Milan Milišić

Milan Milišić (6 July 1941 – 5 October 1991) was a Yugoslavian poet and playwright. He wrote several volumes of poetry and translated, among others, J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, the poems of Robert Frost, and Ted Hughes into the Serbo-Croatian language.

Life

Milišić was born in Dubrovnik, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now Croatia) to an ethnic Serb, his father Risto was an owner of a fabrics store and came from Trebinje (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and his mother Olga (née Radulović) came from Sarajevo (now Bosnia and Herzegovina). He graduated from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philology. From 1966 to 1976, he was married to a Briton, Mary Martin, with whom he translated The Hobbit. He had two sons, Oleg Milišić, a press secretary for the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Roman Milišić. He later married artist Jelena Trpković. His close friends included writers Danilo Kiš, Zoran Stanojević, and Predrag Čudić. He was a member of the Croatian Writers Society and P.E.N.

Milišić lived almost his entire life under communism. He never aligned himself to any political or ethnic agenda but stood trial in 1985, and had his passport revoked by the Yugoslav regime, for writings that were perceived as anti-communist. After its return he was able to travel to the United States as a poet-in-residence at New York University and Amherst College.

Milišić died 5 October 1991, when a JNA shell struck his kitchen in the first days of the Siege of Dubrovnik. He was among the first civilian casualties of the siege. His poetry and travel writing, some previously unpublished, some repackaged, has continued to be published in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia, since his death.

Works

• Volele su me dve sestre, skupa (1970)
• Koga nema (1972)
• Hobit (translator, 1975)
• Zivjela nasa udovica (1977)
• Zgrad (1977)
• Having A Good Time (1981)
• Macka na smecu (1984)
• Tumaralo (1985)
• Vrt bez dobi (1986)
• Macka na smecu (1987)
• Stains (Croatia, 1993)
• Treperenje (Croatia, 1994)
• Nastrana vrana (Gr, 1996)
• Stvaranje Dubrovnik (Bosnia, 1996)
• Robert Frost, Selected Poems (Belgrade, 1996)
• Treperenje (Serbia, 1997)
• Mrtvo zvono (Croatia, 1997)
• Otoci (Croatia, 1997)
• Putopisi (Bosnia, 1997)
• Hommage Milišiću (Serbia, 2005)
• Dubrovacka zrcala (Croatia, 2007)

Sources

• Milan Milišić - informacije o autoru, Meandar Media, in Croatian
• Milan Milišić, Geopoetika, in Serbian