{"product_id":"seed-in-snow-9781942683223","title":"Seed in Snow","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis first US publication of Knuts Skujenieks—one of Latvia's foremost contemporary poets—is 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Love Poem\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eI would like clarity. To exclude\u003cbr\u003eA relationship's tangled yarn.\u003cbr\u003eNot a word.\u003cbr\u003eLet reaction suffice.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eSo. Only so. And if the two of us\u003cbr\u003eAre pitched alone against the world,\u003cbr\u003eThat we can instantly swing about\u003cbr\u003eFrom face-to-face\u003cbr\u003eAnd stand back to back.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eWould that be too much?\u003cbr\u003eBut a poem cannot be written\u003cbr\u003eIf one awaits the bullet\u003cbr\u003eFrom the back,\u003cbr\u003eAnd not from the front.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eKnuts Skujenieks \u003c\/b\u003ewas 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 \u003ci\u003eSekla sniega \u003c\/i\u003e(\u003ci\u003eSeed in Snow\u003c\/i\u003e). 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"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\u003cbr\u003e\"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\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCONTENTS  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                    \t\t\t\t                                  [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","brand":"BOA Editions, Limited","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51360282411351,"sku":"9781942683223","price":12.34,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781942683223.jpg?v=1754127216","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/seed-in-snow-9781942683223","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}