КАДЕ Е МАКЕДОНИЈА ВО ПОЕЗИЈАТА НА АЦО ШОПОВ? / WHERE IS MACEDONIA IN ACO ŠOPOV`S POETRY?

Abstract

Rereading Aco Šopov’s last book, “Tree on the Hill” (1980), leads to the realization
that in it, for the first time in his oeuvre, Macedonia is so explicitly omnipresent – in almost
every poem. But that opens up the dilemma - where is Macedonia in Šopov’s poetry? Why
precisely in his last book, Šopov insists so much on mentioning Macedonia? Are its explicit
presence in this book and the earlier reference to the homeland in the collection “Poem
of the Black Woman” (1976) the first manifestation of Macedonia in his poetry? Or in fact,
Macedonia is constantly present in Šopov’s poetry, and in this bequeathed book it manifests
107Vesna Mojsova-Čepiševska, Ivan Antonovski
itself explicitly? In the search for answers to these questions, by reading the entire oeuvre
of Šopov, the paper comes to a thesis-conclusion that Macedonia is constantly present in
his poetry, from the first to the last book, while in each of his creative stages it is present
in a different form, appropriate to the peculiarities with which that phase is distinguished.
The analysis in the paper, perceiving Macedonia as part of the author’s intimacy, and
establishing syntheses between the poetry and Šopov’s expressions outside the poetic
word, also opens other questions. Among others, the question of how intimate is Šopov’s
poetry only in one phase or all phases of his work are different forms of poetic intimism. At
the same time, the thesis-conclusion is presented that in Šopov’s poetry there is always a
connection between the collective and the individual (and vice versa), in the journey from
oneself to one’s not-being.