Dinko Zlatarić
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Dinko Zlatarić (also Dominko Zlatarić; 1558 - 1613) was a Croatian poet and translator from Dubrovnik, considered the best translator of the Croatian Renaissance.
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[edit] Life
Zlatarić was born in a respectable and very rich commoner family. He studied at the University of Padua, where he learned rhetoric, philosophy and civil law. Because of his knowledge and seriousness, the students elected him the head of university in 1579. For keeping the peace and order at the university, he was rewarded by the Republic of Venice with the title of "Golden Knight". In 1580, a plaque was put at the university in his honor.
He came back to Dubrovnik in 1587. He shared his time between writing and running his estates in Cavtat and Konavle. He had friends among poets from Italy and Dubrovnik and admired the famous Renaissance beauty Cvijeta Zuzorić. Zlatarić wrote in Croatian and Italian – love poems, epitaphs and poetic meditations – but his greatest achievements are his translations.
[edit] Translations and poems
He translated Tasso's manuscript of the pastoral drama Aminta in Padua in 1580. Later, dissatisfied with his translation, Zlatarić changed it, reworked it and adapted it to a Croatian setting, so it became Ljubmir. Then he published Electra, a Tragedy, and Ljubmir, a Pastoral History (a collection of his translations) and Love and Death of Pyramus and Thisbe, Translated into Croatian from Several Foreign Languages, in Venice in 1597. Zlatarić dedicated Electra to Juraj Zrinski, Ljubmir to Miho Matufić, and Pyramus and Thisbe to Cvijeta Zuzorić.
His translations from Greek, Italian and Latin included 26 original pjesni u smrt od razlicijeh (poems about various people's deaths). After his death, his son Miho Zlatarić collected and published 137 lyrical poems of his father under the title Pjesni razlike (Various Poems). Most of them are love poems.
Zlatarić was one of the most prolific epitaph writers of the Croatian Renaissance. The most effective one is his short epitaph to Dinko Ranjina (Nadgrobje Dinku Ranjini), followed by the epitaph to Bartolomeo Pescionio, the husband of Cvijeta Zuzorić. Zlatarić's poems are included in the Zadar Collection.
[edit] Analysis
He wrote under the influence of the first generation of Croatian Petrarchists and Italian Petrarchist schools. His strong links with the local Petrarchist tradition are shown by his rich style. His varied expression, mastery of verse and sound, put Zlatarić among the best Croatian lyrical poets of his time.
Zlatarić is also renowned as the best translator of the Croatian Renaissance. He translated Tasso's Aminta literally, with the necessary changes forced by a different meter. The second version, Ljubmir, is even more refined, literary and pure, with a richer language. His translation of Sophocles' Electra reveals not only Zlatarić's education, taste and versifying ability, but also his poetic gift. Love of Pyramus and Thisbe is closer to a prose translation. In general, Zlatarić's translations can be considered independent poetic achievements, widening the range of Croatian Renaissance literature.
[edit] Works
- Aminta, Padua, 1580
- Elektra, trađeija, Ljubmir, pripovijes pastijerska (Electra, a Tragedy, and Ljubmir, a Pastoral History), Venice, 1597
- Ljubav i smrt Pirama i Tizbe, iz veće tuđijeh jezika u hrvacki složene (Love and Death of Pyramus and Thisbe, Translated into Croatian from Several Foreign Languages), Venice, 1597
- Pjesni razlike (Various Poems), posthumous
