Janko Polić Kamov – Edgar Allan Poe

Janko Polić Kamov – Poe
An extract – translated by Martin Mayhew

edgar-allan-poe

Turgenjev brings tears to our eyes; Maupassant tickles our lips; Poe makes our hair stand on end: the first grabs us by the heartstrings, the second by the spirit, the third by the nerves.

Tears, a smile and a chill – those are their comments, and not erudition. Because erudition is just the comment of comments and one hair of a sensitive intellectual is more competent in the understanding of Poe, than all the dissertations of bald professors.

To me Poe appears like an ominous bird, which has flown over the mute field of our inner self; and when it plunged somewhere into space, it left a shadow of its great, black wings behind itself. Or even like the memory of a cat’s eyes in the dark; of a dog’s tucked under tail on a deserted road; of a snake’s tongue on a scorched cliff; of the ridge of a dolphin on an oily surface and of the shadows of the deceased that pull us by the legs in a dream.

And this is why Poe is mysterious – because of the fear irrational like all beauty and mysticism, living buried in the hands of our psyche, where in the glory of the Absurd they were also born.

Poe’s life was quite miserable so even a Croatian literate could envy him………

Punat, 7.IV.1910

This is an extract from the full essay that Kamov wrote in Punat on the island of Krk, 7th April 1910. The full text is available in the book ‘The Curse’ – the collection of Kamov’s poems which he published in 1907 as ‘Psovka’, translated into English. ‘The Curse’ is available as a paperback from Modernist nakladništvo here.
It is also available on Amazon and all other ebook channels.

The original 1907 edition of ‘Psvoka’ and my English translation ‘The Curse’.

Translation – all rights reserved © Martin Mayhew

Janko Polić Kamov – Farces & Novellas

My first book of my translations of Janko Polić Kamov’s work is now available on Amazon and all major ebook channels… Apple, Nook, Kobo, Kindle….

It is also available to buy from the publishers Modernist in Varaždin.

Farces
The Beard – Brada
In The Country – Selo
Woman – Žena
The Disaster – Katastrofa
The Suit – Odijelo
The Earthquake – Potres
The Bedbug – Stjenica
‘A Confession’ – ‘Ispovijest’

Novellas

‘Ecce homo!’
Grief – Žalost
Freedom – Sloboda
Bitanga

ebook: ISBN: 978-1-912643-16-5
Printed edition ISBN: 978-1717088611

++Thank you to all those who helped and supported me in completing this important work 🙂 ++

Press clipping from Novi List 02.06.2018

Novi list – članak

Interview for Radio Rojc about Kamov, the book and publishing, in English here

Legendfest – writing and performances

legendfest 2011 bannerLegendfest is a three-day festival of myths, legends, folklore and live performances held every year in the small hilltop village of Pićan, in Istria, Croatia. During the festival the village becomes the backdrop for storytellers, children’s workshops, live theatrical shows, local food, arts and crafts and concerts, which draw on the rich traditions and history of Istria. Visitors have the chance to go back in time and experience anything from medieval poetry to ancient myths in the picturesque setting.

Each year the festival has a different theme. I have written and performed at Legendfest since 2011. The theme for 2011 was pirates – and so myself as author, Cyborgix 4E75 as composer and musician, Miki as orchestral composer and Jasmina Jazzy as performer, wardrobe and make-up manager, put together the audio/visual piece “Captain Morgan’s Hidden Treasure”. I played the ghost of the Caribbean pirate Captain Morgan (yes, him from the brand of rum) who, as legend says, visited the province of Istria, settled and established the real-life village of Mrgani (meaning the “place of the Morgans”). The myth recalls how he had buried his last stash of gold and treasure nearby. Our 15 minute performance was his story and how he had returned from the spirit world to Istria to uncover the location of his buried treasure after 300 years.

captain morgan martin mayhew

Performing as the ghost of Captain Morgan

Cybergix 4E75

Cyborgix 4E75 – composer, arranger and musician on keyboards

Jasmina Jazzy played the seductive spectre

Jasmina Jazzy played the seductive spectre

In our performance we were joined by Alen Tibljaš – one of Croatia’s most respected drummers, who added some extra drama to the composition. The show was held in the tiny chapel of Sv. Mihovil on the outskirts of the village of Pićan situated at the top of the surrounding cliffs – the perfect location for our dark tale of ghostly pirates and treasure.

Alen Tibljaš pićan

Alen Tibljaš added atmospheric percussion

At the end of the performance, which closed the festival on the last evening, many of the festival’s other performers came and joined us for pirate revelry and choruses of “Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest. Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum. Drink and the devil had done for the rest….” The audience thoroughly enjoyed it!

You can listen to the studio recording of “Captain Morgan’s Hidden Treasure” here:

 

Legendfest 2012 posterThe theme for Legendfest 2012 was witches, wizards and goblins and so we delved into Istria’s rich heritage of myths, legends and folklore and wrote, composed and produced a new concept and performance – “Legend From Istria”. Based upon tales of Istrian gods I played Stribor, son of Svarog – The God of Wind and I narrated the terrible story of good versus evil to take back the land of Istria which had been conquered by the Underworld demons of Bjesomar and Morana played by Cyborgix 4E75 and Jasmina Jazzy.

legendfest 2012 show

Pićan’s tiny chapel of Sv. Mihovil was the perfect setting for our dramatic show

Svarog summoned up the help of Slavic gods Perun – the God of Thunder and Gerovita – The Master of War to defeat the two devils in a final cataclysmic battle scene which would see peace return to the beautiful land of Istria.
… you can listen to the epic story below 🙂

legendfest 2012

Our excellent costumes, make up, lasers and dry ice enhanced the performance

Once again we closed the festival programme after midnight on the last day, leaving the audience enthralled.

All rights reserved © Martin Mayhew and Cyborgix 4E75.

 

 

 

‘I moj nono je navigal – Brseč i Brsešćina’ – catalogue design

The latest edition in this series. Catalogue and exhibition design about the mariners and sailors who sailed around the world from Brseč in the early 20th century.

This project was produced for Katedra Čakavskog Sabora Općine Mošćenička Draga.

katalog – I moj nono je navigal – Brseč

Linkovi:
Novi list
Liburnija.net
Istra.net
Facebook

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Eco active holidays on the island of Cres – video

Experience the beauty and heritage of the Croatian islands of Cres and Lošinj.
Recover from the stress of modern life by living a traditional way of life and activities on the islands. Would you like to be islanders for a couple of days and get to know the life of the people who live here? We offer activities such as: shepherding, olive picking, fishing, hiking, walking and dry stone walling, or explore the islands on mountain bikes.

Visit Secrets of Cres / Tajne Cresa: http://www.tajnecresa.com/indexENG.html

Eko-centar Caput Insulae entrance tickets – design

Graphic design of entrance tickets for the interpretation centre at Eko-centar Caput Insulae Beli on the island of Cres. This was a complex piece of design work involving perfing, consecutive security in-line numbering with overall and spot UV lamination.

Tražim zaposlenje u području medija/tiska/izdavaštva:
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Griffon vultures of Cres comic strip

From the original black and white pen drawings by artist Roberto Guglielmi and text by author Vesna Radek I prepared this lovely comic strip children’s guide to the life cycle of the Eurasian Griffon (white headed griffon, bjeloglavi sup, Gyps fulvus).

Firstly I had to scan every single original black and white line drawing, clean them and then choose a colour scheme for the whole book which I then used to colourize every part of each image. Next I had to add the speech bubbles using the author’s text. This was a very exhausting and time consuming piece of work. The Croatian language version was printed and published. I also translated text into English but this version was not printed, nevertheless you can view copy of this version below.
The final booklet is a real labour of love.

This project was produced for Eko-centar Caput-Insulae Beli, on the island of Cres –  www.supovi.hr

Here are two pages from the book.

griffon vulture comic stripOne of Roberto Guglielmi’s original black and white pen drawings.

Here is the English language version in full, which I translated but was never published.

[flipgorilla flipbook=’1′]

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