Tomaž Šalamun
—
Acqua Alta
Translated from the Slovenian by Brian Henry
You have bright perforated buttons
in your nose so you can breathe like a fountain.
Unidentified species of birds crackle,
dogs bark in the valley. Legs and flanks
white, mouth red. You cannot see
skin beneath the surface. The world ate
the bomb. It fell in love with white, brittle
sugar. It broke into the pantry.
Lifted the door off its hinges.
The blood of birds’ necks pecks
at your wrists. The stone
of wisdom is still warm and damp.
You lie down. You sleep. A flower trembles.
Monsoons are flowing into silk.
Cluster
Waterfalls spilled from the skin.
But look, the day before you died,
he called me. From a lace mouth,
a barbarian with smooth, velvety eyes.
Your smile a vase, you smoked. Does a log
snap? Does it twist? I stumbled around
the gate of Korčula. The story glistens.
The whale’s neck snapped. I’m like a harpoon.
Like a harpoon. I can no longer go out.
A lump of sugar on a shoulder, in a sack.
Your smile falls asleep, it’s sleeping.
Do you flick twigs from your lashes and spin
in the air? There’s manna between my fingers.
You smell of Provence. Of Rue de France.
Evening
A placard. A thorn and a boat.
White silk.
Black silk.
A rag.
A rag by a tree.
By a broken jar.
Black and white silk
on my cheek.
I breathe into the bark.
I’m waiting for the bus.
The pavilion in the park here
wasn’t torn down.
Tomaž Šalamun (1941-2014) published more than 55 books of poetry in his native Slovenian. Translated into over 25 languages, his poetry received numerous awards, including the Jenko Prize, the Prešeren Prize, the European Prize for Poetry, and the Mladost Prize. He served for several years as the Cultural Attaché for the Slovenian Embassy in New York, and he held visiting professorships at various universities in the U.S.
Brian Henry is the author of eleven books of poetry, most recently Permanent State. He has translated Tomaž Šalamun’s Woods and Chalices, Aleš Debeljak’s Smugglers, and five books by Aleš Šteger. His work has received numerous honors, including two NEA fellowships, the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award, a Howard Foundation fellowship, and the Best Translated Book Award. He is editing and translating a volume of Selected Poems by Šalamun.
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