Šalamun Tomaž:
Versailles
The borders of the countries on the earth’s crust
hold less than the frostwork on my window. The tree
gets dressed. Breaks. You whisper and splash with ice.
I hug you and brush you. I remove your teeth,
like piano keys, then put them in again. Now you are
different: evolution has leveled the trauma.
They will bite again and flash, they’ll rob you
of your sadness. I’ll blow you up and pop you again
and again, don’t be afraid, I won’t get tired. The skin
needs care and bait. And sometimes you have twelve
floors
and we have to figure out immediately if you’re a
match.
To cut deeper and deeper into your taste. And also: to
gently
herd them back, the pedestrians who tumbled out of
your wing
at the silliest hour. You are Slovenian, therefore sad.
Tomaž Šalamun
(1941 - ) A poet, and since 1996, a Slovenian cultural attache in New York. He graduated in art history from the University of Ljubljana and worked as a free-lance writer in Ljubljana. Salamun, who was in 1973 honored by the Preseren Foundation Prize/National Book Award was in the 1960's the leading figure of Slovenian poetical avant-garde. He has published extensively since his first two books in samizdat (Poker; The Purpose of the Cloak) appeared in 1966 and 1968, respectively. His work has been included in numerous anthologies, including Child of Europe (Penguin 1991) and East European Poetry (Ardis, 1983, 1985). A former fellow of the Iowa International Writing Program and a Fulbright fellow at Columbia University in New York, Salamun was also in residency at the art colonies of Yaddo and MacDowell. His recent books in English translation include The Selected Poems (Ecco Press 1988; edited by Charles Simic) and The Four Questions of Melancholy (White Pine Press, 1997; edited by Christopher Merrill).By the same author
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