Ivan V. Lalić (1931–1996) was one of former Yugoslavia’s most vital poets. He was also an important translator of poetry; his English translations of his own work appeared in the 1965 inaugural issue of Ted Hughes’ and Daniel Weissbort’s Modern Poetry in Translation. Born and living most of his life in the Serbian capital Belgrade, Lalić is regarded as a grand master of Serbian 20th-century poetry. He went to high school and university in the Croatian capital Zagreb, however. And the Croatian Adriatic – especially around the town of Rovinj, where his family had a house – is a crucial backdrop for many of his poems. Moreover, his poetic world is deeply rooted in Byzantium, the Greek Aegean and Italy. Hence Lalić, perhaps most of all, can be seen as a Mediterranean poet.Lalić’s poems combine a warm sensuality with a love for the natural world, vivid images and similes with thoughtful reflection, here-and-now experience with a backdrop of deep history. In Celia Hawkesworth’s words, his work 'crackles with brilliant, arresting imagery forged by the heat of concentrated thought and, above all, it breathes with compassion and humanity'.Book-length translations of Lalić’s work have appeared in six languages, including eight volumes in English: two by his US translator Charles Simic, and six by his UK translator Francis R. Jones, with the seventh, The Taste of Lightning: Selected Poems, following from Bloodaxe in 2025. Lalić’s work gained him many prizes at home. His poems in Simic’s and Jones’s translation have won no fewer than six awards – including the prestigious European Poetry Translation Prize twice.

Drawing from the rich Mediterranean tradition, [Lalić] searches for his people’s cultural roots. His wide-ranging quest attests to the fact that Lalić is as much a world poet as he is a Serbian poet. Not only is the subject matter of his poems of universal value, but his measured, elegant, neoclassical approach to poetry is timeless. Francis R. Jones has translated this important collection into an English that is as vibrant as Lalić’s Serbian. The translator’s faithfulness to the original is complemented by an often exquisite choice of words – a fitting tribute to a great poet.

• 10 Acknowledgements11 Introduction from Time, Fires, Gardens (1961)21 A rusty needle23 How Orpheus sang24 Cathedrals26 Young love27 Prayer28 A voice singing in gardens30 from Four epitaphs30 To a dancer30 To a sailor30 To a singer31 from Orpheus on deck31 Song for Eurydice33 Song for the dead34 Fresco36 Byzantium38 Death with a falcon39 from Melissa39 Voices of the dead I40 Morning41 Slavery42 The Argonauts44 Marina45 Three squalls of rain47 Love48 from Atlantis48 Eye-witness report50 Love: a fragment51 Tyrrhenian Sea52 Inventory of moonlight54 Roman quartet54 I55 II56 III57 IV58 from Prolegomena to waking: shores58 158 4 from Act (1963)61 from Algol61 162 363 464 Snowy night65 Winter letter66 Winter morning67 March68 from Spring liturgy for a dead poet68 170 472 Young woman from Pompeii73 Places we love74 Aosta75 In praise of the poem76 Belgrade Airport, June77 Continent78 Marina II79 from Nereid79 380 5 from Circle (1968)83 Tomb in Prague84 Mozart85 Skopje’s monologue85 186 287 Waking, one winter night89 Lyric90 from Love in July / 291 Orange92 Photographs: a romance94 Joanna from Ravenna94 195 296 from Dubrovnik, a winter’s tale96 The masons97 Portal: pietà98 The Dark Province from Of the Works of Love, or Byzantium (1969)101 Of the works of love102 Memory of an orchard103 * * *104 The sea described from memory105 Song of the statue in the earth106 Byzantium VII from Fading Contact (1975)109 Winter sea110 Marina V111 Genius loci112 Fiesole, rain113 Belgrade from old photographs113 1115 2116 3117 Cantico delle creature118 Letter to John Berryman120 from Athos in five songs120 Daphne121 On the way to Esphigmenou122 Byzantium VIII, or Chilandari124 Mnemosyne124 1125 2126 3127 4128 To sons growing up from The Passionate Measure (1984)131 A note on poetics132 The spaces of hope133 The raven’s monologue134 Elegy, or the Danube at Donji Milanovac136 Five letters136 1137 2138 3139 4140 5141 Étude142 Looking glass143 Morning Argolid144 Acqua alta144 1145 2146 3 from Script (1992)149 In praise of sleeplessness151 Octaves on summer153 from Strambotti153 1153 2153 3154 4154 5154 8155 9155 10156 Never lonelier157 Pietà158 Sea from Four Canons (1996)162 from First canon162 3163 4164 from Second canon164 2165 5 167 Translator’s notes176 About the translator

Ivan V. Lalić (1931–1996) was one of former Yugoslavia’s most vital poets. He was also an important translator of poetry; his English translations of his own work appeared in the 1965 inaugural issue of Ted Hughes’ and Daniel Weissbort’s Modern Poetry in Translation. Born and living most of his life in the Serbian capital Belgrade, Lalić is regarded as a grand master of Serbian 20th-century poetry. He went to high school and university in the Croatian capital Zagreb, however. And the Croatian Adriatic – especially around the town of Rovinj, where his family had a house – is a crucial backdrop for many of his poems. Moreover, his poetic world is deeply rooted in Byzantium, the Greek Aegean and Italy. Hence Lalić, perhaps most of all, can be seen as a Mediterranean poet.Lalić’s poems combine a warm sensuality with a love for the natural world, vivid images and similes with thoughtful reflection, here-and-now experience with a backdrop of deep history. In Celia Hawkesworth’s words, his work 'crackles with brilliant, arresting imagery forged by the heat of concentrated thought and, above all, it breathes with compassion and humanity'.Book-length translations of Lalić’s work have appeared in six languages, including eight volumes in English: two by his US translator Charles Simic, and six by his UK translator Francis R. Jones, with the seventh, The Taste of Lightning: Selected Poems, following from Bloodaxe in 2025. Lalić’s work gained him many prizes at home. His poems in Simic’s and Jones’s translation have won no fewer than six awards – including the prestigious European Poetry Translation Prize twice.

Drawing from the rich Mediterranean tradition, [Lalić] searches for his people’s cultural roots. His wide-ranging quest attests to the fact that Lalić is as much a world poet as he is a Serbian poet. Not only is the subject matter of his poems of universal value, but his measured, elegant, neoclassical approach to poetry is timeless. Francis R. Jones has translated this important collection into an English that is as vibrant as Lalić’s Serbian. The translator’s faithfulness to the original is complemented by an often exquisite choice of words – a fitting tribute to a great poet.

• 10 Acknowledgements11 Introduction from Time, Fires, Gardens (1961)21 A rusty needle23 How Orpheus sang24 Cathedrals26 Young love27 Prayer28 A voice singing in gardens30 from Four epitaphs30 To a dancer30 To a sailor30 To a singer31 from Orpheus on deck31 Song for Eurydice33 Song for the dead34 Fresco36 Byzantium38 Death with a falcon39 from Melissa39 Voices of the dead I40 Morning41 Slavery42 The Argonauts44 Marina45 Three squalls of rain47 Love48 from Atlantis48 Eye-witness report50 Love: a fragment51 Tyrrhenian Sea52 Inventory of moonlight54 Roman quartet54 I55 II56 III57 IV58 from Prolegomena to waking: shores58 158 4 from Act (1963)61 from Algol61 162 363 464 Snowy night65 Winter letter66 Winter morning67 March68 from Spring liturgy for a dead poet68 170 472 Young woman from Pompeii73 Places we love74 Aosta75 In praise of the poem76 Belgrade Airport, June77 Continent78 Marina II79 from Nereid79 380 5 from Circle (1968)83 Tomb in Prague84 Mozart85 Skopje’s monologue85 186 287 Waking, one winter night89 Lyric90 from Love in July / 291 Orange92 Photographs: a romance94 Joanna from Ravenna94 195 296 from Dubrovnik, a winter’s tale96 The masons97 Portal: pietà98 The Dark Province from Of the Works of Love, or Byzantium (1969)101 Of the works of love102 Memory of an orchard103 * * *104 The sea described from memory105 Song of the statue in the earth106 Byzantium VII from Fading Contact (1975)109 Winter sea110 Marina V111 Genius loci112 Fiesole, rain113 Belgrade from old photographs113 1115 2116 3117 Cantico delle creature118 Letter to John Berryman120 from Athos in five songs120 Daphne121 On the way to Esphigmenou122 Byzantium VIII, or Chilandari124 Mnemosyne124 1125 2126 3127 4128 To sons growing up from The Passionate Measure (1984)131 A note on poetics132 The spaces of hope133 The raven’s monologue134 Elegy, or the Danube at Donji Milanovac136 Five letters136 1137 2138 3139 4140 5141 Étude142 Looking glass143 Morning Argolid144 Acqua alta144 1145 2146 3 from Script (1992)149 In praise of sleeplessness151 Octaves on summer153 from Strambotti153 1153 2153 3154 4154 5154 8155 9155 10156 Never lonelier157 Pietà158 Sea from Four Canons (1996)162 from First canon162 3163 4164 from Second canon164 2165 5 167 Translator’s notes176 About the translator