Poetry
The Passionate Measure
Страсна мера
Ivan V. Lalić · 1984
Synopsis
Poems in which the formula of the title recurs, from one piece to the next and in different tones: this “passionate measure” that would have song and truth be one. Each poem poses a problem and seeks to resolve it; mottoes drawn from Latin epitaphs and allusions to the whole field of European culture converse there with the memory of a childhood marked by war, in a clear and highly wrought language.
Context
The collection was published in 1984 and received that same year one of the most prominent prizes in Belgrade. For a long time, the author's work had found its place neither in the dominant avant-garde nor in emotive lyricism; it was in the eighties that it came to be recognised as a major voice, and its 1997 publisher placed it at the summit of Serbian poetry. Francis R. Jones published a selection in 1987, then the complete translation, which won a prize in 1989.
Who it is for
A dense collection, in a clear language but rich in references. It helps to know a little of Latin antiquity and the great European works, to which the poems often refer without naming them.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as its author's finest collection; its English translation received the European Poetry Translation Prize in 1989.