Nothing is Lost

Selected Poems

By: Edvard Kocbek, Michael Scammell (Translator), Veno Taufer (Translator), Charles Simic (Foreword by)

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Paperback | 5 April 2004

At a Glance

Paperback
176 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.4 x 15.2 x 235

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This is the first comprehensive English-language collection of verse by the most celebrated Slovenian poet of modern times and one of Europe's most notable postwar poets, Edvard Kocbek (1904-1981).

The selections introduce the reader to the full spectrum of Kocbek's long and distinguished career, starting with the pantheist and expressionist nature poems of his early period and continuing through the politically engaged poetry written during and after World War II, to the philosophical and metaphysical meditations of his fecund late period.

Readers will be struck by the originality and freshness of Kocbek's sinewy and intense vision, rendered into fluid and idiomatic English by two experienced translators. The Slovenian texts appear on the facing pages.

The opening stanza of "Moon with a Halo"

?

The man beside me was killed.
He had a mother who bore him
and a father who made him toys,
he had a brother and a playful uncle
and a little girl with blond braids,
he had a wooden cart and a wooden horse,
a trunkful of colored dreams
and a brook where he used to fish.
?

Industry Reviews

"Edvard Kocbek is a major Slovenian poet. For the past few months, I've been carrying around and traveling with Nothing Is Lost, his selected poems eloquently translated by Michael Scammell and Veno Tauffer. This marvelous body of work spans more than 40 years and confirms that Kocbek belongs in the company of other notable East European poets... Reading [his poems] now, one feels that his pastoral sensibility and vital intimacy with nature, which at times feels mystical, were always infused with a painful sense of time, an agonized feeling of cosmic sorrow."--Edward Hirsch, Washington Post Book World

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Foreword by Charles Simic	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
From Earth	p. 13
Silent birds perch on my shoulders	p. 15
The sun is wreathed in cobwebs	p. 17
A pair of strong young oxen goes slowly	p. 19
The women are coming from work	p. 21
The heavy bole presses the last basket of grapes	p. 23
O noise of waters, collapse of the universe	p. 25
Loud greetings to you, my living comrades	p. 27
Drunk with change I lie on the ground	p. 29
Earth, I get everything from you	p. 31
From Dread	p. 33
Rain	p. 35
Hands	p. 37
Moonlight	p. 39
Moon with a Halo	p. 41
Crucifix in a Field	p. 43
The Game	p. 45
After the Meeting	p. 47
Unknown Woman	p. 49
The Bay	p. 51
Night Ritual	p. 53
Midnight Wind	p. 55
Dialectics	p. 57
Black Sea	p. 59
The Stick	p. 61
Grace	p. 63
Landscape	p. 65
Migration	p. 67
Things	p. 69
Summons	p. 71
Presentiment	p. 73
Prayer	p. 75
From Pentagram	p. 77
On Night Watch	p. 79
Doubled	p. 81
How Shall I Be?	p. 83
Pentagram	p. 85
The Cave	p. 87
Image in Old Bark	p. 89
Night Doffs Its Weapons	p. 91
From Report	p. 93
Parrots	p. 95
Contraband	p. 97
Exercise	p. 99
Girl's Apron	p. 101
Climax	p. 103
Ditty	p. 105
Now	p. 107
Pontic	p. 109
The Game Is Over	p. 111
Play Backwards	p. 113
Longing for Jail	p. 115
My Partisan Name	p. 117
Lippizaners	p. 119
From Embers	p. 125
Tree	p. 127
What Happens to the Mountain	p. 129
Unknown Beloved	p. 131
The Time of the Poem	p. 133
Blessed Search	p. 135
From Bride in Black	p. 137
Amok	p. 139
What We Were Looking For	p. 141
The Statue	p. 143
Tongue	p. 145
Plea	p. 147
Stammer, Children	p. 149
Girl	p. 151
On Freedom of Mind	p. 153
Ancient Miracle	p. 155
The Generosity of the Poem	p. 157
Now We Are Alone	p. 159
Game	p. 161
I haven't done playing with words	p. 163
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Nothing is Lost

Selected Poems

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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