DUŠAN KOVAČEV I Ć, WR I T E R Who's Singin’ Over There?Me! The plays he wrote are still performed today. His films are broadcast almost every day. And now we can even read him. With his autobiographical collection of poems “I'm singing over there”, Dušan Kovačević has compiled a scrapbook of his masterpieces, and his creative work and rich life can be summed up easily in one word: poetry He has a company in which he is director, worker, driver and service provider. He is also the PR officer and typist for the companyof awriter. He needs a notebook, sheets of paper that he uses to write down his entire life.The pandemic forced himto spendmore timeworking on his oldmanuscripts.He gatheredhis dispersed poems to form a poetic autobiography and toldus - I‘msinging over there. This unique poetic autobiography of DušanKovačević doesn‘t only contain poetic works, which many readers will recognise from his plays, theatre plays and films, but also contains comments, notes and even entire stories woven around those poems. This author shares with readers his memories regarding the circumstances under which these poems emerged, while at the same time familiarising us with intimate parts of his life… We‘ve spent precisely 40 years asking ourselves “Who‘s Singin’ Over There”, and we‘ve finally discovered that it was you… “The title of the film contains a reference to the song “Who‘s Singin’ OverThere?” from the eponymous film, and the question I posedwhen the film was shot. And the media have asked that question many times, invarious contexts andheadlines, as a paraphrase, but noone respondedwithananswer exceptDragan Nikolić, my great friend, who portrays the singer in that filmand sings that song.The title of the book is dear to me as a reminder and a warning that a person is always exposed to evil andmust fight against it. One formof that fight is poetry, which can be sung, spoken or read.” And poems started for you when you were very young and you sang while lost in a cornfield? “I was three years old when I got lost in a cornfield, so I sang children‘s songs loudly. My uncles rushed to find me and heard me thanks to that singing.” Literature » Literatura | 27 How much does a poet differ from a playwright? “When you take a longer break from writing, you lose your form. And being in form is important for both an author and a playwright, without adifference.That‘swhy it‘s a requirement for apersonwhowrites to compose at least one sentence every day. I write everything with a pen first, then type it out using an electronic typewriter. I grew up with a pen in my hand. I made the greatest progress when I switched from a typewriter to an electronic word processor.” There are also poems dedicated to the members of your family. Some important women determined the course of your life. Would you have been capable of singing so beautifully without those backing vocals? “Three women gave me my life and made it difficult. And I did the same to them. I only realised that was mutual in my later years. The first ismymother,Marija, who gave birth tome in the village ofMrđenovac near Šabac, and my father‘s mother, my grandmother Ljubica, who welcomed me into this world like amidwife inher arms, and then weighed me on a scale. Ljubica is certainly my greatest love, and my mother was always “myworry and I hers”.The third ismywife,Nada.We met when I was in the third grade of high school in Novi Sad and she was in the second grade.” Would life have been possible without them? “That‘s something I can‘t even think about; my life would have been absolutely impossible with-
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