Ada Škerl

Ada Škerl (3 April 1924, in Ljubljana – 29 May 2009, in Maribor) was a Slovene poet, writer and translator from French.

Life Ada Škerl was born on 3 April 1924, in Ljubljana. During the Second World War, she was a member of the Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation. After the war, she enrolled for Slavic studies at the Ljubljana Faculty of Philosophy, as well as for dramatics at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television (Ljubljana).

Škerl worked at the publisher Mladinska knjiga for a period. She worked as a teacher in Škofja Loka for three years, then returned to Ljubljana.

Škerl spent the last years of her life in Maribor.

Work Škerl is primarily known for her poetry. Her first book of poems Senca v srcu (Shadow in the Heart) was published in 1949, while Obledeli pasteli (Faded Pastels) came out in 1965, and Temna tišina (Dark Silence) in 1992.

Facing censorship and critical rejection for Senca v srcu, Škerl withdrew from literary life for years. Because of the propaganda against her book, it had sold out, but by the time her next collection was published, Slovene poetry was leaning towards modernism, and her observations of intimacy remained on the periphery of the literary scene.

She also wrote books for children. Zgodba o morskem konjičku was published in 1953, Voščila in 1962, and Nevsakdanje potovanje in 1973.

Her translations of children's literature from French were also well received. Among others, she translated Claude Aveline's Baba Diène et Morceau-de-Sucre in 1953, and Victor Hugo's Les travailleurs de la mer in 1956.

In her last years, she was considered the lone woman aspect of the poetic collective Pesmi štirih, along with Janez Menart, Ciril Zlobec, Kajetan Kovič and Tone Pavček.