name	Jovan Jovanović Zmaj
alt	Jovan Jovanović Zmaj
pseudonym	Zmaj
birth name	Jovan Jovanović
birth date	November 24, 1833
birth place	Neusatz (Serbian: Novi Sad), Austrian Empire
death date	June 3, 1904
death place	Kamanc (Serbian: Sremska Kamenica), Austria-Hungary
nationality	Serbian
ethnicity	Serbian
notableworks	Đulići, Đulići uveoci, Pevanija, Druga pevanija
spouse	Ruža Ličanin
portaldisp	}}

Jovan Jovanović Zmaj (Serbian Cyrillic: Јован Јовановић Змај, pronounced ; November 24, 1833 - June 3, 1904) was one of the best-known Serbian poets.

Zmaj was born in Novi Sad. He finished elementary school in the town, and secondary school in Pozsony (today Bratislava), later studying in Budapest, Prague and Vienna. In 1870, he returned to Neusatz to work as a doctor, motivated by the fact that his wife and children were suffering from and eventually died from tuberculosis.

He wrote in many of the genres of poetry, including love, lyric, patriotic, political, youth's, and educational poetry. But he is best known for his children's poetry. His nursery rhymes have entered the Serbian national consciousness and people sing them to their children even without knowing who wrote them.

His nickname Zmaj (''Змај'', meaning ''"dragon"'') derives from May Assembly date, 3 May 1848, in Serbian Cyrillic: 3.мај / Змај.

Biography

Zmaj was born in Neusatz, then a city in Batsch-Bodrog County (Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire), on November 24, 1833. His family was an old and noble family. In his earliest childhood he showed a great desire to learn by heart the Serbian national songs which were recited to him, and even as a child he began to compose poems.

His father, who was a highly cultivated and wealthy man, gave him his first education in his native city. After this he went to Budapest, Prague, and Vienna, and in these cities he finished his studies in law. This was the wish of his father, but his own inclinations prompted him to take up the study of medicine. He then returned to his native city, where a prominent official position was offered him, which he accepted; but so strong were his poetical instincts that a year later he abandoned the post to devote himself entirely to literary work.

His literary career began in 1849, his first poem being printed in 1852, in a journal called ''Srbski Letopis'' ("Serbian Annual Review"); to this and to other journals, notably ''Neven'' and ''Sedmica'', he contributed his early productions. From that period until 1870, besides his original poems, he made many translations to Serbian from Hungarian of works by Sándor Petőfi and János Arany, two of the greatest Hungarian poets, from Russian of the works of Lermontov, as well as from German of several German and Austrian poets. In 1861 he edited the comic journal, ''Komarac'' ("The Mosquito"), and in the same year he started the literary journal, ''Javor'', and to these papers he contributed many poems.

In 1861, he married, and during the happy years that followed he produced his admirable series of lyrical poems called ''Đulići'', which probably remain his masterpiece. In 1862, greatly to his regret, he discontinued his beloved journal, ''Javor'', a sacrifice which was asked of him by Svetozar Miletić, who was then active on a political journal, in order to insure the success of the latter.

In 1863, he was elected director of the Tekelianum, at Budapest. He now renewed the study of medicine at the university, and took the degree of doctor of medicine. Meanwhile he did not relax his literary labors. He also devoted himself greatly to education of Serbian youth. During his stay in Budapest he founded the literary society, Preodnica, of which he was president, and to which he devoted a large portion of his energies. In 1864 he started his famous satirical journal, "Zmaj" ("The Dragon"), which was so popular that the name became a part of his own. In 1866, his comic play "Šaran" was given with great success.

Since 1870, Zmaj has pursued his profession as a physician. He was an earnest advocate of cremation, and has devoted much time to the furtherance of that cause.

In 1872, he had the great pain of losing his wife, and, shortly after, his only child. How much these misfortunes affected him is plainly perceptible from the deeply sad tone of the poems which immediately followed. In 1873 he started another comic journal, the ''Žiža''. During the year 1877 he began an illustrated chronicle of the Russo-Turkish War, and in 1878 appeared his popular comic journal, ''Starmali''. During all this period he wrote not only poems, but much prose, including short novels, often under an assumed name. The best of these is probably ''Vidosava Brankovićeva''. In that period he published a great many charming little poems for children.

Politics

At the very outset of Zmaj's political career he learned to listen to the recital of his failings. The great Slav scholar Vatroslav Jagić wrote in 1866 that it was a great pity that so gifted a poet should be preoccupied with humour, for otherwise literature would have benefited more greatly. Later on Laza Kostić, a friend of the poet, and a well-known propogator of Shakespeare among the Serbs, regretted that in this case, as in the second poem of the Iliad, the "dragon" (Zmaj) had swallowed the bird: the politician had swallowed the lyric poet.

In retrospect, someone should speak as a historian, asking not what would have become of Zmaj under different circumstances, but how he fulfilled the mission entrusted to him by Svetozar Miletić and what he did where he was placed, as by Plato's Socrates.

When Svetozar Miletić was imprisoned, then fell ill, and was no longer the national leader, there remained, however, the poet (Zmaj) who had learned to write poems on the dreams and desires of a people resigned to its fate. Zmaj remained alone, and he tried both to save the program and the party that was breaking up, and to bring about harmony between the semi-socialistic new generation and the old liberalism. When this proved impossible, Zmaj became estranged from his former friends and followed the current, in the belief that he would thus better serve the freedom he had loved from his childhood. He died on June 3, 1904 in Kamanc (Serbian: Sremska Kamenica, today in Serbia). He was then a member of the governing body of the Radical party in the Vojvodina.

Literary Work

Of the same bent as Đura Jakšić and Laza Kostić is Jovan Jovanović Zmaj, also known as ''the poet of sympathy.'' In his lyric songs under the collective titles ''Đuljiči'' (Little Rosebuds) and ''Đuljiči Uveoci'' (Faded Little Rosebuds), he touches the highest point of his creative genius. There are six large volumes of his ''Pevanija'' (The Book of Songs), and several smaller collections including the satires, epigrams, and children's songs. To the American literary world Zmaj is known partly through the renderings of Robert Underwood Johnson, editor and publisher of New York City's ''Century Magazine'' and a good friend of Nikola Tesla. In the following we have the poet's definition of poetry that few would think of contending for even in these days:

Where is Pain and dire Distress, Songs shall soothe like soft caress; Though the stoutest courage fails, Song's an anchor in all gales; When all others fail to reach, Song shall be the thrilling speech; Love and friends and comfort fled, Song shall linger by your bed; And when Doubt shall question, Why? Song shall lift you to the sky.

Legacy

The Zmaj Children Games (Serbian: Змајеве дечје игре / Zmajeve dečje igre), one of the biggest festivals for children in Serbia and the Novi Sad region, are named after Jovan Jovanović Zmaj.

City of Sremska Kamenica beared name Zmajeva Kamenica (Zmaj's Kamenica), in his honour.

Quotes

- From cradle to grave, the most beautiful (period) is the school age.

Parital bibliography (in Serbian)

Collections of poems

''Djulici''

''Djulici uveoci''

''Pevanija''

''Druga pevanija''

''Snohvatice I-II''

''Devesilje''

''Istočni biser''

''Pesme Mirca Shafije''

''Čika Jova srpskoj omladini''

Prose

''Šaran''

''Vidosava Branković''

Selected translations

''Vitez Jovan''

''Herman i Doroteja''

''Ifigenija u Tavridi''

''Pesme Mirca Shafije''

''Enoh Arden''

''Demon''

External links

Jovan Jovanović Zmaj - Biography and works (many in translation)

Jovan Jovanović Zmaj - Biography (in Serbian)

Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj (portrait; two children's poems in English, more poems in Serbian)

Jovan Jovanović Zmaj: Zmajeve Dečije Pesme (Poems for children in Serbian)

Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj: Decje Pesme (Children's poems in Serbian)

Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj in South Slavic Literature Library (poems of various genres in Serbian)

Šaran (in Serbian)

Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj publications in the National Library of Serbia

References

''This article incorporates text from the'' Zmai Iovan Iovanovich - the Chief Servian Poet of To-Day'' by Nikola Tesla, a publication now in the public domain.''

Category:1833 births Category:1904 deaths Category:People from Novi Sad Category:Austro-Hungarian Serbs Category:Serbian writers Category:People from Vojvodina

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