In his early days, having just graduated and become a Spanish language and literature professor, Juan Octavio Prenz came to Belgrade in the status of a political émigré. That was in the early 1960s. He spent nine years in Belgrade teaching at the university. Today he lives in Trieste, in Italy, and works at a local university. His love for Belgrade, his friendship with Vasko Popa, Miodrag Pavlović, his Serbian students, and even Skadarlija, makes Juan Octavio Prenz more of a host than a guest in the Serbian capital.
 How do you perceive Belgrade today, as 40 years ago you lived in this city?
"I lived a long time in Belgrade and it has become one of my own cities. It was there that, in a way, I matured as a man. I got to know your literature, translated several poems from the Kraljević Marko cycle, spent time with the poets Vasko Popa, Miodrag Pavlović, Bora Radović...The poetry they wrote was at the highest level in Europe. As we were friends and associated for many years, I also got to know the city’s Bohemian side. Belgrade is one of those European cities in which something is happening all the time, there are a number of cultural events going on. Here, even the man in the street is in some ways connected to culture; the city has some sort of atmosphere of culture that surpasses a specific literary milieu. During my time in Belgrade, I taught students that are now well known cultural figures such as Kolja Mićević, Gordana Ćirjanić, Branislav Prelević.... actor Petar Božović. Owing to all this, I can say that I feel more of a host in Belgrade."
What attracted you most in Belgrade?
"I have always felt like a true Belgrader. I love the kind of life in Belgrade involving frequenting coffeehouses, a kind of life that still exists. In the 1960s, I saw Vasko Popa, Miodrag Pavlović, Dubravka Nešović and the painter Maskareli in the Tri Šešira coffeehouse. Back then, it was a bit different from now, but still bears that remarkable charm it possessed once. I felt free and safe in Belgrade and realised several of my life’s big wishes."
How were you received here at the time as a writer?
"I have always been a well-received poet and writer in Belgrade. I published four books in Serbia, translated works of several major poets from the former Yugoslavia. I have to-date written ten volumes of poetry, three novels, three books of essays, much translating, edited scores of anthologies containing poets from the former Yugoslavia. My latest book published in Serbia is the novel Mister Kreck, translated by Gordana Ćirjanić and issued by Prosveta publishers. The book received excellent reviews in Spain and throughout Latin America. The Serbian translation is, by the way, its first translation. An Italian version of Mister Kreck is to appear shortly.
Mister Kreck is full of riddles?
"During interviews, too, I am asked to explain some of the riddles. I can only say that what the reader does not know, the writer doesn’t either. Not only the reader but also I find the character I am describing and which exists in real life as strange. So, I myself also wonder."
How would you describe your poetry, your poetic statement, language?
"My poetry is rather ironic and cynical. It is not a genuine lyrical poetry but a sort of epic poetry of everyday life. I believe it voices my view of the word. To expound more on my poetics, I would like to tell you something about my poem titled "A Required Introductory Note" in which I state that one must be stern and hard with words. They must not be permitted gentleness; words must not impress; quite the contrary, as if words come to one’s head a man is then quite lost. One must be cruel to words and must not allow them to take one’s place. The poet, too, is just a man, like any other. He must not think he is special because he writes poems because each one of us in everyday life, whether we are aware of it or not, puts together a bit of verse he omits to take down. He makes what I call ‘poetic font’. This may be a certain glance, a certain kind of handshake, anything. The poet just needs to be attentive and catch that something from everyday life. If this is stopped, then there can be no poetry."
And your prose writings?
"The same holds for my novels. I cannot but be ironic because irony is an indispensable component of the way I view life. I had very good conditions for writing while in Belgrade and I did much writing there. Secondly, the fact that I knew your language helped me compare everything that had been written in Spanish with what has been written in Serbian. As the Serbian language is synthetic, and Spanish analytic, this afforded me leeway to discern what was redundant while I write in Spanish. The Spanish are wonderful and merry people, but I think they are much too verbose."
What in your view is the role of poetry?
"Poetry is a genre of ultimate deliverance, ultimate refuge. Let me mention as an example the unfortunate mothers from Buenos Aires whose sons have been sentenced to death. When they sank into desperation, they began to write poetry although previously they had never written any. When someone who has never written poetry before begins to express himself in verse, this means that poetry wields great power. An Italian newspaper once carried a story that ten thousand poems were written when some Italian sports team won. This means that man uses poetry to express himself in great desperation, but also in great joy. Poetry is the only literary genre that will never die because it is rooted in every culture. Verse is remembered immediately so that some official documents, state papers, used to be written in verse. Even if a poem falls through, poetry will continue living. Perhaps you will find it hard to memorise a fragment from a novel by Crnjanski, but you will easily remember several poems. And that is the advantage of poetry."
Did you have model(s) of your own in literature?
"When I was young, Borges was my model and this was both bad and good because while he lived he belonged to an older generation and the new generation of writers remained in this ‘younger’ category even when they were in their seventies. We were all for him young writers, the younger generation."
What is it that connects your and our people? Are there common denominators in our mentalities?
"We love to enjoy ourselves, we possess a sense of humor, we are serious but not too much so – just enough. I also think it important to say that they are both nations given to singing. We are temperamental and value friendship. Sometime too much so as it sometimes turns out that friendship is more important than love. We also love beautiful women. There are many beautiful women in Argentina; I suppose a mixture of a variety of different genes accounts for this. Our similarities may also be found in the fact that we are very caring as regards our children. There are similarities also in some sort of chaotic approach to certain matters. We are sometime prone to complicate things that in themselves are not at all complicated."
How did Juan Octavio Prenz become a writer? What was the decisive factor?
"Everyone thought I would be into music. I had been playing for six years. My proclivity to music was unbounded. However, in high school something happened that was forever to define my fate. I had a teacher Marija, who was a poet as well as a very beautiful woman. I fell in love with her. My love for literature began to grow, and she could majestically direct this love of mine toward writing. Thanks to her, I published my first short story. This was in a way a sort of impetus from without. However, I think that the instinct to write has always existed in me."
What does writing constitute for you?
"It implies having a kind of balance as regards health and sickness. I write to learn how far I have progressed. It is a sort of a memorandum. When writing, I feel as self-assured as when I go out clean shaven in the street."
Is there a literary award you hold in particular esteem?
"I have received a number of awards for my work, but the CASA DE LAS AMERIKAS is dearest to me." | 
