Slow Sailing

Uroš Zupan (1963) is one of Slovenia's most prominent contemporary poets and he has made his mark on Slovenian poetry of the past 30 years. Slow Sailing presents the author's own selection of the best of his best. This collection, which covers a period of more than two dozen years, is both personal and stern, since the author deals with his own poetry. From his delving into the golden age of his individual past to a sensuous hymn to soft summer light and the miracle of life that does not exist without the arts, Slow Sailing invites us to discover and re-discover one of post-independence Slovenia's most distinctive poetic voices, while also offering a unique insight into Slovenian poetry at the turn of the millennium.



The greatest Slovenian poet of the middle generation, his work has not been translated much (and not at all into English); the book is already part of the Slovenian canon and contains Zupan's own selection of his finest poems. He is already included in school literature curricula.



UROŠ ZUPAN, a poet and essayist, was born in 1963 in Trbovlje, Slovenia. He graduated in comparative literature at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana. He received a numerous national and international awards and prizes including: Best first Collection Award, Prešeren Foundation Award, Jenko Prize, Župančič Prize, Herman Lenz Award (Langenburg, Germany, 1999), Premio della VI Edizione del Festival Internazionale di Poesia (Genova, Italy, 2000), Wyslawa Szymborska Award (Krakow, Poland, 2016) etc. By now, he has published fourteen poetry collections and eleven books of essays.

He has also translated a number of poets, including Yehuda Amichai, John Ashbery, Aleksandar Ristović, Abdulah Sidran and Billy Collins. His own work has appeared in numerous languages, books, anthologies and journals. He lives as a free-lance writer with his family and dog in Ljubljana.



Contents

Slow Sailing 11

The Garden: Bach 12

Tractor Drivers Are the Best Philosophers 14

Yellow 16

A Psalm—Magnolias in April Snow 21

Locomotives 25

Rooms 32

The Visible World 34

Sutra 35

Good Friday 36

Leaving the House Where We Made Love 38

A Detail 40

At Home 41

Another Day 42

Hölderlin's Tower 44

Golden Clouds and Time 47

A Review Written in a State of Condescension

and Good Will 49

The Island 52

May 53

Near Rhapsody at Three p.m. 54

Soap 55

American Poets Arriving in Ljubljana 57

Rimbaud 59

A Sonnet in October 62

Almost Harvest Time 63

The Tree and the Sparrow 67

December 71

August Evening 72

The Park 74

Autumn Leaves 1 75

Autumn Leaves 2 85

Puddles 92

Art History for Beginners 94

Shake Before Using 96

1973 98

A Love Letter to My Translator 100

Horizontal Sun 102

Dream Book II 104

Advice for a Brilliant Literary Career 106

The Magic Valley 108

A Drive 110

Farewell to Philosophy 112

Naomi, Linda, Tatjana, Cindy 114

Cranes 116

Amber 118

The End of Summer, Free Composition 120

Southern Portrait 122

The Rare People on Maps of the Coast 124

Noon in Breda 126

Abundance 128

December Sketches 129

Thirty-four 131

Still Life 133

Capriccio 134

Too Serious, Uroš 135

Real Old Age and Time 137

A Trip from the Pre-school 138

The Rain 140

Coal 143

Names and Legends 144

Valium 146

The Last Stanza of a Poem Dictated in a Dream 148

The Arrival of Spring 149

Returning Home 151

The Mystic's Tune 153

A Prayer 155

There Will Always Be Sadness 157

Unearthly Fruit 159

Saturation with Words 162

Evening Train 165

Atlantis 167

The Future 170

Those Other Things Always Remain 173

Faith 175

Autobiography 176

Another World 178

Ode to an Australian Shepherd 180

Writing Durable Poems 182

Late Love 184

Tree of Heaven 187

If There Is a Heaven Somewhere 189

The Dog and Summer 190

A Secret Life 192

Essays

Melancholia… Then Again, Maybe Not (A Trick of the Mind) 193

Chrysalis, Caterpillar, Butterfly (On Revising Poems) 197

Richard Jackson

The Metamorphic Vision of Uroš Zupan 205

Books by Uroš Zupan 217

Litteræ Slovenicæ 1991–2022 221