Aleksa Šantić

Throughout his life, he suffered from ill health and his death on 2 February, 1924 occurred from tuberculosis. The funeral of this patriotic poet was attended by members of all faiths.

Aleksa Šantić is a Bosnian village named for the poet. During the Hungarian Axis occupation of World War II, its name was changed to Fernbach; it resumed its original name post-war.

He is pictured on ten Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible marks bills. The term 'mark' refers to the German mark, to which the convertible marks bills' value corresponds.

He was born on 27 May 1868, in Mostar in the Ottoman Empire, in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina, commonly called Bosnia. His father, Risto, was a merchant, his mother, Mara, a homemaker and he had three siblings: Jeftan and Jakov and Radojka, with a sister Zorica dying in infancy.

By 1878, Bosnia was occupied by Austria-Hungary, which ruled it as part of its territory. During this tumult, his father died and his uncle obtained custody of Aleksa and his siblings.

His birth family had shown little interest in his lyrical talent, and so Šantić attended commercial schools at Ljubljana and Trieste. He returned to Mostar broadened by the exposure to other cities and determined to foster his literary career instead of going into business.

In 1886, he published his first poem. His romantic poetry worked Muslim themes into a fresh form, as the settings of his poems ranged from gardens to fountains to hidden trysts with nearly unobtainable women.

'Gusle' was a Bosnian music association founded and presided over by him in 1888. He blended musical and literary Bosnian efforts into a strong patriotic force as he wrote songs in the manner of traditional Bosnian love songs called 'sevdalinkas.'

He became a symbol of maintaining Bosnian heritage for other patriots as his country experienced occupation. His patriotic poems such as 'Stay Here' written in 1896 portray the longing of people who stray away from their homeland and struggle to return back.

From 1897-1898 he translated Heinrich Heine from German to Serbo-Croatian. Heine's satirical wit and irony inspired Šantić, and he counted Heine among his influences, along with the Serbian poet Vojislav Ilic whose poetry's themes included cruel nature and man's moral decadence.

'Emina' from 1903 is perhaps his best-known poem. It evolved into ‘sevdalinka’ form and tells of the lover observing his beloved from afar, yearning to express his love yet knowing the love is unrequited, one of the many failures in life.

The romantic poem 'Emina' was based upon his observation of his teenage Muslim neighbor, Emina Koluder. The poem, which was set to music as a sevdalinka, has remained popular for over one hundred years, and has several covers on YouTube. From 1891-1913, seven collections of poetry by the eminent poet were published.