Living for imperfections

Marko Tomaš (Ljubljana, 1978), one of the most popular regional artists poet, published a collection poetry The departure of lovers for Belgrade LOM. Due to his charisma, lifestyle and nomadic background, Tomas often attracted the attention of the public, but his work comes first. Emotion, wit and authenticity are the hallmarks of his writing. Tomasz's poems have been translated into Italian, Polish, German, Albanian and English. In addition to poetry, Tomaš writes novels, essays and columns. He lives and works in Mostar and Zagreb.

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"WEATHER" The departure of lovers is a good title for a collection of poetry. You are on the same topic., only in prose, adapted into a novel Book for Maya. You are obsessed with this topic.?

MARKO TOMAS: There is hardly a bigger and more important topic than human relationships and, in general, the relationship of people to everything that surrounds them. It, of course, contains absolutely all possible questions that humanity has been struggling with since there have been traces of it. When I write about love, when I say "love", I do not mean exclusively the psychosis of falling in love, but all its possible layers and aggregate states.

"I live for our imperfections, they are proof of love that lasts", you write in a poem "All about our love". Mostly people write about falling in love and breaking up, you have a desire to describe something that lasts and what it might look like.

People who build a long-term relationship do not always follow the same path. Along the way, they diverge, there is a misunderstanding and a discrepancy in expectations. Love, therefore, changes aggregate states, but if it survives, if people are ready to invest and fight for a relationship, then we can call it real love that goes through all its stages and survives despite disagreements and misunderstandings.

How to write about love, without slipping into pathos?

Humor is something that is chronically lacking in local, especially contemporary, literature. And humor usually implies turning the premise around, seeing things from a completely opposite perspective than the one one assumes, expects. A little humor saves the world from pathos and sinking into the mire of banality.

In the aforementioned poem "All about our love" you say and "Everyone is rushing me to grow up., You seem to be happy too.. " Is the artist even allowed to grow up??

How do I know if someone is allowed to do something or not? I think it is a matter of individual personalities. In the end, it would be nice if someone defined what adulthood entails in detail, so we can see if it's worth bothering about at all. Adulthood and maturity are not the same thing, and people often equate these two terms.

The book opens with a poem by Tom Waits "A damaged liver and a broken heart", which you translated. Why that particular song?? And why Waits??

In the last few years, I have been going through a painful period, at least as far as my private life is concerned. I got into serious problems with alcohol and various other substances, which led me to spend a good part of that period in closed institutions in order to distance myself from everything and learn to deal with life's adversities in a healthier way. The song you mention perfectly describes my state at certain times over the past few years. Waits is considered by many, somewhat justifiably, to be a poet of the night world, not adapted to the usual daily routines that we usually call reality.

Who are the greatest rock and roll poets for you??

Certainly Tom Waits. Leonard Cohen, of course. Bob Dylan, definitely. Ian Curtis, Bill Callahan, Roger Waiters, Jim Morrison, Chan Marshall... Well Branimir Štulić, Darko Rundek, Vlada Divljan, Milan Mladenović, Dubravko Ivaniš and many others. And it is worth mentioning Žak Brel, Arsen Dedić, Serđo Endrig and a whole host of singer-songwriters.

This is the seventh book of poetry for LOM, how Flavio Rigonat and you got involved? Do you remember how your cooperation began??

Of course, especially taking into account that Flavio is, I can say so, a mythical figure of my upbringing, as well as, after all, the upbringing of my entire generation, especially considering his translations. First of all, Bukowski and Robert Crumb. Zvonko Karanović introduced us. We spent the evening in the club "Šikarica" ​​in Skadarlija. I brought him some of my books as a gift, and he told me already in the morning that he would like to publish a selection of my poems from the collections published until then.

Zvonko Karanović says that American contemporary poetry is the best that exists today. Do you read new poets?? Is there any new trend in poetry?

I don't think there is any clear direction in contemporary poetry anywhere. The poetic heritage is very diverse and the influences of that heritage are wide and visible on individual author's manuscripts. And if we talk about trends, they do exist, but like any fashion, they are short-lived, quickly passing. In the last few years, Croatian poetry, for example, was so mired in fields and forests that I once remarked that it needed an agrarian reform, given that there is more land and forest in that poetry than in the entire state cadastre.

How do you see the state of the regional literary scene today??

A lot of vanity and hypocrisy, as in every area of ​​human activity. Lots of ambition and little talent. I don't feel like an integral part of any scene, just like I don't work with institutions but with individual people.

How have you been living lately??

Like every Mostar, I was born sick. Depending on the context, something that excited me until yesterday can annoy me. I live in seclusion, surrounded by people I've known all my life, I strive for a simple everyday life because I missed it terribly in the past years. I watch Velez and Liverpool, and as a result, I'm upset because of that too. I cook, I walk, sometimes I play football with the team from the neighborhood, sometimes basketball. I watch movies, series, read.

Two years ago you said"The worst Belgrade is the one infected by the pathology of one man. He is the best., in that case, the one who resists him. " I assume you follow the protests here, How do you perceive them?, what are the chances?

The ability to rebel is what makes us human. There is no perfect order, but it should be strived for. I am afraid that in these areas, somewhere less, somewhere more, we have yet to reach a starting position from which we could start on the path of some kind of prosperity. How these protests will take shape politically is the question whose answer will also be the answer to your question - is there a real chance for change in your country. I certainly wish all the best to Serbia, as well as to the whole world, because we are all connected by history and economy, sometimes by language and culture, so if there is not, conditionally speaking, a normal Serbia, there cannot be a normal region either. Here is an example of how American madness leaves consequences for the whole world.