Four Questions of Melancholy: New & Selected Poems

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.

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.