Spontaneity and simplicity characterize the poetry of one of the most important and best-loved Croatian poets, Dragutin Tadijanovic, who has continued to write and publish into his nineties in a literary career that includes sixty years of writing. Much of his poetry is autobiographical, and it is from this personal perspective that the poet touches upon such universal themes as alienation, transience, and death. These, the poet suggests, can be overcome only through love.

Born in Rastusje in the region of Slavonia on 4 November 1905, Dragutin Tadijanovic grew up in the village where his parents, Mirko and Manda, were farmers. He had two sisters, Franjka and Kata, and a brother, Duro. From 1912 until 1916 he attended grade school in the neighboring village, making the daily trips on foot. Tadijanovic attended junior high from 1916 until 1918 and then high school from 1918 until 1925, where he began writing during his third year, at the...