The Distress, Gypsys Rhapsodie is a book of poems by Tomislav Dretar.

This poetry is consistent and convincing, both in its statement and in its expression, for the poet Tomislav Dretar has been poetically consistent, coherent and persuasive in his previous collection of poetry also.
Anyway, one might speak about the life of Roms only in speaking about space and time as beyond space and beyond time. In these verses we are note dealing with »the cruelty of the circle«, but with the cruelty of freedom and the global breadth. It is as if poetic truth follow the Romain way of grasping truth, were there be neither the central nor the peripheral; in the given moment everything is both centrally essential and peripherally unessential.
In the life of the Roms as well as in the life of other nations the forces of good and evil are arranged equally. The reader of Dretar’s verses will fell the pulsation of the good evil antinomian framework. This poetry shows to the world the age-old innate manners of Roms proving that its content marks and makes the Romain daily life. That’s why in it there throbs the myth of Romain nonconformity. The book is dominated by decisiveness a faith in a daily fairy tallness of life and that faith has its base in a mythical logic brought about by the mentioned principle of dual nationality. This is also proven by the time element [not to speak about space], because all three tenses are being united in instantaneous continuos tense. More concisely, the tense of this poetry knows both, reality and desire. Not only that these two opposing (platonic) governesses revoke each other, they even mutually complement each other. That is the base of the non-time in the woof of these verses, for neither is good everywhere nor is evil tormenting us always in the same way. Also pain is born easer if it comes our way in a different form. This creates the reason for the earthly charm of the Romain living. Dretar whit these verses devotes his vigorous and keen interest is vigorous and keen likeminded. In the Romain life nothing is as remote and incomprehensible as is may seem at times.
This poetry drowse us nearer to the life of Roms as if we were to view if from close up no matter we may pretended that life it be remote from us. This poetry paints both, pain and disintegration but also the beauty of Romain life. The reader will not be left indif-ferent, for the verses fully submerge into the complex psychology of this poor, but never-theless rich life; into that skilled discernment of the Romain world. In the Romain life and world isn’t it at hand that you neither always utter what you have on your mind, neither always thing what you are expressing in words at a given moment. This is present in other nations too, and why should the Romain folks be deprived of it? As with truth if viewed out of the angle of sincerity, both are totally relatives. And it has to that way if there be found a constant discovering of a means for surmounting surviving pain and evil. There is no nation who in the same way and to a such extend would have been forced [[[Jews]] also belong to that kind of nations] to master the strategy of survival. This probably is why a Rom is adorned with keenness and discernment, for to that extent no other human being is daily played with by unpredictable and blind forces. Besides this others would neither understand nor accept a Rom’s frank and clear speech. Driven by unpredictable and blind forces; the Roms gained the skill as if it were inborn to provoke misfortune on the roads of life, and at the same time bypass codes of harmful reality they find themselves in. On the stages of the Rom’s life theatre pain is the top hero. Roms are a people in whose life the past continually is repeating is constant. With this characteristic we already are introduced to the layers of the metaphysical, which pulsates in these verses about the haunted lucky and luckily haunted nation of the Roms.
This is poetry of a singing soul, of a scattered life of the Roms. The life of the Roms is a characteristic solitude of personal exile, a genetic voluntary one. The Romain existence as if Dretar’s poetry were to tell uses an existence without any kind of unification in the way the poet’s addressing himself has to be kept in mind, the using of the object of the person. For as soon as one address someone, it doubts that one. The poet reaches out for this, for Romain living. Obsessed by thus steadiness it seems like the poet is addressing himself to the fairytale like and not to reality, because one does not have to doubt the real things. On the contrary, it is worth doubting the fairytale like sine it is penetrated by time and spirit and by the spirit of time. It may be said the Roms possess a unique gift of living being; they are masters to keep balance, equilibrium between reality as it, and their feelings experiences of life. In short, here antinomy of the mythical dimension is gauged between the voices of reality. The Roms demonstrate this fact that it is impossible to be late for life. It is necessary to have both, talent and energy, plenty of natural predecessors and the dar-ing to live the Romain way of life. In the phrase »dare« there is hidden the destiny of deci-sion intention, desire. In the Roms there is still expression of the imperfective ness of the verb. The inner voice in relation to the voice of reality shows that the Roms have no other choirs if hay wants real life and not the counterfeit of it; no mater how painful and difficult real Romain life may seem. The essential thing is how the Roms feel about it, and not how it is viewed by others. Dretar’s poetry makes an attempt as to approach the heart of the Romain «am». In this he is enviously succeeding. For isn’t real life filled with paradoxes with surprises with awe? In itself such life is poetry in its origin. It seems as if Dretar’s verses herald that life of the Roms is a supreme gift, because in reality people are too much occupied with their own misery. In it they become too cautions. On the contrary, Roms travel about the world set a fire. The roof is clear sky. Their home is without limits and boundaries, it is only the little piece of their homeland. The life of the Roms knows of a homeland in its broadest Romain proportions; it is universal. In that and such kind of uni-versalism individualism is the basic law of living, the inner voice and its ego metrics. The obligation towards the inner voice is beyond one’s own civic duties. The poetry of the soul blacks out curbs back, is the prose of the body. In that way Roms express a unique honesty toward themselves. So life uncovers itself to its utmost limits knowing that when facing death there neither spared nor privileged ones. The eyes of Roms have ultimately and forever seen the demonstration of death. And this is reality the demonstration of death. There is no bigger misfortune than to be met by reality.
On the base of the Roma life there is a no reconciliation, the not reconcile with thighs reality. And in Dretar’s poetry even this not to be reconciled, this dramatic element of the Romain life is emphasised. If we bear in mind that the Roms have been persecuted by different civic realities, that in some environments in past times they have not been protected, not even as much as wild animalism then it is clear once for ever how well appropriate to their life is Jean Cocteau’s thought, »Nurture the very thing that is censored for it is you.« For it is very life of the Roms are evidence that to be is to be in the very mainstream of life, regardless to the fact that civic reality is a tight and dangerous mainstream discourse of speech. The Roms surpass civic boundaries, and thus creates the base of the Rom’s mobility. It is metaphysical and may not by measured by measurements of reality. If life is both, reality and desire then »Romain courage« is the denominator of that life. Such desire and its energy determine the duration and quality of that life. No wonder that the poet Tomislav Dretar writes a book of poetry about the Roms (in the very name Rom there is hidden humanness) and about there life; about a people who neither have ever had their country nor their political giants. To the regret of humanity the Roms were viewed upon as a people at the margin of civilization. Even today in man an environment the Rom are dealt with as a primitive poeple. Until this very day the mistaken notion of many ages has not yet disappeared. The history of the Roms is a history of migrations, but this history is purer than the history of other civilised nations, because it does not know compulsion exploitation or subjugation of others. Instead, the Roms have been conquered persecuted and annihilated by civilised nations. The history of this people is a constant moving around hell circles with wreath of happiness (inwardly) around their neck. There exist no such chains besides which a human being could not be free and happy to the degree he wants to beam and knows how to be. That’s the case with the Roms. In his book review on the Roms poet and expert dr. Rajko Đurić , ” THE MIGRATIONS OF THE ROMS “, Dretar spoke up on the Romain life.
In this sociological review (Pregled, Sarajevo, n° 1112/89) Dretar not only has exposed his sympathy towards the Roms, bat also a considerable knowledge of their lives. Thus Dretar sociologist-preceding Dretar the poet regardless the predecessor book m PAIN, GYPSY RHAPSODY has to be viewed a valuable and extraordinarily worthy contribution on us the common KNOWLEDGE on the Romain life, but also a contribution to us the readers in order to gain knowledge on that life, to perceive that it is our life too. Because there is not nation into whose culture, in on way or another, the culture of Roms is not woven in. Each person to a certain degree carries within himself a call of a Roms living toward is breadth a towards the original way of living. It is a fact that there are only a few worthy accomplish-ment special accomplishment in the form of a book. Dretar’ s book apart the on lay bay Miroslav Antić book ” Garavi sokak” (The black snooty street a children’s book) deals whit the topic of Romain life from his perspective. It is a peculiar and an interesting one. Concerning stylistic flourishes Dretar’ s poetic language is cautious. It is vividly acceded lyricism that is grounded on a natural dynamics of speech escaping a tasteless and folklore likeability courting. Dretar’s statement is expression as much as even more meaning, for here at stake is a very sophisticated (non) completeness witch fits the mysterious unclear-ness of Romain life and interpersonal relationships therein. The psychology of the Roms world is not rally-dissected whit a poetic scalpel. By this means, basically lyric ballade, the horizon of the lyrics is reinforced by the poet. His identification is reinforced by direct speech interchanged with reported speech. Dretar reach for three exact words to express the inexpressible, to feel the presentiment of it. He riches for a word that would travel trough space of time of space him the same way as Roms travel, but that will stop this life in its totality in order to show its beauty and purpose. Dretar’s words have gained in vitality in an original way of meaning, to the readers often ungraspable but bay any means to their senses approachable.
The lyrics that was spoken of is intensified by affective, lyrical pictures poetically very complex in harmony with longer poetic narrations as done in Dretar’s here everything’s concentrated in order to transmit to the reader the fact that the Romain living is heavily interesting and interestingly difficult bat that this living is the mere presence of life. That is why in Dretar’s poetic expression there are no superfluous elements as well as there is no unneeded breadth extensiveness. Nevertheless, freed of extensiveness the poet did not escape into miserliness, because whit this the very poem would have became superfluous. The engagement of Dretar’s expression is to show this and that kind of a Romain life. This life is in the mother tongue. If poetry is translation transposition from the mother tongued, then Dretar’s poetry does it very successfully. With pleasing verse and pleasing language of that verse in introduces us to a world, which in the essence is ours too without having even been aware of it. The poetry of Roms is not theirs only. It is at the same time poetry of every human being. The inner life of men knows neither of restraint nor of boundaries. Roms even in their real life do not know of such limits. To live such a life is to live humanity of an utmost order as if where the message of Dretar’s poetry. Humanity is the real and the full meaning of life in spite of all blind forces.

Translation by Rut Lehotsky