Auteur: Janko Polić Kamov

Janko Polić (1886 – 1910) was born in SuÅ¡ak today part of the Croatian city of Rijeka. In this period Croatia was governed by Austro-Hungary. He became increasingly rebellious, even spending a short time in prison because of his political views. After a troubled childhood, disillusionment with school, part time jobs and theatrical performances, he found solace in literature and soon began writing himself. In 1905 he wrote his first stories and began travelling to the inspirational literary cities of the day. During this period he gave himself the pseudonym of « Kamov » – after the Old Testament character of « Ham. » Ham was one of Noah »s sons who had seen his father naked after a drinking spree. Many of the themes in Kamov »s writings would reflect his real life experiences and are written in the first person or as his alter ego. Kamov »s work, the dramas, poems, farces, novellas are seen as a precursor of Croatian modernism, existentialism, avant-garde, absurdism and surrealism, at a time when these genres were only just emerging globally. During his short life he struggled to be accepted and published as a professional poet, dramatist and novelist. He is considered to be highly original writer for the period, despising bourgeois hypocrisy, injustice, ridiculing the social norms and niceties of the day. His work also deals with the darker side of the human psyche, madness, violence, sexual excess, alcohol, religious duality, the class system, poverty and the overall human condition. His one and only novel « IsuÅ¡ena kaljuža » (« The Dried-Out Mire ») was finally published in 1953, long after his death and its surreal expressionist narrative, psychosexually, spiritually conflicted stream of consciousness is considered by many to be one of Croatian literature »s best writings, yet is still not translated into English. Unfortunately Kamov was not properly recognised for his contribution to literature until many years after his death in Barcelona from an unspecified abdominal infection at the age of only 23. He was impoverished, hungry but seemingly resigned to his fate. He has been compared to Camus, Kafka and Joyce.Martin Mayhew, born 1967, from Brighton, England has lived in Rijeka, Croatia since 2003. He works as freelance translator, proofreader and graphic designer. He has a background in journalism and print production after working in magazine editorial departments and large commercial printing companies in the UK. Since living in Croatia he has worked for many varying clients in publishing, literary, academic, historical, cultural-heritage, media and advertising fields. He began reading the work of Janko Polić Kamov in 2010 and was immediately drawn to his style and decided to dedicate his spare time to translating and researching his work. In doing so he found comparisons to his own life experiences and view of the world. The first fruit of this work is the « Farces & Novellas » collection. There is still a lot of Kamov »s work to be translated into English and this collection will hopefully introduce his work to a wider audience and inspire funding to continue the translation of his work.