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Aco Šopov: Poems of Suffering and Joy (Стихови за маката и радоста), 1952

Poems of Suffering and Joy marked a turning point both for Šopov personally and for Macedonian poetry as a whole: these were poems shaped by a deeply personal lyricism, which he developed further in the collections Merge with  the Silence (Slej se so tišinata, 1955) and The Wind Carries Beautiful Weather (Vetrot nosi ubavo vreme, 1957).

Considered as the first collection of “intimate” poetry in Macedonia, this book provoked a controversy in Macedonian literary circles, which divided writers and literary critics into two camps: those who criticised Šopov for abandoning the themes of resistance, revolution and the construction of the new socialist country, and those who defended and justified this development in his poetry.

The ‘battle’ lasted for several years and violent criticism did not spare Šopov’s next book, Merge with  the Silence, published in 1955.

More information on Poems of Suffering and Joy, in Macedonian.