User:Stjepan Tokic/sandbox

Stjepan Tokić "Sento"

Stjepan Tokić "Sento", croatian farmer-poet from Herzegovina, the victim of the partizans.

Stjepan Tokić "Sento", around 1920

Sento was born 22.09.1900 in the hamlet Vrpolje, in the hills above the village Rakitno, close to the town Posušje in Herzegovina. There he lived with his mother Matija (born Vukoje, 1873-1935) and father Frano (1870-1911), where he sang his poems up to the beginning of WWII.

He disappeared after communist partizans took him away 20.05.1945. from the village Novi Lužani, close to the town Derventa.
Natural born improvisor, and as a young boy he created his nickname by extracting letters from his first and last name. In boyish playfulness he invented poems for every occasion, mocking-rhymes that frequently joked at his own account. Many of those are cited today, but only the "self-depreciating" are, without any doubt, by Sento.
Soon he learned that tobacco selling goes much faster if he entertains his buyers. Epic “deseterac” (iambic pentameter), the poetic blood group of Herzegovina populace, made Sento renowned as a great deliverer of his own creations, epics laced with irony or pathos. His rebellious and un-suppressible listeners could not suppress a laugh or tears when sonorous Sento’s baritone and his fiddle strings would sound.
Even if he never obtained the high recognition for his poetry, he achieved the popularity in Posušje area, and love of Mara Pavković (1896-1935). They married just after the end of WWI, and had three boys and two girls from 1920 to 1928. Sento became the member of the opposition Croatian Peasant Party and an enthusiastic propagator of the democratic program initiated by Stjepan Radić, the most popular Croatian politician of that period. The killings in the Parliament 1928 and the martyrdom of Radić made Sento more determined to awake Croats around Posušje to strive for their social and national rights. His poem precisely captured the emotional tragedy and perseverance of Croats and it gained the recognition in Herzegovina and Croatia.
The life of Tokić family became tough that year, as the youngest son and younger daughter died soon after.
Sento and Mara suffered, but never surrendered. Due to thir love and determination, they continued to build their nest and in the following four years they have had another three children! The Great Depression eventually hit, but still did not diminish their optimism.
In the year 1935 Mara was tragically killed by lightning. Sento’s mother than dies some months after. A few years passed before Sento broke from his feeling of hopelessness, deciding to start life anew; marrying a maid (Mara, born Petrović, 1910-1985) who was not afraid of caring for his six “wild” children. He sold all of his possessions in Vrpolje before moving up north to the plains of Bosnian Pannonia. Yet something was broken in Sento’s hearth: no politics, nor human griefs did inspire him to rhyme anymore. The war came and three more children were born, two boys and a girl. The girl was not strong and did not survive.
Armies came and went, taking what they wanted and sometimes interrogated Sento, with more or less violence. The older sons were recruited in the passing armies; one domobran, the other ustaša, the third one "run" to partizans when only 13. Sento patiently endured, and than finally - the war ended!

The essence of farm work meant that, like Sento, most farmers didn't mind if there was war or peace; a bright day was made for soil tillage. The horses reliably dragged, the children collected the tubers in a wake... and then three armed partizans appeared from the wood surrounding the property. Very officially they asked Sento to come with them and to bring his horses as they were needed urgently. As he was leaving, Sento called to appease his crying family: "Children, I’ll be back!"
He and his horses disappeared, never to be seen again. All investigations and searches that his children conducted for years and decades after were in vain.
Regardless of the poverty he experienced in his youth, as well as torments of his adult life, Sento lived about 15 years as poet/singer, succeeding to acquire the fame as a poet of his shire. His poems sang by other artists were frequently promoted as "narodne" (author unknown). Sento never cared to officiate his opus, except the five poems published in the newspapers of that time. All the other works were lost. It’s also known that he once published one of his poems under the name of his brother in law. Has there been more cases like this? Unfortunately, we will never know.
His limited but sincere and intelligent opus, as well as his martyrdom, made Sento appreciated and remembered in the hearts of the Herzegovina people.

Works

Pjesma Pred Izbore
Odgovor na pismo Dra A.C. iz Mostara Predsjedniku Radiću
Mirno Snivaj Stjepane Radiću
Zbor na Ledincu (fragment)
Hercegovački Jadi
Seljačka Molitva