Aco Šopov: Not-Being, Skopje, 1963

"The latest collection of poems I have prepared for the press is entitled Nebidnina," Aco Šopov said in an interview in 1962, a year before the publication of this book, considered one of the masterpieces of 20th-century Macedonian poetry. "With this title, I wanted to highlight a paradox: poetry, insofar as we understand and conceive it as essential, as superior to what we usually understand by the word life, in its various manifestations, is nevertheless incapable, even when it takes on the most accomplished forms and attains the heights of perfection, of encompassing all the richness and complexity of this word."

Two years after the publication of this collection, Šopov stated in another interview: "In Nebidnina I tried to solve the problem of alienation. Alienation, not as an abstract concept, not as a psychological category, but that alienation which is related to this land and this region. At the same time, I did not want to and could not give it a regional character."

Coined by Šopov and since becoming a fairly common term in literature and even everyday language, the word “nebidnina” has been the subject of much discussion. Literary critics and translators have continually questioned its multiple meanings. Translated as 'non-être', 'noser', 'not-being'..., after having been translated as 'néant', 'nada', 'fate'... nebidnina speaks of the impossibility of being, but also, to reiterate one of the author's attempts to explain it, "fulfilment through non-fulfilment" (1979).

"There are many more or less successful translations of this word," he said in 1976, "but none of them can express its very essence. For me, this word speaks of the destiny of our people: their struggles and sufferings, their aspirations and unfulfilled ideals, their loves and sorrows."

Over time, the concept of “nebidnina” has become synonymous with Šopov's poetry.

The collection has been reprinted five times and has been included in its entirety in numerous anthologies of Šopov's selected poems. All but one of the poems in this collection have been translated into English.