El durmiente petreo

Inspired by tombstones and their inscriptions, Mak Dizdar’s rich and haunting poems in Stone Sleeper, his most famous work, are a journey into the mysterious heart of medieval Bosnia. The poems form a three-way dialogue between the modern poet, the Christian heretics awaiting Judgement Day beneath their enigmatically-carved tombstones, and the heretic-hunters. Beneath the local and temporal, Dizdar explores universal issues: the value of resistance, though it might be futile; of faith, though it might be illusory; and of life, though it ends in death. Francis R Jones’s inventive and beautiful translations convey his deep understanding of Dizdar’s purpose. In addition a penetrating analysis of Stone Sleeper’s historical, religious and spiritual background is given by the distinguished scholar Rusmir Mahmutcehajic, whose book Across the Water: On the Poetry of Mak Dizdar is published by Fordham University Press.