Ivan Trnski (1 May 1819 – 30 June 1910) was a Croatian writer, translator and

puzzle A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together ( or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to find the solution of the puzzle. There are differe ...

designer. Glorified by his contemporaries as a great poet and patriot, he is now considered a skillful poet and a prolific author of occasional verse.

Life

Trnski was born in a family of teachers in the village of Nova Rača near

Bjelovar Bjelovar (, , Czech language, Czech: ''Bělovar'' or ''Bělovár,'' Kajkavian dialect, Kajkavian: ''Belovar,'' Latin: ''Bellovarium'') is a city in central Croatia. In the Demographics of Croatia, 2021 census, its population was 36,316 . It is ...

. He completed his primary education in Grubišno Polje in 1830. When his father died, Ivan was sent to the diocesan

orphanage An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abusi ...

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

, where he went to the Gymnasium. He completed the three-year course for administrative border officer in

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

. After serving for several years on the

Military Frontier The Military Frontier (; sh-Cyrl-Latn, Војна крајина, Vojna krajina, sh-Cyrl-Latn, Војна граница, Vojna granica, label=none; ; ) was a borderland of the Habsburg monarchy and later the Austrian and Austro-Hungari ...

, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1867 and to

colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

in 1869. He was the first

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect' ...

of the

- Križevci

County A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

from July 1871 until February 1872, when he renounced the post. In 1901 Trnski served as the president of

Matica hrvatska Matica hrvatska () is the oldest independent, non-profit and non-governmental Croatian national institution. It was founded on February 2, 1842 by the Croatian Count Janko Drašković and other prominent members of the Illyrian movement during ...

. He died in Zagreb. He was the brother-in-law of the Slovene liberal politician Karel Lavrič.

Works

Trnski wrote patriotic, occasional and popular songs (''Oh The Long Nights of Autumn''), poems (the collections ''Pjesme krijesnice'' and ''Popijevke i milosnice mladenke'') and short stories (''Slutljivac'' (The Seer), arguably the first work of

supernatural fiction Supernatural fiction or supernaturalist fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction that is centered on supernatural themes, often contradicting Naturalism (philosophy), naturalist assumptions of the real world. Description In its broadest def ...

in Croatian). He translated from English, German, Russian and

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

(

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

, Schiller, and Pushkin's ''

Eugene Onegin ''Eugene Onegin, A Novel in Verse'' (, Reforms of Russian orthography, pre-reform Russian: Евгеній Онѣгинъ, романъ въ стихахъ, ) is a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin. ''Onegin'' is considered a classic of ...

''). Trnski also contributed to issues of

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and

metrics Metric or metrical may refer to: Measuring * Metric system, an internationally adopted decimal system of measurement * An adjective indicating relation to measurement in general, or a noun describing a specific type of measurement Mathematics ...

. His essay ''On Writing Verses'' ('' Vijenac'', 1874) earned him the popular title of the "Father of Croatian Metrics". He was glorified by his contemporaries as a great poet and a fighter for the people's rights. The modern literary historians consider him a skilful (but not great) poet and a prolific author of occasional verses. He was the main organizer (1900) and president of the

Croatian Writers' Association Croatian Writers' Association (; abbreviated DHK) is the official association of Croatian writers. It was founded in 1900 in Zagreb with the goal "to unite writers and help them support one another, and promote Croatian literature regardless of po ...

. He contributed to many magazines, from Gaj's '' Danica ilirska'' (1835), '' Neven'' and '' Vijenac'', to '' Savremenik'' (1910). Trnski was an important designer of

s, such as

anagram An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into the phrase "nag a ram"; which ...

s and acrostics, for 50 years. Many of his puzzles were written in verse. As a puzzle designer, he used the pseudonyms ''Skrivnatin'' and ''Skrevnatin''. Both are

s of his name.

References

Ivan Trnski, pjesnik »dana stare slave«
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trnski, Ivan 1819 births 1910 deaths People from Nova Rača Poets from Austria-Hungary Czech–Croatian translators English–Croatian translators German–Croatian translators Russian–Croatian translators Puzzle designers Burials at Mirogoj Cemetery Poets from the Austrian Empire Presidents of the Matica hrvatska