Croatian Post Mostar is marking the World Poetry Day by commemorative postage stamp with a figure of a big poet from Bosnia and Herzegovina Mehmedalija Mak Dizdar who is marking the 90th anniversary of birth.Mak Dizdar was born on 17 October 1917. Upon completion of primary education, he went for subsequent schooling from the native town of Stolac to Sarajevo where he stayed to live. As nineteen-year-old, in 1936, he introduced himself to the public with the first anthology “Vidovopoljska Noć” (Night in the Vidovopolje).
Unfavorably disposed toward socialist realism manner, obligatory at the time in literature, he reappeared only in 1954 with a modern, in these areas almost rebellious epic poem “Plivačica” (Woman Swimmer), and four years later, he published a poem “Povratak” (Return). Poetic collections “Okrutnosti kruga” (Cruelties of Circle), “Koljena za Madonu” (Knees for Madonna), “Minijature” (Miniatures) and “Ostrva” (Islands) had come next. The crown poetic collection “Kameni spavač” (Stone Sleeper), published in 1966 is believed to be the most important of poetic collections published in the South Slavic languages. The last poetic collection of Mak Dizdar “Modra Rijeka” (Blue River), entitled by the homonymous poem, had conferred numerous awards upon him, among which was also the important worldwide award the Golden Wreath of the Struga Poetry Evenings. The poetic collection was published in the year of poet’s death for the first time. Mak Dizdar was editor of the newspaper “Oslobođenje” and TANJUG, as well as publishing house Narodna prosvjeta, and then he dedicated himself to literature and editing of literary review “Život” (Life).During his short life and poetry career, Mak Dizdar entrusted us with an astonishing poetry, and especially with renewal of unrepeatable beauty of our archaic language. He died in Sarajevo on 14 July 1971.
