An Anthology of Croatian Literature

Marko Marulic (ca. 1450-ca. 1524)

Marko Marulić (ca.1450–ca.1524) The “father of Croatian literature,” Marulić precedes his two contemporaries, Šiško Menčetić and Džore Držić, only in the year of his birth. His principal Croatian work, Judita (Judith), an extensive poetic reworking of the biblical book of the same name, was written in 1501 and published only in 1521, that is, several decades after Menčetić and Držić wrote their own poetry. A devout Roman Catholic layman, a fine poet with an ear for the spoken Croatian language of his time, and a witness to his city’s embattled position as the Turks pressed against it, Marulić as both writer and patriot is revered and much studied to the present day. The following excerpt, drawn from Marko Marulić, Judith, Henry R. Cooper, Jr., transl. (New York: Columbia University Press/East European Monographs, 1991): 3, 5, 7, is Marulić’s dedication of the poem to his godfather. Relatively few of Marulić’s Croatian works can be found in English: the bulk of them appeared in The Marulić Reader, edited by B. Lučin (Split: Književni krug Split Marulianum and Hrvatski svjetski kongress, 2007). 18 An Anthology of Croatian Literature The Dean of Split, My Lord Don Dujam Balastrilić, My Godfather, Marko Marulić This Modest Gift With Courtly Obeisance Presenteth During these holy days of Lent, my Reverend Lord in Jesus Christ, and my Godfather, Dear Don Dujam, whilst leafing through the books of the Old Testament, I came upon the history of that honorable and holy widow Judith and of the arrogant Holofernes, how she did, having slain him, liberate the whole land of Israel from the peril which did overshadow it. In reading this history I was minded to translate it into our tongue, so that it might be understood by them who are not learned in the Latin or clerical writing.* That of this matter I might make a gift to my Reverend Father, who knoweth both of these languages well, I resolved to imitate the cunning of children who, making presents to their elders at the new year, clothe their oranges with fragrant herbs, marjoram, rosemary, rue; cleverly do they arrange their gift that through craft they might receive all the greater gifts in return. I aspire not to their craftiness, but only to that clever adornment; for no other reciprocation do I seek from thee, than that which I have oftimes encountered before: affection true and perfect in Jesus Christ, which thou bearest for me in greater measure than I deserve, but which befitteth thy nobility, inclined and amiable as it is to each and every one. Imitating thus this cunning, as I have said, I did struggle to fashion the said history so that it might be adorned with certain patent charms and refinements and embellishments and a varnish of varied hues; all this that thou mightest not say that I am offering thee that clutch of grain which thou findest more readily in thine own books. Verily this clutch is decked about with many blossoms; when thou regardest it well, thou shalt say: it hath changed its aspect like the fruit trees in spring when they most joyously shoot forth. For behold, I have composed this history in verse, in the * The Croatian here, “ki nisu naučni knjige latinske aliti dijačke,” Grčić translates as “who are not accustomed to either Latin or Italian books.” Following Versi harvacki, I have understood “latinske aliti dijačke” (or “djačke”) as equivalents, “Latin or [as we sometimes call it] clerical writing,” rather than as contrastives, “[either] Latin or Italian.” (See too Book Six, verse 341, where “djački” clearly means “in Latin,” since it refers to the Latin word holocausta, which in Italian would be olocausti.) In this way then the following line, where Marulić speaks of Balistrilić’s knowing “both languages” well, means that he knows Latin and Croatian, not Latin and Italian. For him, Marulić does not therefore have to translate the Book of Judith, since he can read it in the original and make his own translation into Croatian, but he does have to adorn it, to make his gift more acceptable. Marko Marulić
 manner of our predecessors* and according to the law of those ancient poets who thought it not sufficient to relate how a matter occurred, but they did circle it about with many deeds, that...