One hundred and forty years have already passed since the birth of the poet Alekse Šantić. Aleksa’s personality and Mostar remained inseparable, as before. Historical events and social movements, at least until now, have not managed to change the relationship between the poet, the city and its citizens. Poet, drama writer, translator, then an active cultural worker in “Zora” and “Gusle”, is not all that Aleksa has given in his life. His social being was also reflected through his poetry and his work. Sung during his lifetime, and even more so after his death, here he is already welcoming the one hundred and fortieth anniversary in Mostar, and he is present just as much.
A publication of the Herzegovina Museum more precisely its Literature Depertment that operates in the Ćorović House, has been thought about for a long time.
What is this publication about ? To repeat the old, we did not want to ; we gave something new, we had it and now we present it to you. This is new at least new for the citizens of Mostar, for researchers, and for all institutions that inherit and preserve Šantić in any way. Surely, we wanted to expand knowledge about the poet with primary material. Stationery, archival photo documentation, original Aleksa manuscripts, documents related to Aleksa, expert selection
Have been presented in the publication. It was essential to restore some of the poems in this work, certainly in the selection of the Museum, because what would a publication be without Aleksa’s verses.
With this work, we wanted to present excerpts of all documents connected by poems and a logical arrangement that was not easy to establish. It was a very difficult director’s work that had to connect different documents into one unit. We were free to give the different subtitles, and we have consciously emphasized Aleksa’s translation activity as one of his less emphasized components. With this work, we have wanted to return the poet to realistic forms of research and study, which have been less and less recently, and which is necessary for the sake of highlighting Šantić’s work. This is the only way to preserve the poet’s life in the city and away from the city, where he is respected.
The Herzegovina Mostar Museum
