Valentin Vodnik

Valentin Vodnik (February 3 1758 - January 8 1819) was a Slovene priest, journalist and poet from the late Enlightenment period.

Life and work

He was born in Šiška, now a suburb of Ljubljana, then part of the Habsburg Monarchy. He was raised in a relatively well-to-do peasant-artisan family.

He became a Franciscan and studied in Ljubljana, Novo Mesto and Gorizia, finishing his studies in 1782. He worked as a priest in Ljubljana, in the Upper Carniolan village of Sora, in Bled, and in Ribnica. In 1793 he returned to Ljubljana and joined the intellectual circle of Sigmund Zois, in which several figures of the Slovenian Enlightenment gathered. Zois remained Vodnik's sponsor until his death. In 1797, Vodnik became a teacher at the local Lyceum.

Vodnik dedicated himself to writing poetry in the Slovenian, which he referred to as the Carniolan language. [Marija Vrečar, Winden - Krainer - Slowenen? : Valentin Vodniks "Lublanske novice" (1797-1800) : Elemente der nationalen Ideologie im Umfeld der ersten Zeitung in slowenischer Sprache(Ljubljana-Klagenfurt-Wien: Hermagoras/Mohorjeva, 1999)] His first poems were published in Marko Pohlin's collections of Slovenian folk songs. Vodnik's poetry was relaitively simple, with a generally patriotic and satirical character. One of his most famous poems, "Dramilo," is a poetic appeal to Slovenes to be proud of their land, language, and heritage. In 1806, he published his first collection of poetry, entitled "Pesme za pokušino" (Poetic Essays). He was also the editor of the first Slovenian newspaper "Lublanske novice", which was issued twice a week from 1797 to 1800. [ [http://www.dogaja.se/opis/valentin_vodnik/12423 Valentin Vodnik biography] (In Slovenian language)]

In addition to poetry and journalism, Vodnik also wrote grammars, textbooks, and even a cookbook ("Kuharske bukve", 1799) and a manual for midwifes ("Babištvo", 1818).

In the 1810s, he became a fervent supporter of the French occupation of the Slovene Lands. In 1809, he wrote a poem, called "Ilirija oživljena" ("Illyria Reborn"), in which he praised Napoleon Bonaparte for having established the Illyrian Provinces. During the short-lived French administration, he was instrumental in convincing the authorities to promote the use of Slovene in education, culture, and administration. After the return of Austrian rule in 1813, most of these reforms in language policy were retained, but Vodnik himself was viewed with mistrust. He was retired and removed from public life.

He died in Ljubljana.

Legacy

Vodnik is generally regarded as the first real poet in the Slovene language, as well as the first journalist. In his writings, written in the old "bohoričica" orthography, he used his native Upper Carniolan dialect, into which he incorporated words and grammatic features from other Slovenian dialects to make it more widely understood. Although he is rarely praised for being a deep or original poet, his poems convey honest sentiments, and his use of irony is noteworthy. As a member of Sigmund Zois' circle, he helped several younger talents, among whom also France Prešeren, the most important Slovenian poet. After Vodnik's death, Prešeren wrote two elegies in his memory.

Valentin Vodnik was selected as a main motif for a recent commemorative coin series: the 250th anniversary of the birth of Valentin Vodnik, minted in January 2008. The obverse shows Valentin Vodnik's profile, the bottom portion of the coin is inscribed with the last verse of the poem "Moj spomenik," which in English says "No daughters, no son will follow me, memory is enough: songs sung of me."

See also

*Anton Tomaž Linhart
*Jernej Kopitar

References

Further reading

*Janko Kos, "Valentin Vodnik" (Ljubljana: Partizanska knjiga, 1990)