Zajc Dane:
The Captive Wolf
Run, run, run.
With velvet steps.
With sinewy wild legs.
Run quietly like a silent grey spirit,
run around the cage,
upon the rotting leaves.
Run ahead.
Run back.
With open muzzle.
With red tongue.
Run like the grey shadow,
the grey silent shadow of hatred,
the grey shadow of contempt
in the cage.
Run. Run. Run.
Howl, howl
wild and hostile.
Where do packs of wolves run free.
Where do droves of grey spirits,
float in milky moonlight
like the core of a devilish flock.
Where are the soft throats of sheep.
O gorge on the sweet blood of sheep.
O howl. Howl.
Why do you howl, wolf,
as the earth howls,
when crushed by a mountain of rocks?
Why do you howl, wolf.
Why do you howl,
as if you had caught in your gullet
long black thorns.
Dane Zajc
(1929-2005) A poet, essayist, and playwright who, until his retirement, worked as a librarian in Ljubljana. Considered the doyen of postwar poets, he was active in the foundation of numerous literary magazines, including Review 57 (Revija 57), Problems (Problemi) and Perspectives (Perspektive), which he also edited. His lyrical poems displayed dark and depressing atmospheres, and were suffused with stark existentialist images which helped undermine the then-obligatory aesthetics of socialist realism. In the 1960s, with the advent of neoavant-garde writing, Zajc's poems won renewed appreciation and became part of the national canon. Zajc also writes for children (poems, prose and plays). He is best known, however, for his poetic plays, such as Children of the River (Otroka reke). A former Fulbright fellow at Columbia University in New York , he has seen the publication of his collected works in five volumes in 1990. Zajc received the Prešeren Prize for lifetime achievement in 1981.By the same author
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