[zagotovo vem, da naju bo]

by Tone Škrjanec

zagotovo vem, da naju bo

nekega dne z zemlje odnesel

nenaden, tih piš vetra.

izginila bova v razkošni,

pisani spirali

skrivnostni kot znak,

ki prikliče ptice v afriko,

ki daje jelenom

moč

rogovje.

[i know for sure that one day]

by Tone Škrjanec

i know for sure that one day

we’ll be carried off the earth

by sudden, silent blast of wind.

we’ll disappear in a fancy

multi colored spiral

mysterious like a signal

calling birds to Africa,

giving deer

their strength

and

antlers.

translated from Slovenian by Ana Pepelnik & Matthew Rohrer

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Tone Škrjanec was born in 1953 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where he studied Sociology. Škrjanec has published many books in Slovenia, and two chapbooks in the U.S. with Ugly Duckling Presse. Škrjanec’s many translations of American writers into Slovene include William S. Burroughs, Frank O’Hara, Charles Bukowski and Gary Snyder.

Ana Pepelnik is a poet and translator who was born in Slovenia in 1979. She has translated many American poets into Slovene, including Elizabeth Bishop, James Schuyler and Noelle Kocot.

Matthew Rohrer is the author of seven books of poems, most recently DESTROYER AND PRESERVER. He has co-translated poems by Tomaž Šalamun (with the author), Virgil Bănescu (with the author) and Volker Braun (with his mother).

Circumference

Poetry in Translation

[zagotovo vem, da naju bo]

[i know for sure that one day]