The great Serbian poet and playwright Ljubomir Ljuba Simović passed away today. Simović left a deep mark on the Serbian tradition of poetry and drama, on our culture and society as a whole. A trail that cannot be measured in everyday terms. Simović’s opus, together with his public appearances, represents one of the most significant contributions to Serbian culture and society during the second half of the twentieth and early twenty-first century. The Yugoslav Drama Theatre is proud of the fact that two of Simović’s plays are currently on our theatre’s repertoire – The Travelling Troupe Šopalović and The Miracle at Šargan, both directed by Jagoš Marković – both of them among our most beloved productions. We are also proud to have been the venue for the first ever production of The Travelling Troupe Šopalović, one of the best and most admired productions in the history of our theatre and, in his own opinion, two of the best productions ever to be directed by Dejan Mijač.
Ljubomir Simović was born on 2nd December, 1935 in Užice where he completed his primary and secondary education. He received a degree in Yugoslav Literature and Serbo-Croatian language from the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade.
In December, 1988 he became a corresponding and on 27th October, 1994 a full member of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences.
His early work includes poetry collections such as Slovene Elegies (1958), Cheery Graves (1961) and The Last Country (1964) followed by Helmets (1967), Before the Third Cocks Crow (1972), Saturday (1976), A Double Slanting View (1980), Seaward State of Mind (1982), Ten Addresses to the Three Handed Theotokos of Hilandar (1983), The Fountains (1983), Upper Town (1990), Needle and Thread (1992), Eggshell (1998), Point (2004) and Planet Danube (2009).
He is also author of four plays: Hasanaginica (1973), The Miracle at Šargan (1974), The Travelling Troupe Šopalović (1985) and The Battle of Kosovo (first version in 1988, second in 2002, printed in 2003 with “Notes on the Second Version”).
His plays Hasanaginica, The Miracle at Šargan and The Travelling Troupe Šopalović were produced by a number of theatres in former Yugoslavia. Simović was also a four time recipient of the Sterijino Pozorje theatre award: three times for best play and fourh time for “exceptional contribution to theatre and culture”. The feature film The Battle of Kosovo, directed by Zdravko Šotra, was based on the first version of his play.
Various productions of his plays have had guest performances at theatre festivals in Bratislava, Budapest, Munich, Mexico City, Caracas, Shiraz-Persepolis (Iran), in Gorizia (Italy), Ljubljana, Zagreb, Dubrovnik Summer Festival, in Moscow, Saint Petersburg (and, years earlier, in Leningrad), in Berlin, Nitra (Slovakia), Brussels as well as at the Theatre of Nations in Paris and in Sofia.
Simović’s poetry and plays have been translated to a number of foreign languages. His poetry has seen monograph publications in the USA, Romania, Slovakia, Macedonia, France. Translations of his poetry and plays have been included in literary and theatre anthologies, compendia and magazines. His play The Travelling Troupe Šopalović is the one that garnered most success for his writing around the world. In addition to French and English, it has been translated into Polish, Czech, Slovak, Russian, Romanian, Breton, Korean, Japanese, Slovak, Macedonian, Spanish, Bulgarian and Ukrainian. In the period between 1990 and 2012 it saw over a hundred different productions in France alone, eleven of them in Paris, including the elite Théâtre de la Ville, also known as the Sarah Bernhardt theatre. The Travelling Troupe Šopalović has seen a number of productions in Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Canada, Slovenia, Macedonia, South Korea, Japan (Tokyo), Columbia (Bogotá) as well as in the French theatre in Morocco (Casablanca). The Miracle at Šargan has been produced in theatres in Slovenia and France. Hasanaginica was produced by a theatre in Istanbul, Türkiye, among other places.
Simović became recipient of a number of literary and theatre awards – here are the ones named after authors: Jovan Jovanović Zmaj, Branko Miljković, Milan Rakić, Jovan Sterija Popović , Joakim Vujić, Vladislav Petković Dis, Desanka Maksimović, Laza Kostić, Stefan Mitrov Ljubiša, Isidora Sekulić (and Isidorijana), Đura Jakšić, Rade Drainac, Vasko Popa, Jovan Dučić, Mića Popović, Filip Višnjić, Petar Petrović Njegoš, Dositej Obradović, Ljubomir Nenadović. Other awards include – The Chrysobull of Žiča, Prince Lazar’s Golden Cross, Vuk Award, Srpska Književna Zadruga Award, Smederevo Golden Key Award, Charter of Rača Award and Rosetta of Bele Vode Award.
Simović’s work also includes a novel/chronicle Užice with the Crows (first edition in 1996), dream diary Dreamscape (1998), a book of essays on Serbian poets Double Bottom (1983), with a number of later editions. Simović also wrote a book of essays on painters and sculptors – Reading Paintings (2006).
A special place in his opus is held by eight books of conversations, articles, diaries, analyses and comments on the events in former Yugoslavia and Serbia towards the end of 20th and early 21st centuries. A Smithy at Čakovina (first edition in 1990), Galloping on Snails (1994), New Galloping on Snails (1999), a diary kept during the bombing of
Yugoslavia in 1999 Easy Game (2005), Promised Land (2007), “Titanic” in an Aquarium (2013), Queuing Upstarts (2016), Defence of Belgrade (2020). These books represent an authentic and immediate testimony on wars and events surrounding the break-up of Yugoslavia, interspersed and interwoven with political, social, literary, theatre and poetic motifs.
Simović appeared as editor of selected poems by Đura Jakšić, Jovan Jovanović Zmaj, Laza Kostić, Momčilo Nastasijević, Dušan Vasiljev, Miodrag Pavlović, Milovan Danojlić and Branislav Petrović as well as books of selected comedies by Jovan Sterija Popović and Branislav Nušić. In 2004 he appeared as editor of the posthumously published poems from the estate of Branislav Petrović, entitled Žeževasion.
In the anthology edition of Ten Centuries of Serbian Literature, published by Matica Srpska,
Simović was in charge of selecting works by Laza Kostić The same edition included a book of works by Simović himself, selected by Bogdan A. Popović.
As part of his activities on behalf of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences, he organised conferences and edited compendia related to these conferences: Jovan Sterija Popović, 1806–1856–2006 and Laza Kostić, 1841–1910–2010.
Putujuće pozorište Šopalović, r. Dejan Mijač
Čudo u Šarganu, r. Jagoš Marković
Ljubomir Simović u JDP-u
Putujuće pozorište Šopalović, r. Jagoš Marković