Prominent Croatian writer Matija Divković and his verse "Sudac gnjevan" (on the 445th anniversary of this birth)

This paper explores a spiritual verse, Sudac gnjevan, by the prominent Slavic enlightener Matija Divković, which had been written on the motif of a famous Latin hymn, Dies Irae (Day of Wrath). Despite the evident similarity of the subject and texture, there are marked differences between the verses. As a whole, the Latin verseconveys a Biblical story, omitting emotional aspects. The presence of generalizations and complex metaphors orientates the text for a well-educated audience. In the Slavic verse, a semantic accent falls onto man’s emotional experience. High emotionality is created by a great number of personal requests and direct speeches, which arestressed by rhetorical figures more applicable to a wide audience.