I lived from 1922-1991.
Vasko Popa was born June 29, 1922 in Grebenac, Serbia. After high school, he enrolled in The Faculty of Philosophy at the Belgrade University. During World War II he fought with a partisan group, was captured and imprisoned in a German concentration camp in Beckerek (Vojvodina, Serbia). Later he studied in Bucharest and inVienna and completed his education at the University of Belgrade in 1949.
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Popa took a job as an editor in Belgrade, and published his first major verse collection in 1953. Over a thirty-eight year career, he wrote eight volumes of poetry and received numerous awards. From 1954-1979 he was the editor of the publishing house Nolit. His Collected Poems, 1943–76, a compilation in English translation, appeared in 1978. In 1972 Vasko Popa founded The Literary Municipality Vršac. Popa was a member of Serbian Academy of Science and was one of the founders of Vojvodina Academy of Science and Arts which was established on 14 December 1979.
Vasko Popa wrote with a modernist style derived more from French surrealism and Serbian folk traditions than the Socialist Realism that prevailed in Eastern European literature after World War II. He created a unique poetic language that combines a modern form with old, oral folk traditions of Serbia –
In 1995, the town of Vršac established a poetry award named after Vasko Popa. It is awarded annually for the best book of poetry published in Serbian. The award ceremony is held on the day of Popa’s birthday, 29 June.
Popa died on 5 January 1991 in Belgrade and is buried in the Aisle of the Deserving Citizens in Belgrade’s New Cemetery.
Popular poetry
Someone embraces me
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Once upon a time there was a number
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Someone hides from someone else
Hides under his tongue
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Once upon a time there was a mistake
So silly so small
17 lines, 4 comments
Shut one eye then the other
Peek into every corner of yourself
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Until her last breath she enlarges
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Unquiet you walk
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The street climbs into the sky
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Give me back my rags
My rags of pure dreaming
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Throw into the little box
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