Description
Book SynopsisTRANSLATED BY MARA ROZITIS An extraordinary cycle of poems – magical, mysterious, sinister, funny – about exile, in which the protagonist, Wolf One-Eye, finds himself an exile from an ancient mythological landscape in a new realm of quarks and expanding and alternating universes. Dislocated and alone, he travels through totally unfamiliar territory, closely observed by the other voice in these poems, that of the poet / narrator. Kronbergs is himself an exile, having grown up as a refugee child in Sweden after the Second World War, and this gives an edge to his poetry that is both distinctive and resonant. He is a poet, freelance journalist and translator. Kronbergs was born 1946 in Sweden, in an exiled Latvian family. He studied Literature, Nordic and Baltic languages at the University of Stockholm, as well as Translation theory and 20th Century poetry at Cambridge. He has been the President of the Latvian PEN centre, and received the Latvian Three Star order, the Swedish North Star order, several scholarships and prizes for poetry and translation in Latvia and in Sweden; among them the prize for best poetry collection of the year in Latvia (1997) for the collection Wolf One-Eye . He has published ten collections of poetry, one in Swedish and one bilingual, as well as poetry on CD. Arc Visible Poets series – The translators working on this series aim to reveal the original language in all its manifestations and make it 'visible'. By this process, they invite the reader to develop a deeper understanding and enjoyment of, both the original and the translated poem.
Table of ContentsTranslator's preface / 10 Introduction / 14 Out of the blue / 19 A strange event / 21 Wolf One-Eye on his first day / 23 Wolf One-Eye thinks himself up a house / 25 How Wolf One-Eye lost his eye / 27 Wolf One-Eye two-eyes / 29 Wolf One-Eye goes farming / 31 Wolf One-Eye thinks about constancy / 33 A blessed net / 35 Wolf One-Eye goes searching / 37 Wolf One-Eye's winter prayer / 39 Wolf One-Eye believes that from this moment there will only be half of everything / 41 Wolf One-Eye observes his own thoughts / 43 A dream terrain / 45 Wolf One-Eye imagines darkness / 47 Wolf One-Eye detached from the world / 49 Wolf One-Eye reflects on himself / 51 Wolf One-Eye has changed / 53 Wolf One-Eye at the circus / 55 Wolf One-Eye the mute / 57 Wolf One-Eye rakes up the past / 59 Wolf One-Eye struggles / 61 Wolf One-Eye as the only victim / 63 Wolf One-Eye's burden / 65 Wolf One-Eye takes a walk / 67 Wolf One-Eye thinks about time / 69 Wolf One-Eye in time / 71 Lone wolf / 73 Whole wolf / 75 Wolf One-Eye hears his own breathing / 77 Wolf One-Eye forgives (forgets) / 79 Wolf One-Eye tries dancing / 81 Wolf One-Eye views himself as yesterday / 83 Wolf One-Eye is ailing / 85 Wolf One-Eye has shrunk / 87 The bridge / 89 Wolf One-Eye in confusion / 91 Wolf One-Eye has the solution / 93 Wolf One-Eye in memory and language / 95 Wolf One-Eye on Odin's Street / 99 Wolf One-Eye reasons / 101 Wolf One-Eye loses his head / 103 Wolf One-Eye has lost it / 105 Wolf One-Eye at peace / 107 Wolf One-Eye the monument / 109 Wolf One-Eye and force of habit / 111 Wolf the other / 113 Wolf One-Eye and Death, once more / 117 Wolf One-Eye feels free / 119 Room with a view / 123 Wolf One-Eye in spring / 125 Out of the dark / 127 The beginning / 129 Biographical notes / 130
