Janez Menart

Infobox Writer
name = Janez Menart
birthdate = birth date|1929|09|29
birthplace = Maribor, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
deathdate = death date and age|2004|01|22|1929|09|29
deathplace = Ljubljana, Slovenia
occupation = poet, translator
period = first post-war generation
genre = lyrical, narrative, and satirical poetry
notableworks = "Poems of the Four",
"First Autumn",
"Newspaper Verse",
"White Fairytale",
"Traffic Lights of the Youth",
"Under the Plague Spot",
"Medieval Ballads",
translations of classical French and English poetry and plays
children = one daughter
influences = Janez Ovsec, Makso Pirnik, Ivan Minatti, Milan Korun, Sašo Mali, Milan Železnik
awards = awd|Award of the City of Ljubljana|1965|Translation of Shakespeare's sonnetsawd|Sovre Award|1975|Reworkings of poems by Robert Burns and Lord Byronawd|Župančič Award|1978|collection of poems Under the Plague Spotawd|Prešeren Award|1979 (declined)|collections and translations of poetryawd|Sovre Award|1988|Collected works of Francois Villon

Janez Menart (29 September 1929 - 22 January 2004) was one of the most influential Slovenian poets, translators and screenwriters from the first post-war generation. He published a series of poem collections well received by readers and critics alike, and translated to Slovene numerous classical French and English poetry and drama works.

Biography

Menart was born in Maribor. His mother was a theatre actress. She soon fell ill (multiple sclerosis), so the family moved back to Ljubljana. His father worked as an emergency medical technician and committed suicide when Janez was seven years old. His mother died eight years later.

Due to poor social circumstances Janez and his older sister lived almost from the beginning of schooling in the boarding schools. Janez was able to enter grammar school only because he won one of the four scholarships offered by Drava Banovina in 1940. Having finished it he attended the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana where he graduated from Slovene philology and from comparative literature studies.

After compulsory military service he was at first a publisher's reader, then a stage director and finaly a director of puppet section at Triglav film. In that time he also married and got a daughter. Since 1963, when he left film, he earned his money by writing and translation.

Then he employed himself as the editor of drama editorial board at RTV Ljubljana. Due to political circumstances he was later degraded to a stage director and in the final three years he worked as a translator for current needs. In 1979 he decided to leave his job and employ himself as a programme leader of the book sales club "Svet knjige" at Mladinska knjiga. He stayed there till his retirement in 1990.

He died in Ljubljana.

Work

Janez Menart was one of the most popular Slovene poets in the second half of the 20th century. Over four hundred of his individuals poems have been translated to about 25 foreign languages and over half of these translations were published in independent editions. Over one hundred of his poems and chanson lyrics have been set to music, some of them have also been recorded on cassettes and discs.

Menart began seriously writing songs when he was 15 and had first of them published in the last two years of attending grammar school. He gradually published them in a continuously larger number of literary journals and by radio. His career of a prominent literate began in 1953 when he published The Poems of the Four collection together with Kajetan Kovič, Tone Pavček and Ciril Zlobec. His poetry is traditionally confessional, the narration realistic and satirical while the form rests on traditional meter with romantic images and everyday reality.

Menart complemented original poetry by translating foreign language literature. Slovenes have to thank him for, among others, the excellent translations of Shakespeare's Sonnets, Byron's, Burns's and Prévert's poetry and Villon's Collected Works. He also translated English Renaissance plays such as Volpone by Jonson and Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe.

Although mainly known as a poet and translator, Menart also wrote scripts for puppet and documentary films and television plays. He was also the first in Slovenia to publish a CD audiobook, with his poems largely interpreted by he himself.

References

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