‘Zeleno i plavo‘ (‘green and blue’) is a regularly published magazine issued in Croatian by Primorje-Gorski Kotar County that highlights the attractions, traditions and local life of the county which has become internationally known as Croatia’s ‘green-blue’ county. This title derives from the fact that it covers an area of a myriad of landscapes and scenery from the crystal clear blueness of the northern Adriatic Sea to the deep greens of the highland forests of the inland Gorski Kotar region.
Every couple of years an international version is published in English which gathers together the choicest bits from the previous Croatian language editions – under the title of ‘Green & Blue’.
‘Green & Blue’ 2014 English edition
I was honoured to have been able to translate the Croatian text into English for the County where I live – Rijeka being the main city.‘Green & Blue’ number 3 is 80 pages full of informative, interesting, entertaining articles about the life of the people of the County, their work, skills, hobbies as well as the industries, tourism, sports and more – not forgetting of course the beautiful countryside which Primorje-Gorski Kotar County is famous for.
The outstanding photography, enlightening text and detailed information about the County make this an essential insight into the life and work of the people and their interaction with nature, and it provides a valuable glimpse for tourists, visitors and potential business partners coming to the region.
Editor: Ermina Duraj
Editor in chief: Dragan Ogurlić
English translation: Martin Mayhew
Graphic design: Ivica Oreb
Marketing and production: Makol Marketing, Rijeka
Printed by: Kerchoffest, Zagreb
2013 saw the 100th anniversary of Rijeka’s sports stadium and to celebrate this the publishing house Adamić, in conjunction with Grad Rijeka’s council, published a commemorative book ‘100 Godina Stadiona Kantrida’.
“100 Years of the Kantrida Stadium, Rijeka”
“In the hundred year period on the battlefield of Rijeka’s sporting temple, sporting as well as political interests have been intertwined. Through the transformations of the former quarry the social and cultural development of the city of Rijeka can be traced.”
The book is illustrated with many photographs and diagrams detailing the history of the site, the uses it has served over the decades right up today’s home of the Rijeka’s football team and the recent plans for its transformation into one of the regions newest and most exciting stadiums.
The authors are: Marinko Lazzarich, Ivo Paškvan, Ferruccio Burburan and Zlatko Moranjak
I am proud to have translated the summary into English.
This superbly written, illustrated and detailed book describes almost 60 of the most interesting wrecks of boats, ships, submarines, aircraft and all other manner of vessels which lie under the whole length of the Croatian part of the beautiful Adriatic Sea.
Translated from Croatian into English – a must for all divers.
My translation of the original Croatian text into English took almost three months to complete – in total almost 350 pages!
The original book in Croatian – ‘Blago Jadrana’ written by Danijel Frka and Jasen Mešić was published by the Adamić publishing house in 2012 and was an immediate hit and so it was translated into German, Italian and now into English.
Superbly illustrated by the author Danijel Frka
Vessels from all periods – ancient to modern day
Each wreck is extensively described, illustrated, photographed in situ, with their stories researched in detail – including one especially interesting story of one ship’s captain who stayed with his vessel until the very end only to be found still grasping the wheel on the bridge long after his ship sank.
Battleships and submarines from both world wars have been researched in detail.
Some of the famous ships described include the Re D’Italia, the Szent Istvan and the Giuseppe Garibaldi. Along with the well-known wrecks there are also aircraft such as American B-24 Liberator bombers in the sea near the island of Vis and ancient Roman merchant boats with cargoes of amphorae and sarcophagi and Napoleonic brigs with cannons.
Also detailed and researched are aircraft, submarines and ancient merchant boats.
Each site has been dived by the authors; giving precise details of the locations, the diving conditions, the currents, flora and fauna, what to look for and what to be aware of. Also important are the rules and regulations of diving and all the safety aspects required. They have also investigated the backgrounds of the vessels, the human stories, the destinies and incidents and even battle descriptions from first hand and archive sources.
Superb underwater photography accompanies every site.
I was very happy to be involved in the translation of this book because it opened up a new window on the place where I live and I was even more interested to read about one particular British motor torpedo boat (named MTB 655) from the Second Word War which was in fact built in my childhood town of Littlehampton in England and which sank in March 1945 near the island of Cres!
The British motor torpedo boat MTB 655, built in January 1943 by William Osbourne Ltd shipyard in Littlehampton. Sunk after hitting a German mine near the island of Cres 21st March 1945.
Full details: “TREASURES OF THE ADRIATIC SEA –
A diver’s guide to the wrecks of the Croatian Adriatic” by Danijel Frka and Jasen Mesić Published by Adamić, 2013
ISBN 978-953-219-479-1
Hardback, 390 pages, size 21.5cm x 28.5cm
“Martin Mayhew, prevoditelj i dizajner iz Rijeke, a originalno momak iz Brightona u Velikoj Britaniji, sjajno je preveo Blago Jadrana na engleski. Sve čestitke!” – Dragan Ogurlić, editor at Adamić.
Everybody loves to sit in the sun, sip a great cup of coffee and watch the world go by, no more so than in the city of Rijeka – European Capital of Culture 2020, and the history of this habit stretches back to the beginning of the 18th century.
In Europe cafés first appeared in the south of the continent. By 1570 Venetian merchants brought coffee to Venice along with tobacco. In the second half of the 17th century the first cafés were opened, and soon Milan, Turin, Genoa and other Italian cities followed the trend. Around 1760 there existed more than 200 cafés in Venice alone. Vienna is probably the best known European city for its cafés, and the opening of the first Viennese café, called “Hof zur Blauen Flasche” (“House under the Blue Bottle“) was related to the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683. Cafés became the places which captivated with their smell, comfort, warmth and all the activities which go along with drinking coffee such as reading the newspapers, playing cards or billiards, pleasant conversation and intellectual debates. Cafés became centres of social life.
Coffee most probably arrived in Rijeka following the examples of Venice and Vienna cafés, because as early as 1719 the Habsburg Emperor Charles VI declared Rijeka and Trieste as free ports, which at the same time also meant that the delivery of colonial goods could be made without Venetian intervention.
Records show that the first café was opened in 1715 in Rijeka by Tommaso Bianchi and Florio Maruloni, who were settlers from the Swiss province of Grigioni (Graubünden, Grischun, Grisons). It was located in the house named Domus Aurea, near the old council building in today’s Koblerov Trg.
The Ana Minak – a typical clipper boat used for the transport of coffee and tea.
Most imports of coffee to the Rijeka region were connected with the establishment of the Trieste-Fiume Company (1750) and its successor the Privileged Company of Trieste and Fiume (1775-1804), whose branch in Rijeka imported, amongst other things, great amounts of coffee and tea from Amsterdam, Nantes and Bordeaux. At the beginning of the 19th century the Rijeka entrepreneur Andrija Ljudevit Adamić participated in trade with overseas countries, importing tobacco, coffee and cocoa as well as other goods. These were goods imported from Central and Southern America.
Not much is known about the cafés, café service or interiors of those times today, although there is more information about the public houses, hotels, guesthouses and inns. Dominik Teleki von Szek states that in Rijeka in 1794 there were seven cafés and that they were the centre of social life.
The local shipyards of Rijeka, Istria and the Croatian littoral were involved in the construction of fast sailing ships, so-called barque-clippers, which were used for the transport of perishable goods, tea and coffee. At the end of the 19th century the main traffic in coffee to the Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire came through Rijeka’s ports.
Caffe Al Risorgimento
The entrepreneurial spirit of Rijeka’s people in this period can be seen in the opening of coffee roasting establishments in the city, because coffee was transported here as raw beans from Asia and South America as well.
In Sušak several private companies operated which were involved in the import of colonial goods, which were imported directly, without intervention from the countries of origin. Josip Smerdel had a company, established in 1886, which also had a coffee roasting house. His shop sold the roasted and unroasted coffee brands of: Minas, Santos, Salvador, San Domingo, Perla Portorico, Liberia, Guatemala and Cuba Speciale, which clearly pointed to the diversity of the origins of the coffee. This was very similar to the selection of coffees which the Haramija-Mikuličić company also offered.
The interior of Josip Smerdel’s shop in Sušak.
Ljudevita Jelušića coffee shop, Kastav
After the division of Rijeka and Sušak at the beginning of the 1920s, a group of wholesalers was organised in Sušak and it founded the First Sušak Joint Stock Trading Society, which brought together a range of entrepreneurs involved in import-export. It was here that coffee found its place. Along with the usual flow of imported coffee from overseas, the society adapted its business operations to the emerging situations and connected itself with the Franck factory in Zagreb and with Kolinska in Ljubljana selling its coffee. Besides selling coffee it also sold coffee substitutes such as Rosil from figs, Kneipp from barley and Seka from chicory. The Haramija-Mikuličić roasting house sold coffee blends under the names of Mercantilna, Domaća, Stolna Melange, Imperial Melange and Haramika.
In the second half of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century there were numerous known cafés: Caffé Europa, Caffé Maritimo Mercantile, Caffé Centrale, Caffé Schenk (later Caffé Degli Specchi), Caffé Orient, Caffé Grande, Liburnia, De la Ville, Fiumara, Panachoff, Adria, Quarnero, Grande, Patriottico, Commercio, Panny, Specchi, Fiume Risorgimento, Apolo, Secession, Europa, Marittimo and Venezia.
In 1920 in Sušak a cooperative was founded of innkeepers, barkeepers and café owners in order to represent their rights in the town and district of Sušak. The cooperative consisted of around 100 members which in 1933 paid 10 dinars each for their membership. Amongst the first cafés in Sušak were the Caffé Europa and the Narodna Kavana.
The Cafe Bristol
The same building in 2014
During the 1960s the new Yugoslav society, thanks to the specifics of the political regime, there developed a special consumerism concerning coffee and its drinking in special places. Work meetings without coffee were unimaginable, and one of the main skills of business secretaries was the art of making the morning coffee. The whole atmosphere was complemented with a shopping trip to Trieste, if for nothing else than just to drink a cup of coffee.
The crisis or the so-called economic stabilisation of the 1980s was marked with a shortage of coffee, which gave additional reasons for a trip over the border and the “smuggling” of coffee.
The traditions of those first cafés were upheld by popular cafés of the second half of the 20th century: Učka, Triglav, Narodna Kavana, Kontinental, Union, Istra, Neboder, Gradska Kavana, Rječina, Slavica, Sport, Korzo, Zora, Žabica and their names still evoke pleasant memories and rich nostalgia.
Everything you’ll need to know about visiting Croatia’s third largest city – what to see, what to do, where to stay, where to eat, fashion, music, history and culture, transport, beaches and of course shopping.
I contributed to new and updated reviews of sights and places to visit.
I recently proofread volume 6 of IKON – the annual journal of iconographic studies (ISSN 1846-8551) published by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka in May 2013. This is a high quality, beautifully illustrated, 330 page, publication examining the religious iconography of paintings, murals and ecclesiastical art history.
It was my pleasure to work with the editor, Marina Vicelja-Matijašić in the proofreading of the English translations in this issue which is entitled ‘Visions’.
‘Only Fools and Horses’ is incredibly popular in Croatia and is broadcast on national television under the title ‘Mućke’ – loosely translated as meaning ‘wheelers and dealers’.
All episodes of Mućke are available on DVD.
Rijeka’s city football team supporters Armada have adopted Delboy, Rodney and Uncle Albert as beacons of hope.
Graffiti near Krnjevo, Rijeka – “This time next year we’ll be champions”
Rijeka – European Capital of Culture 2020 has a long tradition in shipbuilding. Many of these photographs are by the great photographer Viktor Hreljanović. More about the SMS Szent Istvan here
‘Isušena kaljuža’ – rare cover of first edition from 1957
Janko Polić Kamov – ‘Isušena Kaljuža’ (English ‘The Dried Out Mire’)
I am very fortunate to be given an original first edition of this book, intact with its dust jacket – which is very rare to find.
Kamov wrote the manuscript for his novel from 1906-1909, but it was not published until 1957, many years after his death.
In the opinion of many literary critics it is the best Croatian novel ever written.
In Mladen Urem’s book ‘Janko Polić Kamov, Dora Maar i hrvatska avangarda‘ (Janko Polić Kamov, Dora Maar and the Croatian Avant-garde) (ISBN 953-6700-06-9) (2006) one chapter is dedicated to the relationship between Antun Gustav Matoš – a leading Croatian modernist writer and contemporary of Kamov’s – and the architect Josip Marković (1873–1969), the father of Dora Maar – born as Teodora Marković (1907-1997), the painter, photographer and Pablo Picasso’s muse and lover.
For more than 10 years he researched the genealogy of the Marković family; Dora Maar and her father the architect Josip Marković who was the illegitimate son of Kamov’s father Ante Polić and Barbara Marković. The long time friendship between Antun Gustav Matoš and Josip Marković, plus links with the Croatian politician Stjepan Radić reveal a deeper link between Matoš and Janko Polić Kamov. It is most likely that Josip told Matoš the story of his own origins and of his true father, although this would never be acknowledged publicly, various events and correspondence signify the links. From the entire study it can be assumed that in 1903, whilst the young Janko Polić Kamov was demonstrating in Zagreb against the Khuen government he spent several months in prison, where he became acquainted with Stjepan Radić and from him he learnt that he had a half-brother the architect Josip Marković. Janko’s brother Nikola Polić in ‘Iskopinama’ (‘Excavations’)(1953) describes how the young Janko was searching for when and where his father’s martial infidelity took place by correspondence with his parents. Many of the family’s documents and correspondence have been lost, and so it is difficult to reconstruct the actual events which acted formatively on Kamov and his literary work. Nevertheless, everything that is available to us to shows the obvious connections and contact between these people.
Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar (born Teodora Marković) by Man Ray
From this recent research connections between Janko Polić Kamov and Picasso’s lover Dora Maar have been uncovered and the new information has prompted a new analysis of Kamov’s life and works (many of which are semi-autobiographical) clarifying many details from which can be seen that he was one of the most significant writers of his time, about whom, unfortunately, the international audience has had little opportunity to discover.
Between the two world wars the works of Janko Polić Kamov were rarely printed. Initially these were his Sabrana djela – Collected Works (including his novel ‘Isušena kaljuža’ – ‘The Dried Out Mire’, written from 1906-1909) and printed for the first time in 1956-1958.
Only in the last 20 years has he gained international recognition and his works have been translated into other languages: English, German, Italian, Spanish, Catalonian and French. The novel ‘Isušena kaljuža’ – ‘The Dried Out Mire’ has been translated and published into Italian and should soon be published in German but has never been translated into English.
More about Kamov and Dora Maar here (in Croatian).
‘Zwischen Fluch und Toleranz’ – German translation, 2009. ISBN 978-953-6700-21-9. Translation by Igor Šimonić.
‘Southerly Thoughts and Other Stories’ – an anthology of short stories by prominient Croatia authors featuring Kamov’s ‘Sorrow’. Published in Rijeka 2005.
‘La Palude Disseccata’ (‘Isušena kaljuža’ – ‘The Dried Out Mire’) Campanotto Editore, Italy 2009. Italian translation by Rosalba Asino.
Grand Street (New York) literary magazine no.58, 1996. Featured Kamov’s short story ‘Freedom’ and intro by Mladen Urem
‘Blasfemia’- by Edicions ‘96, Valencia, 2011 Catalonian translation. ISBN 978-84-92763-65-8.
‘Akzente’ influential German (Munich)literary magazine no.4 from 2007 featured ‘Sorrow’ (‘Trauer’)
‘Selection of Short Stories and Poems’ – Intro by Mladen Urem. Published in Rijeka/Zagreb 1997. ISSN 0351-0611
‘Partisan Review’ American (Boston) literary magazine. Issue 1/1998 featured Kamov’s ‘Freedom’.
Issue 2/1999 featured ‘Sorrow’.
‘La Fiumanella’ literary magazine published in Rijeka in 1921 featured ‘Pjesma nad pjesmama’ – ‘La Canzone delle Canzoni’
‘Schreibheft’ – German literary magazine no. 64 – 2005 featured Kamov’s Freedom’ (‘Freiheit’)
‘La Bestemmia’ /’Psovka’ – dual Italian/Croatian language edition published by Campanotto Editore in 2005.
Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar (born Teodora Marković) by Man Ray
Dora Maar (born Teodora Marković) by Man Ray
Janko Polić Kamov – Članci i feljtoni pisma 1958. Sabrana djela IV, with original dust jacket.
‘Misaonost Janka Polića Kamova’ – Mariaj Brida 1993 ISBN 953-6066-04-1
An original collection of Kamov’s novellas and essays. Published in 1938 by Hrvatske Književne Naklade Neovisnih Književnika, Zagreb. Editor Ljubo Wiesner.
The City of Rijeka erected a statue of its famous pavement writer – Janko Polić Kamov.
In 2010 the Croatian post office (Hrvatska pošta) issued a series stamps featuring eminent Croatian writers, composers etc. The 3 kuna 10 lipa stamp commemorated the 100th anniversary of Kamov’s death.
U potrazi sam za sponzorstvom ili drugim oblikom financijske potpore kao i prikladnog izdavača (za tisak knjige ili e-book verzije) kako bih završio svoj prijevod svih djela Janka Polića Kamova. Na prijevodu sam njegovih djela s hrvatskog na engleski jezik radim od 2012. godine. Tijekom tog procesa stvaram jedinstveni rječnik fraza i arhaičnih riječi koje Kamov koristi u svojim djelima, kao odraz i osobnog autorskog stila ali i vremena u kojem je pisao. Taj bi se rječnik mogao koristiti od strane budućih prevoditelja zainteresiranih za ovo značajno razdoblje hrvatske književnosti.
Molim vas, kontaktirajte me ako ste zainteresirani.
I am looking for sponsorship or funding and a suitable publisher (printed or online) in order to complete my translations of all of Kamov’s work. I have been working on translating his works into English since 2012. During this process I am compiling a unique glossary which could be used by future translators interested in this important period of Croatian literature.
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‘Green & Blue’ number 3 is 80 pages full of informative, interesting, entertaining articles about the life of the people of the County, their work, skills, hobbies as well as the industries, tourism, sports and more – not forgetting of course the beautiful countryside which Primorje-Gorski Kotar County is famous for.
The outstanding photography, enlightening text and detailed information about the County make this an essential insight into the life and work of the people and their interaction with nature, and it provides a valuable glimpse for tourists, visitors and potential business partners coming to the region.
