Nova Istra

216 NOVA ISTRA Literary, Art and Cultural Journal Zeitschrift für Literatur, Kunst und Kultur Rivista di letteratura, arte e cultura Pula, Croatia / Kroatien / Croazia, No. 4/2018 This issue first brings the texts to commemorate two colleagues, and to say goodbye to them, the top-rated contemporary Croatian writers who have recently passed away – the poet Jakša Fiamengo and the novelist Daša Drndić. The contemporary literature section regularly presents the (most) recent fiction and poetry pieces, some of them being in the Chakavian dialect, by the well-established authors and by the younger ones who are just appearing on the literary stage; they are not only different in terms of their generations, but also in terms of their aesthe­ tical diversity and the poetic choices included here. The translation section contains an extract from the famous poem by the Croatian Baroque author, Pavao Ritter Vitezović (1652-1713), in Latin; this language tradi­ tion is abundant among the Croatians and also long since it dates back to 19 th cen­ tury.The title of the given poem is Plorantis Croatiae saecula duo, carmine descripta ab Equite Paulo Ritter, S. C. R. Maiestatis Consiliario (The Two Centuries of Weeping Croatia...). There is also included a translation of the text on Nietzsche by Gottfri­ ed Benn, and an extract on Varlam Shalamov by the last century’s Polish writer Gu­ staw Herling-Grudzińsky. The texts dealing with the contemporary Croatian poems and the polemical notes on literature and language are given in the reviews section, while a text on the body as ‘the technical construction’ is brought in the usual philosophy section. The contributions on the native region depict the German newspapers and journals published in Pula and Istria (1871-1918) during the Austrian period, as well as the memories of the great Istrian and Croatian historian about the first post-war (after the SecondWorldWar) years of living and schooling in Pula, that followed the tur­ bulent historical circumstances, which have left scars and traces on people, in some cases inerasable up to now. In the final part of the current issue, there are presented the (most) recent editions selected from the national and international (translated) literature, that is, literary reviews regarding the current fiction, poetry and resources in the field of literary sci­ ence; one of the presented contributions deals with the Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa. Translation: R. Šamo, Pula