At The House of the King’s Guard, on the occasion of Montenegro’s cultural holiday, Njegoš Day, a lecture was held by Prof. Dr. Vesna Vukićević Janković. The evening was moderated by Suzana Popović, Literature Advisor.

Njegoš Day is an opportunity to remember not only the ruler and bishop but also one of the greatest poets of the South Slavic peoples. Professor Vukićević Janković reminded the audience that Njegoš’s thought continues to inspire, as behind his works stands a complex and profound personality that raises questions about the meaning of existence and human nature.

In her inspired presentation, she spoke about the richness of Njegoš’s poetic world, emphasizing its universality and timeless beauty.

“The richness of Njegoš’s opus is reflected in its layered meanings and influences – from folkloric and mythological imagination to poetic inventiveness. In doing so, an entire semantic universe is revealed, inviting us to a deeper reflection on his poetic values,” she said.

She pointed out that Njegoš’s poetic expression, from the very beginning of his creative work, was a synthesis of folklore and mythological imagination, which he adapted to his own poetic and political vision.

“The tendency toward the abstract and myth-making, the use of signs and symbols from different mythologies and religions, and the interweaving of codes from various cultural schemes represent one of the fundamental characteristics of Njegoš’s poetics,” noted Vukićević Janković.

Njegoš’s epics, she added, can be interpreted on existential and anthropological levels, as they reflect the spirit of Montenegrin society, while on the allegorical plane—particularly in The Ray of the Microcosm (Luča mikrokozma)—they offer a vision of a utopian and just world.

A lesser-known fact about Njegoš is that he was also a translator of poetry. He translated 160 verses by Alphonse de Lamartine and 200 verses by Victor Hugo, as well as Lamartine’s poem Hymn of the Night. From Russian, he translated the first canto of The Iliad.

The lecture paid special attention to Njegoš’s relationship to women and beauty, reflected in his poems A Montenegrin Captured by a Fairy, Paris and Helen, A Night Longer Than a Century, Three Days in Trieste, and Summer Bathing in Perčanj, as well as in the female characters of The Mountain Wreath.

As emphasized, Njegoš saw beauty as a “miraculous force of reality,” in which the erotic and the national merge. He was particularly fascinated by the symbol of Danica – the planet Venus – which represents feminine beauty and light, but also has roots in Slavic mythology as a counterpart to the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora.

Even 174 years after his death, the interest in Njegoš has not waned. More than 22,000 bibliographic entries have been written about him, with over 400 special editions published—yet the final word on this complex work and personality is still to be written.