Seed in Snow

This first U.S. publication of Knuts Skujenieks-one of Latvia's foremost 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.

Auteur

Knuts Skujenieks, born in Latvia in 1936, studied philology and history at the University of Latvia, and from 1956 to 1961 attended the Maksim Gorky Institute for Literature in Moscow. Soon after his return to Latvia, he was arrested on trumped-up charges of anti-Soviet activity and sentenced to seven years in the Mordovia gulag (1963-69). There, however, he wrote intensively and sent out in letters several hundred poems, first published in their entirety in 2002 as Sekla sniega (Seed in Snow). Returning to Latvia in 1969, he found publication of his work restricted, and made a living as a translator. A polyglot, he has translated into Latvian such poets as Lorca, Ritsos, Neruda, Vallejo, Galczinsky, and Tranströmer; poetry from little-known languages; and European folk songs. His first volume of poetry, allowed to be published in 1978, has been followed by four others, and his collected works (8 vols.) were published in 2002-8. Skujenieks 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 (including collections in Polish, Armenian, Croatian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Italian, and three in Swedish). He lives in Salaspils, Latvia.

Bitite Vinklers is a translator of Latvian folklore and contemporary poetry and fiction. For the translation of the Latvian dainas she has received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant; her translations of contemporary work have appeared in anthologies (among them Shifting Borders: East European Poetries of the Eighties, ed. W. Cummins) and in journals, including The Paris Review, Poetry East, Subtropics, Notre Dame Review, and Denver Quarterly. Her translation of the poetry of Imants Ziedonis, Each Day Catches Fire, was published in 2015. She lives and works as a freelance editor in New York.

Contenu

CONTENTS

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

PielabinaSanas 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 palikSanu 83
About Remaining 84 [Skujenieks/tr. Vinklers]

Prata jukuSais 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

NejauSs, 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