by ŽELJKO CIPRIš
Interview with Rade Dragojevi?
Whence comes the idea to translate Krleža’s work today and present it to American readers? In other words, are Krleža’s themes sufficiently universal and understandable to new generations?
I’ve long been interested in left-wing writers. At the beginning of this century, I translated into English some works by a young Japanese man who worked in the 1920s, called Denji Kuroshima. Then I translated another Japanese radical writer, also a young man who was active in the 1920s and early 1930s, he is called Takiji Kobayashi. Then it finally occurred to me that I could translate something by the young Krleža too. Krleža is five years older than Kurošima and ten years older than Kobayashi; all three are almost the same age, more or less the same generation as, for instance, Bertolt Brecht or Antonio Gramsci. The seven of Krleža’s texts that I’ve chosen are all written in the 1920s, in the light of the recently concluded World War I and the October Revolution: The Battle at Bistrica Lesna, Barrack 5B, Guardsman Jambrek, National Guardsmen Gebeš and Ben?ina Talk about Lenin, Finale: Attempt at a Five-Thousand-Year Synthesis, Death of Prostitute Maria, and The Glembays.
At the time when he wrote these texts Krleža was a fiery, rebellious intellectual at the peak of activity. Although I respect the whole of his life’s work, this early period interests me the most. Of course, I hope it will be of interest to others as well: not only American readers but also those from various other countries who read English, but who previously might have never even heard of Krleža. I think that some of his themes, such as for example the ones in this book, definitely are sufficiently universal and understandable to new generations.
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