Professor to discuss first Croatian poetry anthology

A Grand Valley professor has published the first comprehensive and bilingual anthology of Croatian poetry in the world. 

On Tuesday, April 5, Ivo Soljan, professor of English, and his wife, Vinka, literary translator and co-author, will discuss their experiences creating the manuscript, "The Canon of Croatian Poetry, 1450-2000."

"The Impossible Art: Translating Croatian Poetry into English" will take place from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. in the Mary Idema Pew Library Multipurpose Room (room 030). During the event, the authors will additionally recite poems from the book, followed by a Q&A session.

"Croatian poetry, like the poetry of numerous other small countries, has rarely been translated into English," said Soljan. "This book opens a window into the culture of a small, yet lively present, central European country."

The anthology includes 230 translated poems by 120 Croatian poets from the early 16th century to the present day. Soljan said that aside from obtaining copyrights, the primary challenge to this massive translation project was maintaining the essence of the original poems.

"Satisfying fully the prosodic elements of poetry, such as rhyme, rhythm and meter, plus keeping alive the spirit of the originals, were the most important challenges we had to overcome," Soljan said. "The production of this anthology has taken my wife, Vinka, and I nearly two decades as we were constantly fighting with the highly demanding originals and did not want to make any cheap compromises."

For more information about this event, contact the English Department at (616) 331-3400, or visit the English Department website.