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Djeca Božja by Petar Šegedin

Project Tags

CALL TO ARMS

Petar Šegedin 1909 – 1998 published the roman Djeca Božja in 1946.

It is written in an existential, poetical style and in the local dialect of Žrnovo, Korčula. Since its release, I had been led to believe that it had been translated into German, Polish and Russian. I was also led to believe that there was an English language edition available at the British Library. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

The novel is a literary work of some substance at one level and also gives the author's insight into life in Žrnovo in his formative years. Šegedin was virtually ostracised by his fellow villagers after the publication of this book but later in life was able to return to some sort of reconciliation. I have been keen for a few years now on getting the book translated into English for descendants of those who lived in Žrnovo during the early part of the 20th century. I know many second, third generation children of these Žrnovci who have a thirst for this. This task will not be an easy one for the translator: the nature of this novel and its language needs an extremely skilled translator fluent in both contemporary English and the Žrnovo dialect of Croatian in order to capture all the nuances of meaning possible. Of course, no translation can be perfect. To date I have not been succesful in realising this goal. I have a list of people who wish to contribute financially to get the book translated and I don't anticipate any problems there. I also have a hard copy which I have scanned onto my computer. I have one academic born in Postrana now living in Australia who is available to proofread any translation. A plausible translator? No. I have spent many hours over many years researching and sharing genealogy as have many others. Whilst I find this site very useful, it requires much re-entering of information from information gleened from the original microfiches. The fact that My Heritage and Geni.com who are owned by the same people require two separate subscriptions is beyond me when it is we who provide the wherewithal for their sites to exist. Yes, I am digressing. My point is that I am still working even though I'm officially retired and don't have time to pursue this alone any further. Is there anyone out there who would be keen to take on this project? – I would be happy to assist in any way I can. This, I believe, is an enormous part of our heritage so if you have a connection to Žrnovo or just wish to learn more please consider how you can contribute and send me a message via Geni.com.