An Anthology of Croatian Literature

Viktor Car Emin (1870-1963)

Viktor Car Emin (1870–1963) Viktor Car, using on occasion the pen name Emin, chronicled in realistic tones his native Istria as Austrian, then Italian, and finally Yugoslav territory. His numerous prose works reflect his profession as a teacher and his abiding interest in the sea and those who draw their livelihoods from it. Nothing of his has been translated into English except his brief autobiography, an excerpt from which follows. It is drawn from Autobiographies by Croatian Writers, op. cit., pp. 59–60, 68–69, and 77–78. 102 An Anthology of Croatian Literature Autobiography (Excerpt) The time came when I wanted to create, if not something great, then at least— extensive! A novel! I thought all I needed was to launch out and there would be more than enough material. So I launched out on what was closest to my eye and heart: the sea and life on it. Every day there were fewer and fewer white sails in the Gulf of Kvarner, ousted by victorious steam. Sailing ships were either lying in harbors or at the bottom of the sea, scuttled in the interests of speculation. In spite of themselves, the sailors were forced onto dry land to wait—as they said—for things to change. They said the time would come when all the coal would be used up and the sea would again be full of sails. And they stared out to sea, which kept growing blacker and blacker from the accursed smoke. The trouble would not have been half so great if the steamers had at least been ours! But they were foreign, from distant lands, with their own captains and sailors. And our sailors had to sit idle, and became grumbling and discouraged sea wolves! In this failure, this decline and disintegration, I found inspiration for my first novel, Pusto ognjište (The Deserted Hearth—1900) Five years later, in 1904, came the second: Usahlo vrelo (The Dry Well) in which ways were sought to overcome the catastrophe and bring the dry wells back to life again. “To sea!” says the hero of the novel to his men, but they oppose him. The sea has failed them, wounded them, even killed some of them…
 A good three decades later Jadranska straža in Split published my novel Vitez mora (The Knight of the Sea—1939). My basic idea was the same as in Usahlo vrelo but conceived rather more widely, perhaps more deeply, too, under the influence of the idea that I formulated in a letter to a young friend: “If we can save our sea, we will be saving the road that will one day lead us to our beloved rockland.” And—thanks to the heroic fighters of the Yugoslav army—this happened at the end of April 1945.
 The outcome was dictated by imperialistic considerations: Istria fell to Italy. After obtaining the Nulla osta (permit) we returned home to Opatija. In the night between the second and the third of February, fresh from the impression of that sombre journey, I wrote a sketch called Moj povratak (My Return), printed a short time later in Savremenik. And then to work, to keep national Viktor Car Emin 103 consciousness alive among the old, and to bring it to life among the young! And that inner string that ceaselessly and painfully quivered within me over the tragedy of my homeland had to have an outlet, too. Wherever I looked, the relentless sentence of Rapallo lay over everything. I met people bent and exhausted , they seemed like twigs broken and crushed by a storm… Some have not yet recovered. They have crept into their sad houses and will not come out. How, sad everything around us is! Rocks, old trees—everything looks at you as if it would burst into tears. And the people! Their souls are full of the tragedy that has happened to them. It can be seen on their pale faces, lips without a smile, in their eyes, movements, in everything. All this weighted me down, crushing me like a nightmare, suffocating me, and seeking release and expression. I finally found both and that is how my play Mrtva straža (Night Watch) was born. Written under the eyes of spies, it was taken to Zagreb in secret. The name of the author was changed to Mladen Jelušić. It was performed several times in 1923 and then—at the...