Complete Poetic Works

ALBAS brings the complete works of Vasko Popa to Albanian, translated by Ben Andoni. It was a difficult labor of several years, involving many comparisons and consultations, as well as analysis, to bring across his extremely difficult poetry. It is not known why there is such a large cycle about play in his poetry. It is also not known what he thought in his solitude or what he feared most. It is not known what he aimed for either. It is not known. It is not known, then.

At least, Vasko Popa himself never gives us this opportunity. We know, very well, that his poetry gives a shiver that few of his Balkan colleagues can convey. This we know well. We, people. Vasko Popa must have been aware of all this. Also of himself. So there was no need to be a character. The characters were in his poetry. With worries, doubts and anxieties. Poetry seems to have been the place where he poured out the poison of his frightening anxiety.

An existential anxiety hidden beneath modern poetry, open to various critics who look with optimism at a new generation of writers in the postwar years in former Yugoslavia. But this provincial has not yet had the chance to express himself. A cycle of poems, based on folk games, hides an unusual art. The anxiety of the game, of the person who sneakily wants to 'steal' something, will not work if you are awake. You strike and catch, but beware, keep your foot deep, says Popa through the 'mouth' of one of his lines.

The poet withdraws and goes to the other holes of the 'game', where he waits for someone else to snatch his anxiety, and where we too follow with curious eyes. They follow. We follow. He withdraws. Quietly. But he often reminds us that life is a great game that must be played with care. Vasko Popa was one of the founders of the Academy of Arts and Sciences of Vojvodina, founded on 14 December 1979 in Novi Sad.

He was the first winner of the 'Branko' Prize for poetry, established in honour of the local poet Branko Radičević. In 1957 he received another poetry prize, the so-called 'Zmaj' Prize in honour of the poet Jovan Jovanović Zmaj. In 1965 he also received an Austrian state prize for European literature. In 1976 the 'Branko Miljković' prize was awarded to him, to which the AVNOJ order of the Yugoslav state was added in 1978. The last recognition was in 1983, when the 'Skender Kulenović' literary prize was to be presented.