Last part of „Bolji od svog života“ trilogy of Milan B. Popović, modern poet from Serbia, „Oka da ne ispustim dah“ is a collection of mostly intimate poems which have a direct effect to a reader because of its depth and emotionality.
Songs are divided into three parts.
First part „Umiri me“ is love-themed. But, there is nothing alike Petrarca’s love themes, but it is about melancholic and depressive, at moments naturalistic lust for the lost love in which lyrical subject reminds on dark romantic characters and their „world pain“. Deep pain for the loved one and gradation of falling to enernity, which culminates in song „Pusti me“, which can only be healed by loved one who doesn’t care for the lyrical subject anymore, which is the main reason of his pain.
Second part of song is „Spasi me“. You would expect that this love drama will continue, but two songs that this part consists „Plezir za prezir“ and „Nekakvi i nikakvi“ we can say that they are social-politically themed songs because they truly describe everday situation overfilled with hypocracy and theft and it criticises human lust for material fortune. Also, in „Plezir za plezir“ life of a modern poet is described from which we can conclude how poet’s status in community hasn’t changed for many many years, so it seemes that poets will always be living in magic of bohemic life.
We are coming to „Čuvar mi budi“ part in which we are back again of first love thematic, but here poet is more considering psyhical condition of his lyrical subject, which, brought till final destruction, tries to find a shelter in some other substances because of which he falls even deeper in darkness and his soul gets older really fast. Those songs we can feel with soul and the body which is caused by all the stilistic figures that poet is using.
When you come to the end of this collection, you wonder, in what kind of condition is the man that digged himself so deep in this dark depression, whose lyrical subject gives up of life and lost in time and space, dead inside, waits for the second when his body will also physically leave this world, when the worms will eat him completly in pain and suffer and not even death will give him a peace because of just one mistake he made.

For more informations about the book and author please visit www.molitvatetoviranogsrca.com.

Text: Maja Trstenjak (maja@venia-mag.net)