About Tin Ujevic and Walt Whitman Two Ujevic’s translations

Abstract

In her continuous research of the translations made by Tin Ujević (1891—1955), the greatest Croatian lyrical poet in the period between two wars and one of the key figures of all the Croatian literature of the 20th century, as well as the most important Croatian translator of Walt Whitman’s poetry until today, the author discusses the fortune of Whitman’s poetry in Croatia (filling in some gaps and correcting some research of the previous scholars) and talks about Ujević — Whitman relation in particular. The author believes that Ujević’s translations of Whitman, although made around 1950, are the result of long and intimate study of Whitman's poetry. The author analyses also two of Ujević’s translations which escaped the attention of the previous scholars. The first translation is a compilation of Whitman’s verses which Ujević incorporated, by way of a French translation, in a article he wrote on Vivekananda in 1930. This translation is interesting primarily as Ujevlić’s first translation of Whitman. The other text which is a very accurate and successful translation of a piece from »Song of Myself« (47, 10-28) was published in Ujević’s polyglotic correspondence with Danilo Čorak in 1950. This translation deseres particular attention since it presents the first translation of Walt Whitman into classical Latin ever registered in the world until today. *