Poetryzine magazine presents the interview with the Serbian poet Ivan Ergic
Thank you for taking the time to talk to the The Poetryzine Magazine.
As a former football player who turned poet, philosopher and columnist it seems as if you tread a particular path. It is quite unusual for the football players to write poetry. When did you first notice that there was a poet in you?
Unfortunately, I would also say, it is unusual. But it shouldn’t be… I see it from a different angle… for me, it just shows the evolution of football itself, which has become macho, brutal gladiator spectacle, devoid of any sensitivity, which is necessary for more refined forms of creativity. That means, football has lost poetry which has been always its immanent quality, speaking aesthetically. For me personally, poetry, or should I say, poetic mindset, has always been some kind of intimate resistance. But, my affinity towards the written word, goes back to my primary school, and it is nothing odd actually, I think, most of the talents were first noticed by their school teachers, which was then encouraged.
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word poetry? What inspired you to start writing?
In Serbia, and in the whole region, there is a tradition, where poetry played a significant role, even in the social and political sense. Especially, since the era of Romantism in the early nineteenth century, which inspired the development and articulation of national consciousness and subsequently the national revolution. So there is that local attractiveness of poetry, but also, the meaning and the power of poetry in a universal sense, as some kind of spiritual enlightenment, which is collectivist as well as individual.
You were born in modern-day Croatia, raised up in Australia and now you live in Serbia. In the meanwhile you travelled a lot. How these constant changes of the environment affected your life and eventually your writing?
I think that is always felt and reflected in poetry.. Different cultures and influences that shape your experience and thus your writing as well… but, I don’t think it is some kind of nomadic or diaspora poetry, nor it is eclectic… as stressful as it was, I see it as an enrichment, most of all, linguistically, because the language opens the gate to a culture and also to the culture specific literatures.
You are the author of couple of poetry books. How would you define your poetic discourse?
I don’t know how I would define it, I think a critic can judge it more objectively. Thematically, it is always something that deeply preoccupies me, stylistically it is also heterogeneous. I think, it consistently has some existential note, and I'd say that’s a common thread, since I incline, and have a weakness for the philosophy of the existentialism. Nonetheless, I try not to be too philosophical, because it can be pretentious. To put it simply, I consider the best poetry to be a synthesis of mind and heart.
Do you find a poetry as a “spiritual weapon” for the defense from the cruelty of the outer world, the way of conveying some important message or you just have an impulse to write?
Of course, that’s the question, as old as poetry, or art itself. Does it have a utilitarian end or purpose, or should it be art for an art's sake.. As with philosophy, art, or journalism, I see poetry as engagement to speak the truth, but with different aesthetic means. That is already subversive enough, in the world of superficial and fake. So, in other words, although everyone has its own definition of poetry, I claim, poetry should redefine itself in accordance with the challenges we are facing.. I am suggesting, poetry is not transhistorical, but it evolves as the humanity evolves with its specific endeavors. Nonetheless, when you say “spiritual weapon”, as some kind of shield, I can totally relate, because we all need some kind of refuge, and I also say, if you despair and feel sometimes helpless, and you need some kind of escapism, let it be poetry.
Do you have favorite poets and whose poetic work you admire the most?
There are a lot of local, and international poets that I like… but it would be unfair if I was to give names, but there some that I enjoy reading, and those are really rare, and those that I respect, as good craftsmen, in aesthetical sense.
How do you see the status of poetry today and what in your opinion will happen to the poetry in the post-pandemic time. Will poetry survive? Will poets ever regain their old glory?
As I said before, there are periods where poetry plays more of a role and has more significance, but I don’t believe that poetry has ever had a high standing, if we exempt for example the patriotic or revolutionary poetry, which has a purpose beyond itself. On the other hand, we had in the past couple decades, Nobel laureates, which are exclusively poets, and also women. Now, even though the poetry of Szymborska or Gluck, is not the type of poetry I like, I see it as very refreshing symbolically. I think, together with the question will poetry survive, is also the question does poetry have a purpose or sense, in the time where we as humanity face far more essential and existential struggles. I reckon, poetry, with other forms of art, which is based on creativity and speaks truth about us, belongs to the essential… nonetheless, at the moment we should be more occupied with the existential issues.. Because if the humanity doesn’t survive, so won't the poetry either. On the other hand, that doesn’t mean poetry shouldn’t staunchly be written. I find that quote of Churchill very convenient, when they asked him to cut funding to the arts in order to support the war effort in the World War II, he responded “Then what would we be fighting for?”. It's not important weather this quote is fake or not, I find it spot on… Recently I read a book about Leningrad siege, how even in those terrible conditions, literature and theatre blossomed.
TWO POEMS
A Companion’s Counsel
Every time before we part
Squeeze me tight
Until you can feel my bones.
They alone shall
Remain of us
In this world or the beyond.
Perhaps we will
Feel each other’s knowing touch
In some mass grave.
Having children
If we had children
I couldn’t
Make love savagely
In a hallway
With poor soundproofing at that
I couldn’t tell you at high noon
How much I miss
Your bitter and cold elbow
And how much I crave
Your hand
So we can sop up every last drop of that
Pear brandy
And roll on the floor
Happy and undignified
I probably couldn’t
Donate you a kidney
As I would owe it to him or her
To their little individualities
That would dance to the sounds of the TV
Awaiting our applause
Not having children is perhaps
Like relinquishing the sun
To see the sky
Translated to English by Dejan Škaljac