Poetry
Ђулићи
Not translated into English
Jovan Jovanović Zmaj · 1864
Synopsis
Sixty short poems, kept like a journal in verse. They follow a love from the meeting with a young girl to the engagement, then the first years of a household and the arrival of children. The poet expresses his wonder at the world, which seems beautiful to him because it is loved, and the shortest pieces run to a few lines, like notes taken day by day.
Context
The volume appeared in Novi Sad with the printer Ignjat Fuchs, signed only with its author's initials, and then contained sixty pieces; the poet added others to the cycle afterwards. These poems are addressed to the woman he married, Ruža Ličanin, whose first name means rose, hence the title. After the bereavements that struck his family, a second collection with an almost identical title took up the cycle and turned it into a book of mourning, in 1882 according to most sources.
Who it is for
Short pieces, with no continuous narrative. They can be read in order or at random and require no prior knowledge.
Prizes and reception
Together with the collection of mourning that follows it, the most important book of verse by one of the great lyric poets of Serbian Romanticism.