On a rainy morning in Herceg Novi, I was caught by the news - he died. Petar Gudelj! The first thought was shocking, and the second sobering - the rest is a great work. Undoubtedly great! Who knows how many volumes there will be in the series when the collected works are printed. He once told me that he writes a diary every day, if I were to calculate the period today, it would be close to seven decades. And those diary entries, parts of which he published in some books, are poems. He knew better than anyone else how to turn everyday reality, bare, even banal everyday life, into a poem, just as much as the ancient, mythical one.
I had the honor of making a selection from Petar's poetry, which was published in 2023 under the title LAND IN LANGUAGE (it seemed most appropriate to me) by the Council of the Montenegrin National Minority of the City of Zagreb, the Tivat Cultural Center, the Croatian National Council of Montenegro and Skaner Studio doo Zagreb. At that time, I was in frequent contact with Petar, and at the same time I read his work. I was amazed at how many layers it rests on and how far it reaches. The entire Croatian, South Slavic and European tradition speaks through it. From his native Imot and the local traditions, where he learned the language of stones, wormwood and other herbs, epic and lyrical folk songs, legends, all the way to the Greeks and Romans and their traces on the Dalmatian coast, and all the way to the Illyrians, to the Illyrian roots.
Petar relied on the entire tradition, which is why his work is large and exudes integrity. It contains both epics and flashes from lyrical poems, which he collected in a voluminous book entitled When the sun got married. Petar is Croatian and South Slavic Homer.
He has poured his entire life into a work that is imposing. There are no small or insignificant motifs in his work. He makes everything great and timeless.
Only great poets, and Petar is a great poet, can so comprehensively embrace the tradition that speaks through him with an imperishable voice. In his work, echoes are heard Marulić, Gundulić, Lucić, Preradović, Mazuranic, Hektorović, Kacic Miocic and other Croatian poets. He created a great synthesis preceded by interpenetrations. In his poetry, everything is heard and everything is seen. The earth speaks with a nurturing voice, which is why Peter's poetry has a nurturing effect. In fact, it is a spiritual nurturer!
Peter will be written about soon. That work will be the subject of current and future researchers. As a young man, I came across Peter's poems in the then well-known Yugoslav magazines and he was immediately close to me in his lyrical, mythical and Illyrian style.
We also remember him for the textbooks for high school and eighth-grade schools, which he created when Yugoslavia existed and he lived in Belgrade. Never again will there be such textbooks.
And I first heard his voice in March 2013, when I was in Mostar and when he was in Matica Hrvatska. Miro Petrovic I made contact with him by phone. He was pleasantly surprised. He heard about me, which meant a lot to me. Then I wrote a song Sunday in Mostar, which I dedicated to him, and Miro Petrović gave me his book to read The groom's snake, a comprehensive selection of poetry, published in 2004, and donated by An olive tree followed her, who made Mile Stojic, on the occasion of the award Bosnian tombstone, which was awarded to him in 2010.
Remembering the newly blossomed almond trees in Mostar, and while I was reading A snake to the groom, and wrote a poem, a few verses from it:
You imitate the flute.
The distant shepherd
Who sings on the forgotten
Language
In the wild hills
Many voices want
To turn them into a song
One star
Search
To her
You give light.
Ashes of former fires
You are exaggerating.
You sing silent songs.
You participate in the past
Holidays
You play in the forgotten
arm
The forgotten game
Gods
They beg you to revive them.
(Sunday in Mostar)
With Miro's gifts, I was able to gain a more complete insight into Petar Gudelj's work. Every subsequent contact with him was precious to me, and the last one I had with him alive was in October 2023, when we promoted the book in Zagreb. Earth in language. Then, even though he was in his late years, he read his poems like a youth, and he knew that he read best, I had heard the story about that much earlier. That's when I became convinced.
The news of Petar Gudelj's death was somehow simultaneously told to me by his daughter. Biljana i Forest Erak, who wrote and published two major scientific books Illyrian circles of life i Stone Book of the Dead, both feature Petar's poems. Erak writes to me in a message: "Gudeljava's daughter informed me that Petar passed away last night. The greatest Croatian poet. Works of timeless and priceless value. I am proud that he allowed me to publish his poems and thus gave my books a stamp as big and beautiful as a bilig or a stećak."
The murmur of the Croatian language will not dry up, and even if that were to happen by some impossible chance, it will murmur in the work of Petar Gudelj. And so it will be forever.
(February 13, 2025.)
Bonus video:
