A Ballad for Metka Krasovec

by Biggins, Michael

• ISBN13: 9788086264127
• ISBN10: 8086264122
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-08-01
• Publisher: Scb Distributors

Summary

Poetry. Tomaz Salamun is perhaps the most popular and prolific poet in Central Europe today. Thanks to the translation of his work he has also been widely acclaimed abroad. To date he has had four collections of selected poetry published in English. A BALLAD FOR METKA KRASOVEC, originally published in the 1980s by Harcourt, at the mid-point of Salamun's career, is considered by the author to be one of his finest works. The volume is characterized by often striking imagery and sexual turmoil. It is the first complete single volume of his to appear in English translation. The translator is Michael Biggins, who is a Slavic and East European Studies librarian at the University of Washington Libraries in Seattle. SPD also carries Salamun's FOUR QUESTIONS OF MELANCHOLY (White Pine).

Table of Contents

book 1
``Night drenches the land...''	13	(1)
``Off with the crackpot's head...''	14	(1)
``Father, with your whetted...''	15	(1)
``O tribes!...''	16	(1)
``Shortcuts wash the...''	17	(1)
``Monsters in the gums...''	18	(1)
``I don't like black cherries...''	19	(1)
``Whips! Yolks!...''	20	(1)
``Sullen is the pose...''	21	(1)
``A tiny bug...''	22	(1)
``It was exactly noon...''	23	(1)
``A line-drawing deer...''	24	(1)
``On Sundays, when they...''	25	(1)
``A sword delineates...''	26	(1)
``A seed flying off...''	27	(1)
``I drink flour out...''	28	(1)
``Of all the drenched guests...''	29	(1)
``I throb in tiny...''	30	(1)
epitaph	31	(1)
``A stream,...''	32	(1)
``I eat rhubarb and...''	33	(1)
``The stone, not the mind,...''	34	(1)
``I remember a thorn...''	35	(1)
``The chalk in this picture...''	36	(1)
``They've blocked our...''	37	(1)
``The children's mouths...''	38	(1)
``Sorry, pine!...''	39	(1)
``A fly on the hairs...''	40	(1)
``Ladders are made...''	41	(1)
``The wings of a bee...''	42	(1)
west broadway	43	(1)
gabrce	44	(1)
109 = 10 = 1	45	(1)
``Blue circles in the...''	46	(1)
``Blue pencils on a white...''	47	(1)
``Within the mountain...''	48	(1)
``Feathers are the feathers...''	49	(1)
``A city of light...''	50	(1)
``Supreme grace opens onto...''	51	(1)
``Counting is most terrible...''	52	(1)
snow man	53	(1)
we peasants	54	(1)
the dance	55	(2)
san juan de la cruz and john dilg	57	(1)
insects, birds	58	(1)
``Endure...''	59	(1)
manhattan	60	(1)
one, my arm	61	(1)
a ballad for metka krasovec	62	(4)
``A book of...''	66	(1)
to david	67	(1)
mitla	68	(1)
``To the nun...''	69	(1)
``I set a...''	70	(1)
``If it weren't for Descartes...''	71	(1)
``When I crawl...''	72	(1)
``With my tongue...''	73	(1)
god's straw	74	(2)
andraz and tomaz salamun	76	(1)
ragtime	77	(4)
book 2
big deal	81	(1)
telegram	82	(1)
rites over charred remains	83	(1)
bathtub army	84	(1)
juice of oranges	85	(1)
sayings of the world	86	(1)
memory	87	(1)
``I'm suffused...''	88	(1)
by jove, here we go again	89	(1)
problems and mysticism	90	(2)
the oeuvre and its brackets	92	(2)
``Not just me...''	94	(1)
letters to my wife	95	(3)
so what did i do in new york?	98	(2)
i'll write you a sonnet	100	(1)
``In hell they eat...''	101	(1)
``The people who...''	102	(1)
``Don't fool yourselves...''	103	(1)
doubting grandson	104	(1)
prologue I	105	(1)
prologue II	106	(1)
a prayer	107	(1)
god	108	(1)
sixth of june	109	(1)
poetry	110	(1)
metka	111	(1)
the man from galilee	112	(1)
de rerum naturae	113	(1)
``My grandma...''	114	(1)
riko adamic	115	(1)
marko	116	(1)
astonished eyes	117	(1)
light not fed by light	118	(1)
the boat	119	(1)
jerusalem	120	(1)
kami	121	(1)
the tree	122	(1)
a stroll in the zoo	123	(7)
circles	130	(2)
three poems for miriam	132	(4)
bob!	136	(1)
thirty-seven and you twenty-one	137	(1)
why do you tremble, alejandro gallegos duval!	138	(1)
to pavcek	139	(1)
gaza	140	(2)
my uncle the jockey and the butcher in zone a	142	(1)
the koper-saratoga springs axis	143	(2)
my bard and brother	145	(2)
chez les contents	147	(1)
small wonder that our old professor is now mayor or rome	148	(1)
dear metka!	149	(2)
liberty, blue folder	151	(2)
la lettre de mon pere, le pediatre	153	(1)
grain	154	(1)
the word and the truth	155