HOW JAN NERUDA DID (NOT) TRANSLATE US, OR: WHO IS UGOJE GJORGJE OGNJANIĆ?

Abstract

The only translations from any Slavic literature that the Czech literary classic Jan Neruda published as independent texts are two decasyllabic poems by a little known Croatian poet Hugo Antolković who wrote under the pseudonym Ugoje Gjorgje Ognjanić. This paper brings information on Antolković’s life and his small poetic opus, and places Neruda’s translations of his poems in the context of Neruda’s first public expressions of interest for the South Slavic epic poetry and general South Slavic topics, that culminated at the end of the 1860’s and in the 1870’s.