Duško Matas (1933 - 2021)
Duško Matas was a forensic psychiatrist. Most of his lifetime he lived and created in Zagreb, Croatia. His haiku were published in a number of magazines, miscellanies and post-contest anthologies in Croatian, Slovenian, Japanese, French, German, Romanian, Italian and English since 1988. He took part at most gatherings and recitals of the Croatian haiku poets and the contests for haiku in Croatia and abroad. He was selected on to the judging committee for haiku a number of times, evaluating haiku and senryu in the Chakavian dialect and Croatian. His haiku were presented in several anthologies and he received a number of awards in Croatia and abroad. He was a publisher of several haiku books as well.
Awards and Other Honours:
Second Prize, International Kusamakura Haiku Competition (1998); Award, Yellow Moon Literary Competition (2000); Second Prize, Ito-En, International Haiku Contest (2000); Commended haiku, UNESCO Paris (2000); Third Prize, Haiku Calendar/Rokovnik, International Haiku Contest in English, Ludbreg (2006); Second Prize, Kloštar Ivanić Haiku Contest, English language Category (2006); Second Prize, Kloštar Ivanić Haiku Contest, Croatian language category (2004); Honourable Mention, Haiku Calendar/Rokovnik, Ludbreg (2003); Honorary Mention, The 36th A-Bomb Memorial Day Haiku Meeting Competition (Kyoto, 1999); The Ludbreg Column of Haiku Poets, a travelling recognition which has been awarded yearly at Ludbreg Haiku Meetings to Croatian Haijin since 2003. Two haiku were selected for inclusion in William J. Higginson's Haiku World: An International Poetry Almanac (Kodansha International, 1996); Honourable Mention, World Haiku Festival 2010 in Nagasaki, Competition on the theme of the Atomic Bomb (2010); Honourable Mention, Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival (2010); work included on the Haiku Society of America's "Haiku Wall" at the Liberty Theatre Gallery in Bend, Oregon (June 3-5, 2011): Honorable Mention, The 18th Mainichi Haiku Contest 2014.
Books published - Japanese short poems:
Vodene trave (Water grasses), Zagreb 1991
Vrh planine / Mountain Top, Zagreb 1998
Ljubavna priča / Love Story, Zagreb 1999
Collaborated haiku collections:
Sedam putova / Seven Ways, Zagreb 2000
Sedam novih putova / Seven New Ways, Zagreb 2003
Collaborated haiga collection
Olovka i kist / Svinčnik in čopić / Pencil and Paintbrush
Haiku by seven authors illustrated by Rudi Stopar, Sevnica, Slovenia 2010
Selected haiku:
lane along the stream
following it down
and up
staza uz potok
slijed ga nizvodno
i uzvodno
(Second Prize, International “Kusamakura” Haiku Competition, Japan 1998)
*
the weeds grow
on the demined land –
“A mine field”
raste korov –
na izrovanoj zemlji
piše “minsko polje”
(Honorable Mention, The 36th A-Bomb Memorial Day Haiku Meeting Competition, Kyoto, Japan 1999)
*
low flight of a bird
a swollen stream carrying
an empty nest
niski let ptice
nabujali potok nosi
prazno gnijezdo
(Second Prize, Ito-En International Haiku Contest, Japan 2000)
*
flamingo standing
in the low tide, a movement
a fish in the beak
u oseki mora
stoji flamingo, kretnja
u kljunu riba
(Award, Yellow Moon Literary Competition, Australia, 2000; Antologija Haiku Europejskiego Gwiazda za Gwiazda, Krakow, Poland, 2005)
*
the sunset
thins out
the cicadas’ song
zalazak sunca
istanjuje
pjesmu cikada
(Greieri şi crizanteme, Haiku Antologie Internaţională, Editura Orion, Bucureşti 2007 Editor: Valentin Nicoliţov)