Skopje, 26 September 2024 (MIA) — The Slovene Writers Association hosted in Ljubljana a book launch for the recently published selected poems by Macedonian poet Aco Shopov in Slovenian, "Zlati krog časa." 

The event was organized by the Ljubljana University's South Slavic studies department in cooperation with the Slovenian Association of Literary Translators, the Aco Shopov Poetry foundation said in a press release.

According to speakers at the event, Shopov was the most prolific translator of the first-generation Macedonian post-war writers and greatly promoted Slovenian literature in Macedonian translation. 

Shopov was also one of the greatest, not only Macedonian but also Yugoslavian literary translators, they said, highlighting that he was the first person in former Yugoslavia to receive the highest national translation award. 

He received the award for translating Shakespeare's "Hamlet," which was described in 1970 as "a great pride for Macedonia" in the Slovenian press.

The Ljubljana event featured a conversation between Macedonian language scholar, poetry translator and university professor Namita Subiotto and the Macedonian poet, translator and Aco Shopov Poetry foundation representative Ivan Antonovski.

They were joined by Rawley Grau, who together with Christina E. Kramer edited and translated an extensive Macedonian-English selection of Shopov's poem published in the USA as "The Long Coming of the Fire" (Deep Vellum Publishing, 2023).

The event also included a musical performance by Slovenian writer and musician Matej Krajnc inspired by Shopov's poem "Eyes," translated by Slovenian poet and translator Ivan Minatti into Slovenian. 

Organizers also presented the Aco Shopov Poetry foundation's website dedicated to the Macedonian poet (https://www.acosopov.com). mr/