Antun Branko Šimić, a great Croatian poet, critic, and translator, one of the most prominent Croatian poets of modernism, was born in Drinovci on November 18, 1898. After completing three years at the Franciscan Classical Gymnasium in Široki Brijeg, he briefly stayed in Mostar, then enrolled in the fourth year of high school in Vinkovci, and continued his studies at the Lower Town Gymnasium in Zagreb. At the age of fifteen, he published a poem in the magazine “Luč”, and his early landscape lyric poems were published from 1913 to 1917. After being forced to leave high school because the school authorities did not allow students to publish public prints, he devoted himself entirely to writing.
German expressionist poetry, which he encountered through the magazine Der Sturm, had a major ihanginnfluence on Šimić. In 1917, he launched his first magazine “Vijavica”, where he advocated for the freedom of art and criticized the state of literature, leading to negative reviews. He also launched two more magazines – “Juriš” and “Književnik”, and briefly co-edited “Savremenik” with Milan Begović.
His only poetry collection, “Preobraženja”, published in 1920, ranks among the peak works of modern Croatian lyric poetry. Despite living in poverty and facing unstable existential conditions, his literary legacy is of great significance. After a severe pneumonia, he contracted tuberculosis and passed away in Zagreb on May 2, 1925.
(Željka Šaravanja)
