Customer Reviews

Banalities

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Brane Mozetic' is a highly regarded writer and poet in his home country of Slovenia and his works, such as the 50 poems collected here under the title 'BANALITIES', have been translated successfully by Elizabeta Zargi and Timothy Liu. Mozeti'c, interestingly enough, not only writes books in English ('Butterfly', 'Passion', and 'Lost Story'), but has also translated other authors including Genet, Rimbaud, and Foucault. Why this particular powerful collection of poems was not originally written in English may be due to the content and subject matter: these poems seem very personal, dealing with Brane Mozetic 's sexuality and a rather dark side of his mind. In his native Ljubljana he is a gay activist and is a leader in that vein of literature. Perhaps with the translation of this excellent collection of poems the power of his statements will be carried abroad.

First readings of these poems suggest the mind of a man in friction with the world around him. Frustrated attempts to connect in meaningful relationships despite the insatiable need not to sleep alone lead to nocturnal wanderings in bars and clubs observing the dark behavior that at once repulses and attracts him, attempted communication with bed partners more interested in drugs and immediate gratification than in tenderness. Example, in Poem 32:

As the day grew closer to an end, I felt more
alone. As though the light was meant for
the big wide world, for great self-confident moves. Really,
I always become involved with someone in the evening, or at night,
in the darkness. As tough I were afraid of falling asleep alone.
But it's only sleep; I don't need anyone then.
He might disturb me, push me, steal the covers,
wake me.....Perhaps I
should face the fact that even my long-term
loves, if I could call them that,
are tied to this, to these evenings and nights. And
did they have the exact same motives?....

Other poems echo this clash between seeking pleasure and the futility of it all, between expecting excitement and finding depression and melancholy. Happy poems these are not, but they are masterfully written and convey a strong sense of gut level feeling form the mind of one who understands unwanted solitude. Reading BANALITIES makes the reader hungry to explore the novels of Brane Mozetic'. He is obviously a gifted writer.
Grady Harp, April 09