Background and career
France Prešeren (pronounced [fɾanˈtsɛ́ pɾɛˈʃèːɾən] ) (3 December 1800 – 8 February 1849) was a Slovene poet whose works are widely considered some of the most important in Slovene literature.
His poems have been translated into many languages.
He has been considered the greatest Slovene classical poet and has inspired later Slovene literature. After his death, he became the leading name of the Slovene literary canon.
He tied together the motifs of his own unhappy love with that of an unhappy, subjugated homeland. Especially after World War II in the Slovene Lands, one of Prešeren's motifs, the "hostile fortune", has been adopted by Slovenes as a national myth, and Prešeren has been described as ubiquitous as the air in Slovene culture.
Prešeren lived in conflict with both the civil and religious establishment, as well as with the provincial bourgeoisie of Ljubljana. He developed severe alcoholism and tried to kill himself on at least two occasions, facing rejections and seeing most of his closest friends die tragically. His lyric poetry dealt with the love towards his homeland, the suffering humanity, as well as his unfulfilled love towards his muse, Julija Primic.
He wrote poetry primarily in Slovene, but also in German. He lived in Carniola and at first regarded himself a Carniolan, but gradually adopted a broader Slovene identity.
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