Aleš Šteger

[Liam]

Aleš Šteger (1973-) is a Slovenian (Slovene?) poet, only one of whose books has been translated and published in English (Knjiga Stvari/The Book of Things, 2005/2010).

Although the translator, Brian Henry, calls him one of Central Europe's most essential literary figures, I have never heard of this poet before today, when I picked up The Book of Things at the library.

"The poet's perspective" in these poems, writes Henry, "omniscient yet intimate, detached yet obsessive, allows him to delve into the prehistory and parallel lives of things, as when he muses on the growth rings visible in the wood of a chair, full of the noises of centuries. Or when he transforms the dimenstions of a package from centimeters to gazes, solitudes, and obsessions. Or when he views a cork as a liminal object, marking the divide between memory and oblivion."

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the philosophical and largely intellectual/intellectualized subject matter and tone of his poems, I did not altogether enjoy this slim volume, although I was glad to learn of this poet's existence. In comparison with Donald Hall, whom I'm reading in parallel (or even with Imants Ziedonis), Šteger's poetry comes across as dry, unemotional and exercise-like.

...

The only poem I can say I unconditionally adored was entitled Sea Horse:

Creatures of liquid light, vagabonds of underwater currents,
Students of belly dancing, the ocean's brides loyal to his moods.

With their final breath, forgotten Phoenician gods
Inflated glassy bodies that shine like empty clepsydrae.

Tails wrap playfully around the mesh in fishing nets,
The tiny wings' fluttering sketches pillows of eternity in the restless sleep of the drowned.

They are princes of confidence. And when the female spawns eggs into the male
So that he bears them and gives birth, they are the social democratic ideal of reproduction.

Too fragile for guilt, but noticeable enough
That the jealous eye of the blue mussel thinks of beauty and love.

Among the shadows of people, sea horse bodies dry,
Lose translucence, become rough and blunt.

Between two fingers you crush them, beauty and love,
Into what is not beautiful and what (you don't remember when) stopped loving.

[Eric]

Thanks, Liam, for introducing Aleš Šteger to us. I'd only vaguely heard of him before. Two collections of his poetry are available in Swedish translation, and he appears to run a bookshop in Ljubljana named after Tomas Tranströmer whose work he introduced to Slovenia and may even have translated himself, as he is, like so many writers in Europe a translator as well as a writer. So next time I go to the library, I'll see if I can find some of his work.

I must say that the poem you quote does indeed come over as "dry, unemotional and exercise-like". I'm on my guard when a poet crowds in masses of images and references. You will notice with Ziedonis, whom you mentioned, that he tends to stick to one theme per poem or epiphany. Šteger appears to throw in all sorts of things from fishing nets to belly-dancers. But that is but one poem. I'll see what I can find in Swedish.

[Eric]

I got a book of Swedish translations out of the library today (translator with the odd name of Morgan Nilsson) and the majority of poems there look more closely structured than the one Liam posted here (but is also included in the collection). The collection appears to be same one as he published in Slovene called "Knjiga reči", translated into Swedish as "Tingens bok", both titles meaning "The Book of Things". According to this collection, the title of the poem Liam posted is called "The Seahorse", which may make the poem somewhat more comprehensible.

I'll have a look at the poems over the next few days.

[hdw]

I don't want to hijack Liam's thread, but I got interested in Slovenia's national bard France Prešeren [Frahn-tseh Preh-sherr-en] a few years ago after a holiday in Ljubljana, where I was struck by the fact that the local kids used to gather in the balmy summer evenings around his statue in the main square, and sometimes there was a jazz band playing there. Prešeren had a lot in common with Scotland's own Robert Burns, e.g. troubled relationships with women, abusing his body, dying at a tragically young age.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_Prešeren

If I could be bothered to look for it again, there's an online recording of Vanessa Redgrave reading some of Prešeren's poems in English translation.

EDIT: Found it -

http://www.preseren.net/ang/3-1_poezije.asp

Harry

[Liam]

The collection appears to be same one as he published in Slovene called Knjiga reči...

For some reason, the American edition provides two original titles for this volume: Knjiga Stvari on the copyright page, Knjiga Reči in the Introduction. Stvar means "thing" in Slovene, but so does, apparently, reč. However, the latter title may also be translated as The Book of Speech; perhaps there's wordplay at play?

[Eric]

Maybe Aleš Šteger simply wanted to use the more ambiguous word for the second draft, or the publisher suggested, or bullied him into, the change. On the copyright page of the Swedish translation there is no mention of "stvari", and it says the original edition was the Beletrina (publisher) edition from 2005.

[Anja]

I think the title of the book for the Slovenian market is only Knjiga reči and it was translated into Bosnian as Knjiga stvari. 'Reč' and 'stvar' means the same in Slovenian but as I read on the internet he wrote in the book that there's a dichotomy between the two words: 'Reči so v oblasti človeka, ki izreka, medtem ko so stvari - stvariteljeve!' meaning that 'reči' /re'tʃi/ are in the possession of the person who says sth (reči, izrekati=to say; /'retʃi/)/expresses themself and 'stvari' (stvaritve=creations) are creator's (stvaritelj=creator; stvariti=to create).
It's the first time I've heard about this book. ^^ And the book can't be translated as 'The Book of Speech' (speech=govor) That would be 'Knjiga govora'. ^^
And yes, Prešeren is considered to be the best Slovenian poet and everyone here says that. ^^

[Eric]

Well, I'm glad you've solved that one, Anja. Are you a Slovenian or a Bosnian yourself? I wasn't entirely clear where "here" is in your reply.

I haven't had much time since last year to look at this author. But his book is in the local public library in a language I can read.

[Anja]

No problem. I'm Slovenian. I guess the normal people in Bosnia don't know much about Prešeren.
Perhaps I'll check out this book sometime but I'm not really interested in poetry that much. But I did read the whole Flowers of Evil
some time ago.