Slovene poetry - Anton Aškerc

Slovene Poetry – Anton Aškerc

Anton Aškerc (1856–1912)

Your cup is – your life!

Pour into it every day good deeds,

Glorious deeds for your compatriots,

For your compatriots and for your homeland! (“The Cup of Immortality”)

Considered Slovenia’s greatest narrative poet, Anton Aškerc was also a priest, an archivist, a traveller, an editor and a translator, among other things. As a stern critic of social conditions, he earned great popularity in the eyes of the nation, showing in his works that we must create our own paradise on earth, in this life, not only in the hereafter.

He made a name for himself with his first collection of poetry, Balade in romance, despite criticism and opposition in Church circles, where his national, freethinking and progressive social ideas met with disapproval. He realised that, when the interests of all Slovenes were at stake, one had to look beyond politics and religion and consider the interests of the nation as a whole. He travelled widely, particularly in the Slav lands and the Middle East. One of the items he brought back with him from his travels in the Middle East was a young damask rose plant, which he planted by his house in Senožete. The Aškerc family has tended it ever since and it still flowers outside what is today the Aškerc House Museum.

Anton Aškerc was also the first chief archivist of the Ljubljana City Archives and the person responsible for introducing the provenance principle (otherwise known as respect des fonds) to Slovene archival practice. Several anniversaries connected to Aškerc fall in 2026

and a literary trail in his honour is being prepared in and around Rimske Toplice.

Matjaž Aškerc,

Anton Aškerc Cultural Association, Rimske Toplice