Poets always live quietly at the edge of society and eclipsed by far more prominent "celebrities" who enjoy the spotlight - but if they touch your heart, it is forever. Lovely, late Maja Perfiljeva was lucky in a sense that her most famous songs were set to music so they became well-loved pop hits, though if you ever met her, you understand she was not really a businesswoman - she was one true poetess I have ever met, wonderfully sweet, almost absent-minded, dreamy person who lived in her own world and of course painted on a silk.
By default, Perfiljeva entered pop waters via her than-husband Hrvoje Hegedušić who composed songs for the popular music festivals and she was the lyricist: many of them were fantastic, beloved songs and for a while the husband and wife team was unbeatable, real music factory, not unlike Carole King and Gerry Goffin - her lyrics were always special, completely different level from usual jingle stuff one could hear on the pop records, if you listen carefully her songs are timeless and still sound fresh as when she first wrote them.
Back in my student days, when I lived trough a brief but unforgettable chapter of enthusiastic journalism, I visited Hegedušić and his second wife, singer Ksenija Erker - lovely people, both of them, after a nice interview and perfectly relaxed conversation about their music, the name of Perfiljeva somehow popped in my head (probably because they wrote the songs together) and being too young to know the details, I naively asked do they have her phone number so I could contact her for possible interview. I must have been 21 or so, had no idea that I am talking about "first wife" - it was a embarrassing moment ("You don't know that she was Hrvoje's wife?") but they saw that I was honest and way too young to know about old gossip. Eventually I found my way to visit Perfiljeva who was everything I imagine poets to be - dreamy, sweet, lovely, very soft-spoken and actually strikingly attractive lady with exotic features (her father was Russian emigrant) - she lived alone, surrounded with her paintings and hats, laughed at my innocent blunder and commented "Ksenija is great" without any trace of bitterness. I imagined her life was not being easy - she made living as a teacher - but everything about her was tender and soft, really unforgettable person and trough many years ever since I always remember her as unique spiritual soul. I just found out that she quietly passed away few days ago and I am deeply saddened about this, because world would be such a completely different place if we have more people like her.
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