Tin Ujević

Augustin 'Tin' Ujević is considered to be one of the greatest Croatian poets of all times.

Ujević was born in Vrgorac, a small town in the Dalmatian hinterland, and grew up in what were then provincial towns of Imotski and Makarska. He completed classical gymnasium in Split and moved to Zagreb to study Croatian language and literature, classical philology, philosophy and aesthetics. This turbulent part of his life was marked by the bohemian milieu. His mentor was the central figure of Croatian early modernism, Antun Gustav Matoš, whom he later denounced. Briefly embroiled in the activities of Yugoslav nationalism (1912–1916), Ujević left politics for good, spending the rest of his life as a quintessential bohemian wanderer, residing and blasphemously rioting in Sarajevo, Mostar, Belgrade, Split and finally Zagreb, meanwhile have been short time a member of French Foreign Legion.

Ujević distinguished himself in three fields: as a translator, essayist and feuilletonist and poet. He translated numerous works of poetry, novels and short stories into Croatian (Walt Whitman, Marcel Proust, Joseph Conrad, Benvenuto Cellini, George Meredith, ...). He wrote more than ten books of essays, poetry in prose and meditations — but his enduring strength lies chiefly in his monumental poetic opus.