Mate Maras

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Croatian translator (born 1939)

title: "Mate Maras" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["croatian-translators", "english–croatian-translators", "french–croatian-translators", "italian–croatian-translators", "translators-from-romanian", "1939-births", "living-people", "people-from-imotski"] description: "Croatian translator (born 1939)" topic_path: "geography/france" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_Maras" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Croatian translator (born 1939) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

FieldValue
nameMate Maras
imageMate Maras Varazdin.jpg
birth_date
birth_placeStudenci near Imotski, Croatia
nationalityCroat
known_forHis Croatian translations of Shakespeare, Rabelais, Dante, and others
alma_materFaculty of Science, University of Zagreb
occupationTranslator, writer and poet
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Life and works

He was born in the village of Studenci near Imotski. His mother was a traditional folk poet whose songs chronicled local events. The Croatian dialect spoken in Studenci was later used by Maras for his translation of the sonnets of Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, originally written in the Romanesco dialect.

Maras graduated mathematics and physics from the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb. He tried many careers, from geophysics to teaching to being a cultural attaché in Croatian embassies in Paris and Washington, DC. His cultural work includes editorial positions in several publishing houses, presiding the Croatian Translators' Society, and being the editor-in-chief of the cultural station (Treći Program) of the Croatian Radio.

He has been translating from English, Italian and French since his student days. The authors he translated include Dante, Petrarch, Milton, Scott, Kipling, Proust and Frost. He was awarded the Prize of the Croatian Translators' Society for his translation of Woolf's Mrs Dalloway and the grand prix of the French Academy for translating Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel. In 2019, he was awarded the Order of Danica Hrvatska with the Effigy of Marko Marulić by the President of Croatia for outstanding work in translation and versatile contribution to the development of Croatian culture and its international reputation.

Maras was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Split in 2017.

Shakespeare

Maras is the only man who translated the complete works of William Shakespeare into Croatian. The translation was published in four volumes: Histories, Tragedies, Comedies, and Romances & Poetry (the last volume includes the problem plays).

The main novelty in relation to the previous Croatian translations is the verse translating method. A recurrent problem in the history of Shakespeare's translations in Croatia was the Croatian equivalent for the original blank verse. The usual practice was to choose a meter with a certain number of feet and stick to it, verse after verse. But its drawback was a rigid structure that often distorted the original, since it was usually too short to retain the full meaning of the original verse.

Instead of slavishly following a specific meter, Maras decided to remain as faithful as possible to the original meaning. For that reason, he introduced the principle of five "prominent points" in each verse. In fact, those were five relevant pieces of information from each original verse, to be translated in a poetic and rhythmic language akin to free verse, achieving an unprecedented fluent and natural flow of Shakespeare's plays in Croatian.

Own works

Maras published a collection of his own poetry, Kasna berba (A Late Vintage), in 2005. He wrote Grgur Ninski, a film script/history play about the medieval Croatian bishop Gregory of Nin, which was published in 2013.

In 2013, he wrote a novel about his emigrant father, Pisma od smrti (Letters From Death), "a monument to a life sacrificed in vain for vague ideals." When he published a collection of his mother's letters, Maras called it Pisma od života (Letters From Life).

He wrote the first Croatian rhyming dictionary.

Major translations

From English

From French

From Italian

From Spanish

From Romanian

Awards

  • Prize of the Croatian Translators' Society for translating Mrs Dalloway.
  • Grand Prix of the French Academy for translating Gargantua and Pantagruel.
  • Iso Velikanović Award (2007) for translating Shakespeare's works and the lifetime award (2019).
  • 2009 Award of the City of Zagreb for his translation opus.
  • Official recognition of the State of Romania in 2012 for translating Eminescu and Geo Bogza.
  • 2014 Kiklop Translator of the Year Award for translating Paradise Lost.
  • 2014 Josip Tabak Award for life's work.
  • Lauro Dantesco award for his translation of Dante.
  • Order of Danica Hrvatska with the Effigy of Marko Marulić (2019)

References

References

  1. (2014). "Roman postmoderne asocijativnosti". Vijenac.
  2. (1 April 2016). "Evo zašto frustrirani biografi Shakespearea zovu našim suvremenikom". TPortal.
  3. [http://www.academie-francaise.fr/role/palmares_2000.html Académie française: Palmarès 2000] {{webarchive. link. (2011-08-06)
  4. "Awards and Decorations of the Republic of Croatia Presented for Statehood Day, 27 June 2019".
  5. (16 June 2017). "Obilježen Dan Sveučilišta Split". Nacional.
  6. [http://www.zagreb-touristinfo.hr/?id=159&solo=206&l=e Zagreb Tourist Board, ''Mate Maras Presents his Translation Masterpiece'']
  7. (15 December 2005). "Mate Maras Presented His Book ''A Late Vintage''". Index.
  8. (14 October 2014). "Mate Maras". Globus.
  9. (30 May 2013). "Protagonist i njegov biograf". Matica hrvatska.
  10. (2014). "Kapitalna mentalistička priča : Mate Maras: Pisma od smrti, Ex libris, Zagreb, 2013. : [prikaz]". [[Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
  11. [http://katalog.kgz.hr/pagesResults/bibliografskiZapis.aspx?sustavId=1&tvrtkaId=2&selectedId=129010118 ''The first Croatian rhyming dictionary : Mate Maras, Rhyming dictionary'' by Branka Džebić in ''Most/The Bridge'' literary magazine]
  12. "Nagrada Grada Zagreba u 2009. godini". Official Website of the City of Zagreb.
  13. (16 April 2015). "Najveći rumunjski pjesnik prvi put u hrvatskom prijevodu". Vijenac.
  14. (14 December 2014). "Dodijeljene književne nagrade Kiklop za 2014.". Dnevnik.
  15. (1 October 2014). "Prevoditelj Mate Maras nagrađen za životno djelo". Večernji list.
  16. (10 December 2015). "Preslikavanje ili funkcija". Oris.

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croatian-translatorsenglish–croatian-translatorsfrench–croatian-translatorsitalian–croatian-translatorstranslators-from-romanian1939-birthsliving-peoplepeople-from-imotski