Four Questions of Melancholy: New & Selected Poems (Terra Incognita Series) [Paperback]

Tomaz Salamun (Author), Christopher Merrill (Editor), Michael Biggins (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1877727571 | ISBN-13: 978-1877727573 | Publication Date: May 1, 1996 | Edition: 1st

A large and important collection by one of Eastern Europe's major contemporary poets.

Editorial Reviews

From The New Yorker

Playful and brooding, meditative and declamatory, these poems affirm Salamun's status as a major Central European poet.

Review

1/1/73
About The Slavs
Acquedotto
Air
All These Are Gifts
Alone
Ambergris
Angel's Method
Are Angels Green?
The Arm
Astrophysics And Us
Birds
Birthdays
Bitches Angels
Black Madonna
The Blue Vault
The Blue Vault
The Boat
Braco!
Branko
The Burning Bush
Cantina In Queretaro
Car Le Vice
Charles D'orleans
Christ At Hermes' Door
Christ At Hermes' Door
Christ At Hermes' Door
Christmas Poem
Cold
The Color Of Time
The Cross
Dead Men
Death's Window
The Deer
The Deer
The Difference
The Dromedary From The Altar At Ghent
The Dromedary From The Altar At Ghent
Drums
Durer's Hare
Earth
Eclipse
Emptiness
Epistle To The Angry Ones
Epitaph
Every Wild Man Who Singes His Heart Is Worth Two Glasses
The Field Of Ptuj
The Fish
For Ana
For David
The Four Questions Of Melancholy
The Four Questions Of Melancholy
Functions
Gesture
Grass
Great Poets %fortell Their Own Deaths In A Single Line
Guilt And Passion
Happiness Is Hot, Splattered Brains
Hear Me Out, The World
Help Me
Heracles
History
Homage To Hat & Uncle Guido & Eliot
Home
The Hunter
The Hymn Of Universal Duty
I Am A Mason
I Am An Innocent Little Girl
I Am Your Soul, Your Dove
I And Thou
I Have A Horse
I Implore The Masters
I Know
I Long For Solid Earth In Heaven
I Love You
I Lovingly Keep Watch
I Read About Borges, Pasting Posters On Walls
I See
If You Grab A Chicken By Its Feet
If You Grab A Chicken
Imperialism Takes Off My Head
In Antwerp, At The Stagecoach
In Central Europe
In Galilee, 1990
Johannes
Jonah
July 30, Andraz
King Of Birds
Kiss The Eyes Of Peace
Krakow
Lacquer
Lapis Lazuli
Let's Wait
The Level Road
Light For Hamdija Demirovic
Light Not Fed By Light
Light-blue Pillow
Lips
Litmus
Litmus
Little Robin
Lord, How I Rise
Luiza
Man And Boy
Man With The Golden Eye
Maria
Marko
The Measure Of Time
The Measure Of Time
Memory
Milina, My Line
Milina, My Line
Mishkenot Sha'ananim
Mishkenot Sha'ananim
My Boundary Stones Are The Sun
My First Time In New York City
My Mind Has The Scent Of A White Flower
My Mind Has The Scent Of An Altar Triptych
My Mind Is A Woman, A Male Medici
My Mind Skis From Village To Village
My Tribe
My Tribe
The Neck
The Neck
Nihil Est In Intellectu
Nikola Tesla
No More
No More
The North
November 11, 1954
One Day In The Dining Room I Took The Exact Measurements
One Day In The Dining Room I Took The Exact Measurments
One Must Cook Well For One's Husband And Pigs
One, My Arm
Oops!
Outline And Eternity
Outline And Eternity
Painted Desert
Paris, 1978
Peace To The People Of This Earth
People
Photograph With A Quote From Yazoo: Deep In Each Other's
Pirates And St. Francis
Pity
Poem
Pont-neuf
Pour Un Jeune Chalamoun Qui Se Vend Dans La Rue
The Power Of The Oeuvre
Prayer For Bread
Proverbs
The Rabbit
Rabbit Oaxaqueno
Rattenau
Rattenau
Raw Sienna
Red Cliff
Red Flowers
Responsibility
Responsibility
The Right Of The Strong
Riva
Riva
Sand
Schooling
The Sea Lasts
The Sea Lasts
September 20, 1972
The Shadow
Shepherd
Silently Flutter The Angels
Sky Above Queretaro
Small Wonder That Our Old Professor Is Now Mayor Of Rome
Snakeskin, Samurai's Eye
Snakeskin, Samurai's Eye
Snow
Sonnet About Milk
St. Moritz On The Park
St. Moritz On The Park
The Stage Of The Manichaeans
Sunflower
Tea
To A Golem
To A Hero Of Our Time
To A Hero Of Our Time
To Edward Kocbek On His 70th Birthday
To Edward Kocbek On His 70th Birthday
To Read: To Love
To Tender Bambi's Eyes, To The White Father
To The Deaf Ones
To The Traveler
The Tree Of Life
The Tree Of Redemption
The Tree Of Redemption
A Tribe
Trout
Turbines
Turtle
Vacation Time
Versailles
Versailles
The Walk
The Walk
Walled In Alive
Walled In Alive
Walls
Walls
Weight
Whale, Whale, Stay Alone!
The Wheel
The Wheel
White Ithaka
White
Who Is Who
Who Should We Call?
Who's Better
Who's Standing
Who's Standing
Whoever Reads Me
The Window
With My Tongue
Word
Words
Wounds
Wounds
You're Taking The Piece Of Iron, Right?
Young Men
Yucatan
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Ably edited by Christopher Merrill, The Four Questions Of Melancholy is a collection of poetry containing selections from each of Tomaz Salamun's 25 works. Although images of the larger world (war, politics and peace) pervade his works, there are also images that speak to the more personal and immediate. This blend creates a complete whole rare in such collections. "Only God exists. Spirits are a phantom. /Blind shadows of machines concealing the Kiss. /My Death is my Death. It won't be shared/with the dull peace of others laid beneath this sod. -- Midwest Book Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: White Pine Press; 1st edition (May 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1877727571
• ISBN-13: 978-1877727573
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #468,256 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #27 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Slavic

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant poetry that deserves to be better known, April 30, 1998

By 

P. Lozar "plozar" (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Four Questions of Melancholy: New & Selected Poems (Terra Incognita Series) (Paperback)

Slovenia has always been a nation of poets (the oldest known musical instrument, a Neanderthal bear-bone flute, was discovered there). As their country was annexed, subdivided, and subjected to one conquerer after another, the Slovene language and literature held them together.
Of the many fine Slovene poets writing today, Salamun is probably the most prolific and best-known -- and deservedly so. This anthology presents a well-chosen overview of his work, put into English by a variety of translators. My only criticism: their styles are so different that a reader may be left uncertain whether the dizzying variability of the diction is Salamun's or theirs. (An out-of-print volume, "The Shepherd, The Hunter" translated by Sonja Kravanja, I felt gave a better sense of Salamun's distinctive "voice.") Still, this is a good selection, nicely presented, and well worth reading.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely stunning, July 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Four Questions of Melancholy: New & Selected Poems (Terra Incognita Series) (Paperback)

Tomaz Salamun is one of the most stunning and original poets alive, and anyone at all interested in poetry should get this book: it is subversive, shocking, and outrageous as well as tender and beautiful.