ANTON AŠKERC

Slovenian poet Anton Aškerc (1856–1912) is one of the poets who searched for spirituality as a refined and cognitive zenith of knowledge. For him, every encounter was a sign, every new situation was a potential opportunity to learn about a new part of the world, and thus a new dimension of himself.

He was born into a villagers' family in Globok near Rimske Toplice. He grew into a curious though pensive and silent guy, which is attributed to the early loss of his beloved mother. After the high school, it was decided that the guy of solitary nature would be a priest. He studied Eastern philosophy and religions, and thus wanted to travel. He had a hard time with his profession of a priest, and church authorities often transferred him unsuccessfully trying to break his spirit. He was sent to different addresses as a chaplain, mostly to Styrian villages and mining area of Velenje. He was always attracted to the “wide world” and therefore his poetic works are characterized by topics and motifs which he largely drew from his journeys across the Orient.

Since he did not want to submit to the church discipline, Aškers was forced to retire prematurely in 1898, and accepted the position of an archivist in Ljubljana municipality. He also occasionally read Sunday masses in Ljubljana Cathedral. Due to conflicts with influential church circles, he signed his first poems with pen names, though he then revealed himself with words:

“At least I can bravely say that all this is mine! And I am also proud because for me art is no toy but sanctity – a true profession!” (Borišnik, 1962)

Marja Borišnik, a researcher of his life and work, wrote: “In continuous refraining from his personal happiness, the pain of his heart shyly hid behind verses signed by a pen name, and then it was deafened by the pain of unjustly ignored man in an unjustly ignored nation ˮ (Borišnik, 1957: 194)

Aškerc about the Orient, Islam and Muslims

There are very few individuals who, when they feel a dissonance between their soul and the way of life, stand up confidently and strive to give a new direction to their life, open new roads and give new values. Aškerc showed independence very early, and it did not allow him to simply enter the average social milieu and submit to it unconditionally; on the contrary, he became an opponent to such circumstances and views of life.

Under the influence of the studies of Eastern and Asian philosophy and religions, Oriental motifs found their way into Aškerc's poetry, and he described Istanbul as the most interesting city in the world, trying to use poetic speech to tell Slovenians that they should respect and admire other nations, other religions and other ways of thinking.

“Salam alaikum! And here you are, lying under me, you old Byzantium, you Slavic Carigrad, you Greek Constantinople, you Turkish Istanbul! God knows how many times I watched you in my dreams, yearned for you and wanted to see you! Now I am looking at you in reality! Salam alaikum!ˮ (Putopisne crtice: Izlet u Carigrad (Travel notes: Excursion to Constantinople), 19th century, author's translation)

Being aware of his distinctiveness, which distanced him from typical writers in Slovenia, he was proud of his travel-writing experiences. From his poems it can be concluded that his trip to Istanbul was quite short, and that he managed to see only standard tourist attractions. He also watched a dance of dervishes in a local tekke and observed the performance of Friday prayer by Sultan Abdulhamid II.

In his poem “Kongres na Araratu (Congress on the Ararat)” (A. H. “Prvi slovenski pesnik u džamiji” (The first Slovenian poet in a mosque) Aškerc summarized basic teachings of Oriental religions, which he studied and compared. This poem best shows his involvement in comparative religion: Buddha, Jesus, Muhammed, Moses and Zarathustra discuss principles of religion?! In “Kongres na Araratuˮ Aškerc presented the religion of Prophet Muhammed as combative but also full of love for life, which is actually a teaching which best summarizes the poet's perception of the world.

Poem about Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque

During his visit to Bosnia, Aškerc met Slavic Muslims. He was fascinated by the voice of muezzin, which moved him far more than church bells. From his trip to Serbia and Bosnia in 1886, he enthusiastically wrote to his friend that in a Sarajevo mosque he saw Slavic Muslims praying to Allah. In the poem about Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque, which was the fruit of this experience, he enthusiastically exclaimed:

Ah, samo sam htio vidjeti

kako se Slaven moli Allahu!

(Oh, I only wanted to see

A Slav praying to Allah!)

In a letter to his friends, Aškerc proclaimed himself the first Slovenian poet who entered a mosque.

U džamiji smo divnoj! Tiho!

Molitvi predani su baš:

na ćilimima klanja do zemlje,

s prosjakom skupa bogataš.

(I am in a beautiful mosque! Quiet!

They are immersed in the prayer:

they bow to the ground on their rugs,

a beggar together with a rich man,)

Ne smeta vam tuđin jedini

što neznan stupi u vaš broj.

Htjedoh samo da vidim,

kako Allahu moli Slaven moj.

(You don't mind that a stranger

An unknown joined you.

I only wanted to see

My Slav praying to Allah.)

Po svome ja, a vi po svome,

ko braća slavimo Boga.

I vaša je molitva dobra,

kad je iz srca čistoga!

(I do it my way, and you yours,

but we praise God as brothers.

Your prayer is also good,

When it comes from a pure heart!)  (Filipović)

As early as in his youth, he was haunted by thoughts about what was precious in the man's life. His insights were finally articulated in a sentence of his poem: V delih svojih sam boš živel večno. It is from the Noble Qur'an that Aškerc took the motif for his poem “Čaša besmrtnostiˮ, “Pehar vječnostiˮ (A glass of immortality, A goblet of eternity):

Kad u smrtnom času duša

čovjeku u podgrlac dođe...

ko će pića čarobnog dati da ga otme?...

(When in the hour of death, the soul

Reaches the man's throat...

Who will give him a magical beverage) (Maksimović)

Through the poem, Aškerc also had in mind the age of Islamic state or caliphate. More accurately, he wrote about the Cordoba Caliphate, khalif Abdur-Rahman III in Spain. Cordoba was an intellectual center of the time, which by far exceeded similar cities of Christian Europe where literature and philosophy developed in Arabic. A poem written when Aškerc was young (1885) elevated the drama of action with direct speech, with characteristic elements of style:

 Turban šaren diči rusu glavu,

damaščanka visi mu o boku.

Knjiga sveta pred njim otvorena, –

koran čita mladi Abdurahman,

koran čita, baš suru o smrti,

i o smrti i životu večnom..

(A multicolored turban proudly sits on the head,

Damascus sword hangs on his hip.

The sacred book is opened in front of him, -

Young Abdurahman reads the Qur'an,

He reads the Qur'an, the sura about death,

Both about death and the eternal life.). (Maksimović)

In this way, the Slovenian parson and his concise and sharp mind, mild irony of a true intellectual and a writer gifted with vision who does not daydream but rebels and warns eclipsed most contemporaries in his country. Aškerc's writings are extremely important, and his name is found in Slovenian school textbooks and the history of literature. Through studies and translations, he has become familiar to people in the region, as well as to Czechs, Poles, Russians, Swedes, Germans and Italians (Petre, 1964).

When one of the most original Slovenian authors forever closed his eyes, a two-kilometer-long funeral in the streets of Ljubljana testified about his greatness. Aškerc was one of the pioneers of the cultural life of Slovenia, regardless of any traditional, religious and political obstacles he encountered.

References:

• Aškerc, Anton. Hrvatska enciklopedija, mrežno izdanje. Leksikografski zavod Miroslav Krleža, 2021. <http://www.enciklopedija.hr/Natuknica.aspx?ID=4350>.

• Boršnik, Marija (1962), Biografija: Anton Aškerc, Beograd.

• Boršnik, Marija (1957), Aškerčev zbornik, Celje.

• Putopisne crtice: Izlet u Carigrad, 19. stoljeće.

• A. H., “Prvi slovenski pesnik v džamijiˮ, https://www.islamska-skupnost.si/2015/11/prvi-slovenski-pesnik-v-dzamiji/

• Filipović, Nihad, “Anton Aškerc: Pjesma o bosanskim muslimanimaˮ, https://marjanhajnal.wordpress.com/2012/09/30/nihad-filipovic-anton-askerc-pjesma-o-bosanskim-muslimanima/

• Anton Aškerc, Misaone pjesme, “Čaša besmrtnostiˮ, prevod D. Maksimović.

• Petre, Fran (ed.) (1964), Anton Aškerc, Sarajevo: Svjetlost.