1933

  • Matas, Duško

    Duško MatasDuško Matas (1933 - 2021)

    Duško Matas was a forensic psychiatrist. Most of his lifetime he lived and created in Zagreb, Croatia. His haiku were published in a number of magazines, miscellanies and post-contest anthologies in Croatian, Slovenian, Japanese, French, German, Romanian, Italian and English since 1988. He took part at most gatherings and recitals of the Croatian haiku poets and the contests for haiku in Croatia and abroad. He was selected on to the judging committee for haiku a number of times, evaluating haiku and senryu in the Chakavian dialect and Croatian. His haiku were presented in several anthologies and he received a number of awards in Croatia and abroad. He was a publisher of several haiku books as well. 

    Awards and Other Honours:

    Second Prize, International Kusamakura Haiku Competition (1998); Award, Yellow Moon Literary Competition (2000); Second Prize, Ito-En, International Haiku Contest (2000); Commended haiku, UNESCO Paris (2000); Third Prize, Haiku Calendar/Rokovnik, International Haiku Contest in English, Ludbreg (2006); Second Prize, Kloštar Ivanić Haiku Contest, English language Category (2006); Second Prize, Kloštar Ivanić Haiku Contest, Croatian language category (2004); Honourable Mention, Haiku Calendar/Rokovnik, Ludbreg (2003); Honorary Mention, The 36th A-Bomb Memorial Day Haiku Meeting Competition (Kyoto, 1999); The Ludbreg Column of Haiku Poets, a travelling recognition which has been awarded yearly at Ludbreg Haiku Meetings to Croatian Haijin since 2003. Two haiku were selected for inclusion in William J. Higginson's Haiku World: An International Poetry Almanac(Kodansha International, 1996); Honourable Mention, World Haiku Festival 2010 in Nagasaki, Competition on the theme of the Atomic Bomb (2010); Honourable Mention, Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival (2010); work included on the Haiku Society of America's "Haiku Wall" at the Liberty Theatre Gallery in Bend, Oregon (June 3-5, 2011): Honorable Mention, The 18th Mainichi Haiku Contest 2014.

     Books published - Japanese short poems:
    Vodene trave(Water grasses), Zagreb 1991
    Vrh planine / Mountain Top, Zagreb 1998
    Ljubavna priča / Love Story, Zagreb 1999

    Collaborated haiku collections:
    Sedam putova / Seven Ways, Zagreb 2000
    Sedam novih putova / Seven New Ways, Zagreb 2003

    Collaborated haiga collection
    Olovka i kist / Svinčnik in čopić/ Pencil and Paintbrush

    Haiku by seven authors illustrated by Rudi Stopar, Sevnica, Slovenia 2010

    Selected haiku:

    lane along the stream
    following it down
    and up

    staza uz potok
    slijed ga nizvodno
    i uzvodno

    (Second Prize, International “Kusamakura” Haiku Competition, Japan 1998)

    *

    the weeds grow
    on the demined land –
    “A mine field”

    raste korov –
    na izrovanoj zemlji
    piše “minsko polje”

    (Honorable Mention, The 36th A-Bomb Memorial Day Haiku Meeting Competition, Kyoto, Japan 1999)

    *

    low flight of a bird
    a swollen stream carrying
    an empty nest

    niski let ptice
    nabujali potok nosi
    prazno gnijezdo

    (Second Prize, Ito-En International Haiku Contest, Japan 2000)

    *

    flamingo standing
    in the low tide, a movement
    a fish in the beak

    u oseki mora
    stoji flamingo, kretnja
    u kljunu riba

    (Award, Yellow MoonLiterary Competition, Australia, 2000; Antologija Haiku Europejskiego Gwiazda za Gwiazda, Krakow, Poland, 2005)

    *

    the sunset
    thins out
    the cicadas’ song

    zalazak sunca
    istanjuje
    pjesmu cikada

    (Greieri şi crizanteme, Haiku Antologie Internaţională, Editura Orion, Bucureşti 2007 Editor: Valentin Nicoliţov)