And Again My Soul’s Dreaming All About You -ALEKSA SANTIC

Aleksa Šantić

Aleksa Šantić
Born	May 27, 1868 Mostar, Austria–Hungary
Died	February 2, 1924 (aged 55) Mostar, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Occupation	Poet
Nationality	Serbian

For the village named after the poet, see Aleksa Šantić (Sombor).

 (May 27, 1868 – February 2, 1924) was a Bosnian Serb poet.Aleksa Šantić

 (Serbian Cyrillic: Алекса Шантић)

 He was born and lived most his life in 

Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina,

 then part of Austria-Hungary, where he also died.

 He attended merchant schools in Trieste and Ljubljana.

The oeuvre of Aleksa Šantić, widely accessible yet acutely personal,

 is a blend of fine-tuned emotional sensibility

 and clear-eyed historical awareness,

 steeped in the specifics of local culture

Drawing themes and imagery from his hometown Mostar,

 the atmospheric capital of MediterraneanHerzegovina,

 and its surroundings,

 his poetry is marked in equal part by the late

-Ottoman urban culture in the region its 

social distinctions,

subdued passions and melancholy,

 as well as the South-Slavic

 national awareness that was growing

 all over what was later to become Yugoslavia.

As a Serb who embraced the form

 and the sentiment of the traditional Bosnian love ballad

sevdalinka,

 he was a pioneer in attempting to bridge the national

 and cultural divides,

 and in his lamentation of the erosion of population through emigration,

 that was the result of Austrianoccupation. 

This combination of locally rooted,

 transcultural sensibility

 and a dedicated pan-Slavicvision

 has earned him a special place in the pantheon of South Slavic poetry.

He was strongly influenced by Jovan Jovanović Zmaj, Vojislav Ilić and

 Heinrich Heine. 

The topics and images of his poems ranged from strong emotions

 for social injustices of his time to nostalgic love.

 His poems about Mostar and the river Neretva 

breathe pure Bosnian and Serbian patriotism

 and are considered particularly beautiful. 

Šantić wrote a number of love songs in the style of the Bosnian

 love songs, sevdalinkas. 

His most well known sevdalinka is Emina (female Bosniak name),

to which music was composed and it is often sung at restaurants 

(kafanas).

Aleksa Šantić, a village in Serbia is named after this poet.

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And Again My Soul’s Dreaming All About You 


And again my soul is dreaming all about you, 
And my heart is breaking and longing for you,
And your infidelity is going away,
Like when a dark cloud leaves the sky alone.


And again you’re pure to me, brilliant, serene, 
The vision of you warms me with a bliss, 
So I’d again throw myself into your bosom
And watch your eyes smile sweetly.

The same way a slender fir that got struck with lightning 
Still looks up at the sky waiting for more living, 
And don’t think: the sky is carrying clouds 
That will bring new thunders…
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I opet mi duša sve o tebi sanja,
I kida se srce i za tobom gine, 
A nevjera tvoja daleko se sklanja, 
Kao tamni oblak kad sa neba mine. 


I opet si meni čista, sjajna, vedra,
Iz prizraka tvoga blaženstva me griju, 
Pa bih opet tebi panuo na njedra 
I gledô ti oči što se slatko smiju.

Tako vita jela koju munja zgodi 
Još u nebo gleda i života čeka, 
I ne misli: nebo da oblake vodi 
Iz kojih ce nova zagrmiti jeka…