Sve ča mi rabi ovega prolića
Everything I Need This Spring is the first solo poetry collection by Evelina Rudan, a poet and scholar from Pula and Zagreb (born 1971). The book represents a significant contribution to contemporary Istrian Chakavian lyric poetry.
The title alludes to spring as a period of renewal, desires and needs, but with an intimate, everyday, sometimes ironic undertone: "sve ča mi rabi" – everything I need this spring – something simple, earthly, emotional or existential.
Key themes and atmospheres:
- Love and eroticism – gentle, sensual, but not pathetic; spring awakenings of the body and feelings.
- Homeland and identity – Istria, sea, stone, olive trees, rural landscapes; Čakavica as a living, organic language that carries the scent of the earth and the sea.
- Female perspective – introspection, solitude, joy, melancholy; a discreet measure of emotions, without exaggeration.
- Nature and cycles – spring as a metaphor for change, but also transience; everyday details (flowers, rain, sun) gain lyrical depth.
The style is clean, rhythmic, with the natural flow of Chakavian speech – the poems are short to medium-length, with rich sensory images, subtle irony and warmth. Critics emphasize the discreet measure of things and the authenticity of the dialect, which is not a folklore ornament, but a bearer of intimate experience.
The collection is important as a refresher of Chakavian poetry at the turn of the century – a combination of tradition and modern sensibility, female lyricism and native identity. Later, Rudan continued a similar path in the collections Posljednja topla noć (The Last Warm Night) (2002) and others.
One copy is available
