Voda

by Meta Kušar

Grk oživlja z mesečevo vodo.

Ljubezen ne pozna trupel, čeprav je mrtvo telo usoda.

Pesmi ne zavržeš.

Ljubezni ne zavržeš.

Pesem srka drobljivost.

Delčke zloži v belo luč obdano z lupino.

Pingvini z majhno nesmrtno dušo naredijo enako.

Njihova vera je jajce pri nogah narave.

Water

by Meta Kušar

A Greek will revive you with moon water.

Love knows not of corpses, although a dead body is fate.

You don’t throw away poems.

You don’t throw away love.

The poem absorbs fragility.

Composes the small parts into the white light of a shell.

Penguins with their small immortal souls do the same.

Their faith is an egg at nature’s feet.

translated from Slovenian by Ana Jelnikar & Barbara Siegel Carlson

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Meta Kušar, poet and essayist, was born in Ljubljana in 1952. Her poetry collection Ljubljana was translated into Slovak in 2008 and English in 2010 (tr. by Ana Jelnikar & Stephen Watts). Her most recent publication is a book of interviews with a range of prominent Slovene artists she has interviewed over the last decade. Since 1980 she has regularly contributed to the Slovene National Radio and the RAI-Trieste with cultural and historical talks.

Ana Jelnikar’s most recent publications include Look Back, Look Ahead: Selected Poems of Srečko Kosovel (Ugly Duckling Presse, co-translated with Barbara Siegel Carlson, 2010), and Meta Kušar’s poetry collection Ljubljana (Arc Publications, 2010, co-translated with Stephen Watts). Her book on Slovene poet Srečko Kosovel and Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore is forthcoming from Oxford University Press (India).

Barbara Siegel Carlson is the author of the poetry collection Fire Road (Dream Horse Press, 2013) and co-translator with Ana Jelnikar of Look Back, Look Ahead, Selected Poems of Srečko Kosovel (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2010). Poems and translations have appeared in Prairie Schooner, New Ohio Review, and are forthcoming in Metamorphosis and Avatar Review. She is currently co-editing an anthology of contemporary Slovene poetry.

Circumference

Poetry in Translation

Voda

Water