Nothing Is Lost

by Kocbek, Edvard

• ISBN13: 9780691118406
• ISBN10: 069111840X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-03-16
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

This is the first comprehensive English-language collection of verse by the most celebrated Slovenian poet of modern times and one of Europe's most notable postwar poets, Edvard Kocbek (1904-1981). The selections introduce the reader to the full spectrum of Kocbek's long and distinguished career, starting with the pantheist and expressionist nature poems of his early period and continuing through the politically engaged poetry written during and after World War II, to the philosophical and metaphysical meditations of his fecund late period. Readers will be struck by the originality and freshness of Kocbek's sinewy and intense vision, rendered into fluid and idiomatic English by two experienced translators. The Slovenian texts appear on the facing pages. The opening stanza of "Moon with a Halo" The man beside me was killed. He had a mother who bore him and a father who made him toys, he had a brother and a playful uncle and a little girl with blond braids, he had a wooden cart and a wooden horse, a trunkful of colored dreams and a brook where he used to fish.

Table of Contents

FOREWORD by Charles Simic	ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	xiii
INTRODUCTION by Michael Scammell	1	(12)
From EARTH	13	(20)
Silent birds perch on my shoulders	15	(2)
The sun is wreathed in cobwebs	17	(2)
A pair of strong young oxen goes slowly	19	(2)
The women are coming from work	21	(2)
The heavy bole presses the last basket of grapes	23	(2)
O noise of waters, collapse of the universe	25	(2)
Loud greetings to you, my living comrades	27	(2)
Drunk with change I lie on the ground	29	(2)
Earth, I get everything from you	31	(2)
From DREAD	33	(44)
Rain	35	(2)
Hands	37	(2)
Moonlight	39	(2)
Moon with a Halo	41	(2)
Crucifix in a Field	43	(2)
The Game	45	(2)
After the Meeting	47	(2)
Unknown Woman	49	(2)
The Bay	51	(2)
Night Ritual	53	(2)
Midnight Wind	55	(2)
Dialectics	57	(2)
Black Sea	59	(2)
The Stick	61	(2)
Grace	63	(2)
Landscape	65	(2)
Migration	67	(2)
Things	69	(2)
Summons	71	(2)
Presentiment	73	(2)
Prayer	75	(2)
From PENTAGRAM	77	(16)
On Night Watch	79	(2)
Doubled	81	(2)
How Shall I Be?	83	(2)
Pentagram	85	(2)
The Cave	87	(2)
Image in Old Bark	89	(2)
Night Doffs Its Weapons	91	(2)
From REPORT	93	(32)
Parrots	95	(2)
Contraband	97	(2)
Exercise	99	(2)
Girl's Apron	101	(2)
Climax	103	(2)
Ditty	105	(2)
Now	107	(2)
Pontic	109	(2)
The Game Is Over	111	(2)
Play Backwards	113	(2)
Longing for Jail	115	(2)
My Partisan Name	117	(2)
Lippizaners	119	(6)
From EMBERS	125	(12)
Tree	127	(2)
What Happens to the Mountain	129	(2)
Unknown Beloved	131	(2)
The Time of the Poem	133	(2)
Blessed Search	135	(2)
From BRIDE IN BLACK	137
Amok	139	(2)
What We Were Looking For	141	(2)
The Statue	143	(2)
Tongue	145	(2)
Plea	147	(2)
Stammer, Children	149	(2)
Girl	151	(2)
On Freedom of Mind	153	(2)
Ancient Miracle	155	(2)
The Generosity of the Poem	157	(2)
Now We Are Alone	159	(2)
Game	161	(2)
I haven't done playing with words	163