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Tomaž Šalamun
Translated from the Slovenian by Brian Henry

On the path of all spheres,on steep cliffs overgrown with segments of color,marked with the chalk that childrenbroke, we watch the piecesrising,compact as if under the pressure of water,their slow takeoff: markings,white curtains raised.There are no problems with breathing,right here, in this circle,there are no problems with breathingand also ahead, in front, it seemsas if equilibrium is built in, unbreakable;cavities constantly expand,expand and narrow,as the activity of an unknown (imaginable)respiratory system enlarges under a microscope.Nostalgia, night, melancholy, laughterfalling like snow are invalid,all parallel, all there, which can bereached from here, the entire “path” in between.We watch the reactions to this situation,slowly, gradually, the outer leaves of an artichokeslowly float away.We can imprint any memories of the concepts.There was a line.It was there exactly because we couldn’tuse it.Whatever the concept, they’re all arrangedconcentrically, near, far.The spot, which was an elevator, a beam,is protected in advance by inviolability.Initiation is unbelievably slow work,most similar to the rotation of summer, winter, and the stars.Is this how we ate?Did we constantly prepare food?Now it’s enough that a small crack in the process remainsand everything regenerates unbelievably fast.Whoever keeps a diary of growth and sacrifice,look!Maybe many can read itbecause light falls around,but of course nothing falls here, it goes outward.The center, the source of energy that we observe in thisprocess, is empty. The universe “vanishes” the locus, eats it.Energy, not consciousness, leaps, (is) in the negative.So it’s all in something, which, becauseof the concept, can be roughly called a grain of sandand the entire space is only a vestige,like sawdust from sawing wood.In one cubic micromillimeterthere are infinite galaxies, and each with this hugespace, with nights, moons, suns, with constellationsthat baffle us and press our membrane.Intergalactic, and, of course, these“injected” communications are also just pressure.Beside this window, in this windowthere are still countless other civilizations,countless other cosmological systems.So it’s not about suffering,but about layers.I’m showing this here.

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Tomaž Šalamun (1941-2014) published more than 50 books of poetry in Slovenia. 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. In the 1990s, he served for several years as the Cultural Attaché for the Slovenian Embassy in New York, and later held visiting professorships at various universities in the U.S. Kiss the Eyes of Peace: Selected Poems
1964-2014 appeared from Milkweed Editions in 2024.

Photo of Brian Henry

Brian Henry is the author of eleven books of poetry, most recently Permanent State (Threadsuns, 2020), and the prose book Things Are Completely Simple: Poetry and Translation (Parlor, 2022). He has translated Tomaž Šalamun’s Woods and Chalices (Harcourt, 2008) and Kiss the Eyes of Peace: Selected Poems 1964-2014 (Milkweed, 2024), and six books by Aleš Šteger, most recently Burning Tongues: New and Selected Poems (Bloodaxe, 2022). 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.

“One of the great Central European poets of the late twentieth century, the Slovene Tomaž Šalamun is a madman. A master of chance, adrenaline, and inspiration, Šalamun’s poems don’t unfold, they erupt with the volcanic energy of tumultuous times, both personal and historical. Like Blake and Whitman before him, a divine unity is at their core, and in these new translations by Brian Henry we are given the Šalamunian universe, prophetic and exhilarating, created by the most flexible of poetic minds in the act of the human urge to create.”

— Mary Ruefle

“This book will revolutionize the way that Tomaž Šalamun is perceived by English readers. Not only is it the first comprehensive English selection from his entire body of work, uncovering many hidden gems, but it also stands as a remarkable culmination of more than two decades of dedication by Brian Henry, a poet who shared a profound connection with Tomaž. With meticulous precision and wild poetic power, Henry presents an English rendition of Šalamun at its finest.”

— Aleš Šteger

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