Overview
Inspired by tombstones and their inscriptions, Mak Dizdar's rich and haunting poems in Stone Sleeper, his most famous work, are a journey into the mysterious heart of medieval Bosnia. The poems form a three-way dialogue between the modern poet, the Christian heretics awaiting Judgement Day beneath their enigmatically-carved tombstones, and the heretic-hunters. Beneath the local and temporal, Dizdar explores universal issues: the value of resistance, though it might be futile; of faith, though it might be illusory; and of life, though it ends in death. Francis R Jones's inventive and beautiful translations convey his deep understanding of Dizdar's purpose. In addition a penetrating analysis of `Stone Sleeper's historical, religious and spiritual background is given by the distinguished scholar Rusmir Mahmutcehajic, whose book Across the Water: On the Poetry of Mak Dizdar is published by Fordham University Press. Mehmed Alija `Mak' Dizdar (1917-1971), considered one of the greatest Yugoslav writers, was born in Stolac, southern Bosnia. After the war, in which he was a partisan in Tito's army, he became a prominent figure in Bosnian cultural life, working as newspaper editor, as book publisher and, finally, as President of the Writers' Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He died in Sarajevo.Author Biography
The Bosnian poet Mehmedalija 'Mak' Dizdar (1917-1971) was one of the greatest Yugoslav poets of the second half of the twentieth century. After World War II, when he supported the Communist Partisans, he was prominent in Bosnia and Herzegovina, working as a newspaper editor and book publisher. He was President of the Writers' Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina.Born in 1955, Francis R. Jones lectures in linguistics at the University of Newcastle in England. Leading Bosnian intellectual born in 1948. He is professor of applied physics at the University of Sarajevo, where he also lectures on the phenomenology of the sacred. A dissident during the Communist years, he was elected Vice President of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1991. He also served as a Minister but resigned in 1993. 
