Farewell, noble Luko, you masterly pen of Dubrovnik!
On 20 May 2023, the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) hosted a special programme presenting the latest collection of poems by the late Luko Paljetak, Croatia’s outstanding writer and Fellow of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Paljetak’s latest, and sadly the last poetry collection, dedicated to a distinguished Croatian poet at the turn of the 20th century Dragutin Domjanić (Kajkavske pjesme; Eng. “Poems in Kajkavian”), was presented by the Fellows of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Krešimir Nemec, Sibila Petlevski and Miro Gavran, Croatian poet famous for writing in Kajkavian, one of three major Croatian dialects, Božica Pažur and the collection’s editor-in-chief Božo Biškupić, along with the Head of the NSK Print Collection Tamara Ilić Olujić and NSK Director General Dr Ivanka Stričević.
Homage to Dragutin Domjanić and Ivan Lovrenčić – in Paljetak’s Kajkavian verses
Released as part of the Biblioteka Trilix series, launched and edited by Biškupić, the in many ways unique poetry collection features the drawings by 20th-century Croatian painter Ivan Lovrenčić, whose many works are preserved as part of the NSK Print Collection and were also used as illustrations in the 2023 bibliophile edition with Paljetak’s texts which NSK published in collaboration with Biškupić.
The programme, attended by the Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and Croatia’s Minister of Culture and Media Dr Nina Obuljen Koržinek, included a reading of the poems from the collection by Croatian stage and screen actor Joško Ševo and the exhibition of selected Paljetak’s works in the Library’s collections among which his famous translations into Croatian of works by Chaucer, Shakespeare, Byron, Wilde, Joyce and other greats of English literature particularly stand out.
A long and successful cooperation whose fruits live on
Luko Paljetak (1943-2024) was the Library’s invaluable collaborator on numerous projects, among which we are especially proud of two as part of which we published the 1980 and 1990 poetry-and-print portfolios featuring his masterly verses.
The author of some 40 poetry collections, a dozen titles of children’s literature, radio plays, numerous editorials, commentaries, treatises and more than the rightful holder of several lifetime achievement and literary awards, Paljetak will be remembered as one of the building blocks of contemporary Croatian literature and culture and the virtuoso in blending the written word into the everlasting creations magically bringing together several arts.
