Vasko Popa

Serbian writer (Grebenac near Vršac, 29 June 1922 – Belgrade, 5 January 1991), studied in Belgrade, Bucharest and Vienna, graduated in Romance Studies at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade (1949); was the editor of the publishing house Nolit (1954–79). Since 1950, he published poems in Književni novine and Borba. Under the influence of folk poetry and surrealism, he combined elements of the grotesque, fantasy and wit in his poems; the themes of the songs are the heavenly and underground worlds and myths from the subconscious and everyday life. By combining oral heritage, aphorisms, proverbs and riddles, he created a modern poetic language, concise and lapidary. During his lifetime, he published eight collections, which form a circle and bear signs: Kora (1953), Nepočin-polje (1956), Upright Sky (1968), Upright zemlja (1972), Wolf Salt (1975), House in the Middle of the Road (1975). , Live Meat (1975) and Cut (1981); they have been translated into fifty languages. He prepared anthologies of folk songs (Od zlata jabuka, 1958), poetic humor (Urnebesnik, 1960) and poetic visions (Midnight Sun, 1962).