Croatian poets - Danijel Dragojević

Croatian poets - Danijel Dragojević

"Good afternoon, do you have anything from Danijela Dragojević?" is a question we occasionally hear in Byblos. 

Although most lovers of the poet's character and work know that it is almost impossible to find a collection of his poems by chance, some boldly and with hope visit antique shops in search of a real literary treat.

Danijel Dragojević is almost a mystical figure of Croatian poetry. He has never given an interview, his works are not part of the school reading, and all his collections of poems have sold out at record speed. Namely, most of them today can only be obtained in antique shops.

The Dragojević family gave birth to two prominent Croatian writers. Danijela and his twin brother Ivan (In the Heart of Summer, Werewolves, The Death of Mr. Medar, Kaučenica and R4) who died in 1999 in Zagreb. 

Little is known about Danijelo, who is considered by many to be one of the greatest Croatian poets,regarding his private life.

He was born on January 28, 1934 in Vela Luka on Korčula. In 1958, he graduated in history of art at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb. Until the 1970s, he lived from writing in Split. Then he came to Zagreb, where he became an editor on the Third Program of Croatian Radio.

Writing style

Danijel Dragojević is a writer who belongs to the so-called "reasoners". It is about the post-war generation of writers who were gathered around the magazine Razlog, which was published from 1961 to 1968.

The magazine promoted poetry, literary criticism and essay writing. The characteristics of the "reasoners" are:

Dragojević's poetry has some common stylistic specificities, namely:

What makes him particularly recognizable is poetic individuality. Namely, we are talking about an authentic Croatian poet whose poetics cannot fit into any school of poetry. 

In his poetry, acumen and knowledge of fine arts are evident. Phenomenologically, he questions everyday life in which ordinary, secondary and non-poetic things become the object of singing.

In his works, Danijel Dragojević removes the boundaries between essay and story, prose and poetry and free and bound verse. 

His poetry, according to many critics, represents a new semantics and ranks among the most important poetic manuscripts of modern Croatian literature.

Awards and literary criticism

During his life, this Korčula-Zagreb writer published about twenty collections. poems, and his works are highly rated among literary critics. 

Criticism believes that this is a poetic work that marked a turning point in Croatian poetry and brought Croatian poetry closer to contemporary European poetry.

Danije Dragojević's most famous books are:

The Carboniferous Period, Natural History, Storms and Others, Tortoise and Other Regions, Storms and Others, Noise, Flowers square, Bulk cargo and many others. 

A large number of Dragojević's collections of poems have been translated into Polish.

He is the winner of numerous domestic and international literary awards. Of which we can highlight Goran's award adu2005. for his work "Zamor" and earlier, in 1974, the Branko Miljković award for the work "Natural History".

In 2019, he refused the Vladimir Nazor award (the highest state award in the field of culture) for life's work.

Private life

"He forbids photography, refuses interviews and public appearances, there are no forewords or afterwords in his collections, he is not a member of any society or organization, he does not appear at social events, no one knows his political beliefs, and few know his human habits" (Damir Petranović on Danijel Dragojević)

Danijel Dragojević is a self-effacing person who very consistently guards his privacy. By all accounts, it seems that he decided to communicate with the public exclusively through his poems.

He also insists that his collections of poems be printed in only one edition, which means that there is not a single reissue of these books.

Given that each edition sells out very quickly, the books are very difficult to find. The existing copies are extremely rare, which is why their value is skyrocketing.

We can assume that over the years this trend will continue, the books will become even more valuable because, it seems, the poet does not give up on his principles.

We at Byblos can confirm that these are real literary rarities. Namely, from the moment Danijela Dragojević's books appear on our website to the moment they find a new owner, believe it or not, sometimes only a few minutes pass. Matijević