from Initial Coordinates

The poems presented here are selected from Monika Herceg’s debut collection Početne koordinate (Initial Coordinates), which has continued to receive critical acclaim since its publication in 2018. Born in a small village in Croatia, Herceg does not shrink away from the autobiographical—poverty, alcoholism, violence, and tradition . . . These notions, deftly entangled with nature, permeate her poetry and make its rural aspect all the more alive. The collection is rooted in mythic realism and speaks in a non-judgmental, subtle voice, as if the narrator is gazing into a distant forest and whispering these tragic stories of forsaken villagers into the wind, gently brushing against the reader’s cheek so as to remind them to beware of the circle of nature.

The circle of nature is present throughout the collection, but it is perhaps most prominent in the poem “ouroboros,” which takes its name from a symbol of the cycle of life and death in the Greek mythology. This symbol serves as a kind of ancient expression of condolence for death (in the case of the poems selected here, it is the poetic subject’s neighbors who die, whereas in the rest of the collection the poet records the passing of her grandparents, father, and uncle).

Other poems in the collection draw on Slavic and Croatian mythology, which establishes a link with the Croatian literary tradition. Namely, the Croatian literary canon comprises notable works that make use of Slavic mythology, such as Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić’s fairytales Croatian Tales of Long Ago (translated by F.S. Copeland, Frederick A. Stokes Co, 1922) and Vladimir Nazor’s poetry collection Slavenske legende (Slavic Legends) (Vasic, 1900). However, Slavic mythology is not present only in the classical works of Croatian literature; it found its way into contemporary literature, so much so that it is present in Dubravka Ugrešić’s novel Baba Yaga Laid an Egg (translated by Ellen Elias-Bursac, Celia Hawkesworth, and Mark Thompson, Canongate, 2011). One of Herceg’s poems thus brings in the “goblins” depicted in Brlić-Mažuranić’s tale How Quest Sought the Truth, which are little evil figures that are trying to persuade Quest and his brothers to engage in various misdeeds. Herceg’s poems are not, however, merely a reflection of these myths; they bring them into the present to reinforce and revive the rural atmosphere.

Herceg’s poetry features elements of Croatian folklore, such as witches, so-called “gypsy” women, birch trees, ritual sacrifice, etc. The Croats were Christianized in the ninth century, yet their old beliefs and superstitions were preserved: people often “substitute” the Slavic gods for names of saints, but the stories remain the same. In his essay Stages of Man’s Mind (1817), Goethe argues: “[w]hile the primitive masses look about with fear and amazement in search of the barest necessities, a more advanced spirit gazes at great phenomena of the world, perceives what occurs there, and gives utterance to what exists with profound awareness as if it came into being before his very eyes. Therefore, in the earliest stage we have the contemplation and the philosophy of nature, the defining and the poetry of nature—all in one.” In these uncertain times when we question the world as we know it, Herceg—by imitating oral tradition and reviving old myths—turns both poetry and human existence, at least for a while, back to its Initial Coordinates.