Description
Book SynopsisThis first US publication of Knuts Skujenieksone of Latvia's foremost contemporary poetsis the author's most important and widely-translated body of work. Convicted in 1962 of anti-Soviet sentiment, Skujenieks wrote these poems during seven years of imprisonment at a labor camp in Mordovia. Vivid and expressive, this collection overcomes the physical experience of confinement in order to assert a limitless creative freedom.
A Love Poem
I would like clarity. To exclude
A relationship's tangled yarn.
Not a word.
Let reaction suffice.
So. Only so. And if the two of us
Are pitched alone against the world,
That we can instantly swing about
From face-to-face
And stand back to back.
Would that be too much?
But a poem cannot be written
If one awaits the bullet
From the back,
And not from the front.
Knuts Skujenieks was born in 1936 in Latvia, where he studied philology and history at the University of Latvia. In 1962, he was convicted of anti-Soviet activity and served a seven-year prison sentence in the Mordovia gulag. While there, he sent out many poems in letters to his wife, which were first published in 2002 as Sekla sniega (Seed in Snow). A polyglot, Skujenieks has translated into Latvian such poets as Lorca, Ritsos, Neruda, Vallejo, Galczinsky, and Tranströmer. He has received the highest literary and state honors in Latvia, as well as awards across Europe, including Sweden's Tomas Tranströmer prize, and his poetry has been translated into more than thirty languages. He currently lives in Salaspils, Latvia.
Trade Review"Skujenieks makes his own emotions so gigantic that even the trees and the sun itself share them. The pines themselves want to escape, the sun is saddened, and yet, because the landscape shares in the prisoners’ suffering, that suffering is made bearable. . . . Nature, fierce and simple, is always interwoven with emotions in these poems. . . . Skujenieks’ strength is his ability to universalize his experience. . . . The poems in Seed in Snow can use this sort of shared experience to transport the reader into a far-off reality most of us will never experience." —Words Without Borders “Although Skujenieks’s poetry has been translated into more than thirty languages, this is the first collection in English. The selection is centered on the years [he was imprisoned] in Mordovia. The poems are highly diverse in style, tone, and motif, but throughout, despite a sometimes dark worldview, an irrepressible spirit keeps breaking through. He shows emotion and man’s engagement with others and with the world around him in voices other than his own, both human and taken from nature: voices as varied as that of the biblical Jacob, the poet Vallejo, a road, and a snowflake. He creates a sense of universality by conflating eras and events.” —Bitite Vinklers, from the Introduction
"Skujenieks makes his own emotions so gigantic that even the trees and the sun itself share them. The pines themselves want to escape, the sun is saddened, and yet, because the landscape shares in the prisoners’ suffering, that suffering is made bearable. . . . Nature, fierce and simple, is always interwoven with emotions in these poems. . . . Skujenieks’ strength is his ability to universalize his experience. . . . The poems in Seed in Snow can use this sort of shared experience to transport the reader into a far-off reality most of us will never experience." Words Without Borders Although Skujenieks’s poetry has been translated into more than thirty languages, this is the first collection in English. The selection is centered on the years [he was imprisoned] in Mordovia. The poems are highly diverse in style, tone, and motif, but throughout, despite a sometimes dark worldview, an irrepressible spirit keeps breaking through. He shows emotion and man’s engagement with others and with the world around him in voices other than his own, both human and taken from nature: voices as varied as that of the biblical Jacob, the poet Vallejo, a road, and a snowflake. He creates a sense of universality by conflating eras and events.” Bitite Vinklers, from the Introduction
Table of ContentsCONTENTS Introduction 6 I Pasaules mala 10 At the Edge of the World 11 Karls Marija Vebers, “Aicinajums uz deju” 12 Carl Maria von Weber’s Invitation to the Dance 13 Komentars 14 Commentary 15 Es dzirdu 16 I Hear 17 “par galvu kuko debesis” 18 “the sky cuckoos” 19 II No slimnicas zonas 21 From the Hospital Zone 22 III Klauve 36 The Seed Is Knocking 37 Vasaras sakuma 38 At the Beginning of Summer 39 “nesaki neviena varda” 40 “don’t say a word” 41 Uzrakstits augusta 42 Written in August 43 Zem pedejas augusta ziemelzvaigznes 44 Beneath the Polestar in August 45 [Skujenieks/tr. Vinklers] Kapnes 50 Stairs 51 “akmen vai tu spej padzit no sevis celinieku?” 52 “stone, can you thrust aside a wayfarer?” 53 To es saprotu 56 I Understand 57 Ziemas vakars 58 Winter Evening 59 Pielabinašanas dziesma ziemai 60 Song: Cajoling Winter 61 Parslina sika balstina 62 The Voice of a Snowflake 63 IV Par kadu leksikas slani 65 A Lexicon 66 Lanterna magica 67 Lanterna Magica 68 Vel trisreiz uzleks saule 69 The Sun Will Rise Again Three Times 70 Ta pasaules godiba 73 Worldly Glory 74 Balsis 75 Voices 76 Sesars Valjeho 77 César Vallejo 78 “sen pari pusnaktij” 79 “it’s long past midnight” 80 Avetiks Isahakjans 81 Avetik Isahakyan 82 Par palikšanu 83 About Remaining 84 [Skujenieks/tr. Vinklers] Prata jukušais un mutes harmonica 85 A Demented Man with a Harmonica 86 “un kad tev acis piesviestas ar sniegu” 87 “and when snow is thrown into your eyes” 88 Pie septitajiem vartiem 89 At the Seventh Gate 90 Cogito, Ergo Sum 91 Cogito, Ergo Sum 92 “Saule sen jau purva sunajos” 93 “The sun has descended” 94 Pienenei kas uzziedejusi novembri 95 To a Dandelion Blooming in November 96 Nejaušs, bet likumigsakarigs dzejolis 97 Unexpected 98 Milestibas dzejolis 99 A Love Poem 100 Konstanti Ildefonss Galcinskis 101 Konstanty Ildefons Galczynski 102 “pie maniem miljoniem gadu” 103 “to my millions of years” 104 Starplauka 105 No-Man’s-Land 106 Gitaras pavadijuma 107 To the Accompaniment of a Guitar 108 V Septinas pirma sniega elegijas un divas par perno sniegu 112 Elegies on Snow 113 Notes 128 Acknowledgments 129 Note About the Author 130 Note About the Translator 131
