Kubed
Alojz Kocjančič was born on the 20th May 1913 in Kubed, where he spent his childhood years before enrolling the Nova Gorica seminary.
Mi Kubejci posebni smo ljudje,
kot svojevrstne so previsne skale,
ki kubejski so Grad tesno obdale,
da nezavzeten z njih neustrašno zre.
(Mi Kubejci)
Parents
His father Matija, known as Matiče or Tiče Jentov, was born in 1872 in the hamlet of Kozloviči near Truške. He became an orphan at the age of four. Being illiterate small farmhand, he was filled with the sense of inferiority and insatiable unrest. He married into the Škergat family in Kubed, they were widely known as the Martine’s. Ana, the seventeen-year-old bride, earned money by selling eggs in Trieste, like many women from the area.
His restless mind drove Matija to America a few years later, from where he returned saddenned. He eagerly took to farming and got a job at the local quarry near Elerji, where he planned to move with his family. His earnings served to pay off his house but the 1914 general mobilization thwarted his plans. He died a year later in Trieste’s military hospital after a fall and his family began struggling with homelessness.
Zaman, moj oče, iščem tvoje lice
v spominih mladih dni. Odšel prerano
od nas v deželo mrtvih si neznano
in bogve kje trohnijo ti koščice.
(Očetu)
O, Ančka Šavrinka, ki si me jemala
s seboj še pred rojstvom po trdih poteh,
zdaj spiš pod gomilo … a slika ostala
je tvoja mi v srcu in – v vlažnih očeh.
(Kubejskim šavrinkam)
Childhood
Alojz, nicknamed Stanko by his loved ones, knew well the existential crisis and nationalist distress growing up. But all hiss struggles in spite, he fondly remembered his childhood years. When he turned ten, Kubed village welcomed a new priest, Ivan Brezavšček. A patriot from Gorizia, he decided to send Alojz to the Gorizia seminary, a decision encouraged by the village teacher Ivan Pečenko. The latter taught Alojz to play the violin.
Spomin moj bridek in sladak obenem
potaplja se voljan v otroška leta,
ko smo v kamnitem svetu nezelenem
otroci, revne ženske in dekleta
na rodnih tleh otepali plodove
brinovih vej v podstavljena rešeta.
(Uvodne tercine)
Student of the Gorizia seminary
Pečenko and reverend Brezavšček enrolled the eleven-year-old Alojz to the preparatory school for the I. Grammar School in Sede’s archbishopric seminary in Gorizia in the year 1924/25. He stayed in Gorizia for thirteen years.
Unofficially, the Gorizia seminary was a hub of strong Slovenian nationalist movement. This Slovenian environment encouraged Kocjančič’s intellectual and artistic progress as he became a spiritual and creatively sensitive young man. Chaperoned by professors, he was surrounded by peers, other seminary boarders, students and other writers. Additionally, he met some important names of his time and got acquainted with current activist movements. His path crossed that of the intellectual circles of the littoral region who sought survival in times of fascist aggressions.
Vriskaj smelo,
poj veselo,
cvetna ti Gorica!
Cvetja trosi,
zate prosi
skalniška Kraljica.
(Goriški zemlji)
