challenging the cultural policies of the

regime. Strniša was known for never having moved from his native Ljubljana, except for a few short trips across Yugoslavia. In 1985, he was granted a

Fulbright Scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

to travel to the United States, but decided to stay in Slovenia. In 1963, he met the young poet

Svetlana Makarovič Svetlana Makarovič (born 1 January 1939) is a Slovenian writer of prose, poetry, children's books, and picture books, and is also an actress, illustrator and chanteuse. She has been called "The First Lady of Slovenian poetry." She is also noted ...

, with whom he had a short romantic relationship. In 1970 he met Thea Skinder. They married in 1974 and had one daughter. He died in Ljubljana in 1987, and was buried in Žale Central Cemetery.

Work

Poetry and plays

Strniša is most renowned for his poetry, based on a highly metaphysical poetic view, and his poetic plays. His poems express a

cosmogony Cosmogony is any model concerning the origin of the cosmos or the universe. Overview Scientific theories In astronomy, cosmogony is the study of the origin of particular astrophysical objects or systems, and is most commonly used in ref ...

directed against the

anthropocentrism Anthropocentrism ( ) is the belief that human beings are the central or most important entity on the planet. The term can be used interchangeably with humanocentrism, and some refer to the concept as human supremacy or human exceptionalism. From a ...

of traditional literature.http://s2.ned.univie.ac.at/lic/autor.asp?paras=/lg;26/lt;26/aut_id;16554/link;4/id;4961/ His poems, exploring multiple universes, interconnected through a mysterious and magical fate, have been translated into English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Greek, Russian, Belarusian, Czech, Polish, Croatian, Hungarian, Romanian, Slovak, Albanian, Turkish and Esperanto. His most well known plays include ''Samorog'' (Unicorn) and ''Žabe'' (Frogs) which were translated into Serbian, and ''Ljudožerci'' (Cannibals) which was translated into German. In 1986, he received the

Prešeren Award The Prešeren Award (), also called the Grand Prešeren Award (), is the highest decoration in the field of artistic and in the past also scientific creation in Slovenia. It is awarded each year by the Prešeren Fund () to two eminent Slovene art ...

, the highest prize for literary achievements in Slovenia. His work has been examined by 26 university diploma theses.

Songwriting

After graduation in 1961, he mostly made his living as a songwriter, writing the lyrics for a number of Slovenian pop songs, including the 1962 song "

The Earth is Dancing "The Earth is Dancing" (in Slovene: "''Zemlja pleše''") is a 1962 pop song, music of which was written by Mojmir Sepe based on a lyrics by Slovene poet Gregor Strniša that was awarded at the first edition of the Slovenian song festival where ...

," which won an award at the first

Slovenian song festival Slovenian song festival (In ) was a Slovenian music festival dedicated to a music genre known as Slovenian song () that was most popular during the 1960s and 1970s and had a similarly high standing in Slovene culture as did the Sanremo Music Festiva ...

. Despite it, he considered songwriting a degradation compared to writing poetry.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Strnisa, Gregor Slovenian male poets Yugoslav science fiction writers Writers from Ljubljana University of Ljubljana alumni Prešeren Award laureates 1930 births 1987 deaths 20th-century Slovenian poets 20th-century Slovenian dramatists and playwrights Burials at Žale