Edinost in Dialog (Aug 2022)
An Attempt to Percept the Searching of God in Unknown Work and Poetry of Zdenka Serajnik
Abstract
Of all the created beings in the world, a human is the most mysterious one. A human is the only being who is aware of his uniqueness, distinctiveness, and irreplaceability. A human is the only being who is self-aware but at the same time remains a secret to himself, a secret which he can never get to the bottom of. In the search for the truth about oneself, one encounters both: the abyss within oneself and the awareness of greatness and beauty that reflects external beauty, eternal beauty, the Beauty of the One who gives life, the beauty of God who supplicates the life and draws his Divine essence into that life. The more the human is aware of the limitations of his mind, the more challenging revealing the truth about the Transcendent is. Still, it is possible as long as humans feel the »sharing« of one’s mind in God’s mind, which enables revealing the truth in the first place. The tool that helps people to do this is language which also has its boundaries and limitations. Both philosophy and poetry come from the same origin, that is, the wonder of being. They both use the same tool, that is, the language. However, they diverge, which is clearly expressed in the thoughts of Heidegger, the German philosopher of the modern age, who shows that philosophy can no longer perform its task correctly, but poetry can help it to uncover and express reality. In discovering and endeavouring truth, philosophers and poets face the same challenge, the same demanding task, which they each »solve« in their specific way. The way of approaching this assignment, both for a philosopher and a poet, is influenced by the time in which they live, the socio-political situation, the broader social context, personal circumstances, and a personal life story. Knowing the intimate life story of a philosopher or poet enables more accessible insight into the understanding of creative poetic activity or the development of philosophical thought. This article introduces a brief insight into the rich creative life of Zdenka Serajnik, a Slovenian poet, writer, and pedagogue. Due to the extent of her hitherto unknown and little researched literary legacy, the article only presents some of her attempts to find answers to life’s questions and the deepest longings, which Zdenka Serajnik masterfully outlines in the literary strokes of her rich creative work. The article analyses unknown manuscripts of Zdenka Serajnik, especially her sonnets, and shows how she reveals a longing search for answers to the most profound existential questions, questions that are also inherent in philosophy.
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