Anto GARDAŠ  (1938-2004)

 

The Croatian writer Anto Gardaš was born on 21st May 1938 in Agići, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He graduated from the Law School in Zagreb in 1968.  Since his first publication in 1958 he has been cooperating in many literary magazines, journals, newspapers; in radio and television. He wrote poetry and prose for children and adults: poems, haiku poems, novels, short stories, fairy tales, and plays, radio plays for children and for the theatre. He has written about forty books and he also published five haiku collections.

His work has been translated into numerous languages ​​and he received several prestigious literary awards for his novels and poetry in Croatia. His haiku was awarded and commended on many haiku contests both in Croatia and abroad. Anto Gardaš died in Osijek, Croatia on 10 June 2004. In 2007 as acknowledgment of his work the Croatian Ministry of Culture established an annual literary award in his name.

Domestic awards:
Puzev se roscic ­ 'Dani Drubravka Ivancana', Krapina, 1999
U tamnoj noci ­ 'Vrabac/Sparrow' Samobor, 2000

International awards:
Zlatnim cavlima ­Kusamakura, Kumamoto, 2000
Mutna rijeka ­ Ito En, Tokyo, 2000
Sjaj mjesecine - Kusamakura, Kumamoto, 2001

Some if his haiku publications:

"The bush of wild roses," haiku poetry (1994)

"3rd samoborski haiku encounters” (1995)

"Anthology of Croatian Haiku" (1996)

"Purl" Haiku (1996)

"What daffodils" Haiku (1997)

"5th samoborski haiku encounters" (1997)

"9th samoborski haiku encounters" (2000)

"Haiku anthology - Ludbreg, 2000" (2000)

"Seven ways" Haiku (2000)

"Haiku in Dalmatia" (2001)

"White silence" haiku poetry (2003)

"Moonlight", haiku poetry (2003)

 

Selection of Anto’s haiku:

Procvale šljive.

Svaka krošnja zuji

istu melodiju.

 

    Blossoming plums.

    Every crown buzzing

    the same tune.

 

 

Golub -

kljunom

broji korake.

 

    A pigeon -

    counting the paces

    with its beak.

 

 

Skriven u travi

pod zrakom sunca oživi

komadić stakla.

 

    Hidden in the grass

    a piece of glass becomes alive

    under the ray of sun

 

 

Sav je moj život

samo kapljica vode

i - ništa više.

 

    My whole life is

    just a drop of water

    and - nothing more.

 

(From “The Moonlight Brightness”, Osijek, 2003)

***

Na nochnom nebu
glasovi divljih gusaka
puni j eseni.

 

In the night sky
voices of wild geese
full of autumn.

 

Topi se snijeg:
do koljena u vodu
mlada psenica.

 

The snow melts down:
young wheat
up to the knees in water.

 

Bljedolik Mjesec.
Svitanje ga zateklo
napola puti.

 

Pale Moon.
The dawn had caught it
half-way.

 

(From World Haiku Association, 2001)

 

Sources:

http://www.tempslibres.org/aozora/en/memo/memo08.html

http://www.worldhaiku.net/poetry/si/a.gardas/a.gardas.htm

http://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anto_Garda%C5%A1

http://slobodni.net/t113484/