[Realpoetik] TOMAŽ ŠALAMUN

[RealPoetik Magazine]

‘SLEEP POURS IN…’





Sleep pours in on the Polish hills,

an arm grabs a golden stamp.



A squirrel dies in a bag.

A cricket flies over a clearing.



We know where the sword of the brave is from.

The mutation of the eye is the secret.








FOUNTAIN



The lion, which falls on its face, bends the little girl.

Red blood spurts.









‘THE GAME IS DEATH…’



The game is death. Husk before death.

In euphoria there are the blackest flowers.









‘YOU *ARE *MY ANGEL’



You *are* my angel.

Mouth strewn with chalk.

I am the servant of the ritual.

Intact.

White mushrooms in a white field.

In a plain of fire.

I walk on gold dust.





Translated from the Slovenian by Brian Henry.  "Fountain," "'The game is
death...'" and "'You *are *my angel'" from *Sonet o Mleku* (*Sonnet on Milk*),
63, 30, and 26, respectively.


*Tomaž Šalamun* has published more than 37 books of poetry in Slovenia and
11 books in English. His many honors include the Preseren Fund Prize, a
visiting Fulbright to Columbia University, and a fellowship to the
International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. He also has served
as Cultural Attaché to the Slovenian Consulate in New York. His poetry has
been translated into more than 20 languages around the world.* Woods and
Chalices*, translated by Brian Henry, appeared from Harcourt in 2008.

*Brian Henry*'s sixth book, *Wings Without Birds*, will appear from Salt
Publishing in April 2010.


-- 
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