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Tomaž Šalamun

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Tomaž Šalamun
Šalamun in 2005
Šalamun in 2005
Born(1941-07-04)July 4, 1941
Zagreb,Independent State of Croatia
DiedDecember 27, 2014(2014-12-27)(aged 73)
Ljubljana,Slovenia
OccupationPoet
LanguageSlovene
NationalitySlovenian
Alma materUniversity of Ljubljana
Literary movementNeo-avant-garde
Notable awardsPushcart Prize,Prešeren Fund Award,European Prize for Poetry
SpouseMetka Krašovec

Tomaž Šalamun(July 4, 1941 – December 27, 2014) was a Slovenian poet who was a leading figure of postwar neo-avant-gardepoetry inCentral Europe[1]and an internationally acclaimedabsurdist.[2]His books ofSlovene poetryhave been translated into twenty-one languages, with nine of his thirty-nine books of poetry published in English.[3]His work has been called a poetic bridge between old European roots and America.[4]Šalamun was a member of theSlovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.He lived inLjubljana,Slovenia, and was married to the painterMetka Krašovec.[5]

Life[edit]

As members of theSlovene minority in Italy (1920–1947),Šalamun's mother's family joined thousands of Slovenes who left their homes because of forcedItalianizationand moved from Italy to Yugoslavia, where he was born in 1941 inZagreb.His father's family came fromPtuj,where his grandfather had been a mayor.[6]After his family moved toKoper,the local high school teachers of French and Slovene aroused his interest in language. In 1960, he began to studyart historyand history atUniversity of Ljubljanawhere he graduated in 1965.[7]His mother was anart historian,[8]his brother Andraž is an artist, and his two sisters Jelka and Katarina are a biologist and a literary historian respectively. Šalamun died on 27 December 2014 in Ljubljana.[9][10]

Work[edit]

In 1964, as editor of the literary magazinePerspektive,he published his iconoclastic poem "Duma '64" (Thought '64). WhenIvan Maček,aTitoisthard-liner, saw the dead cat in the poem as a reference to himself (the Slovene wordmačekmeans 'cat'),Perspektivewas banned and Šalamun was arrested.[8]He spent five days in jail and came out something of a culture hero, but he refrained from including the poem in his first poetry book, which appeared in 1966 in asamizdatedition, full of absurdist irreverence, playfulness, and wild abandon.[6][11]

Matthew Zapruderwrote the following about him and his work inThe New York Times:

There was no purer contemporary surrealist than the Slovenian poet Tomaz Salamun, whose poems are not designed to be interpreted but instead to act upon us, in order to open up in us a little dormant space of weirdness where we can hopefully feel more free.[12]

Poetry collections translated into English[edit]

Several collections of Šalamun's poetry have been published inEnglish,includingThe Selected Poems of Tomaž Šalamun(Ecco Press, 1988),The Shepherd, the Hunter(Pedernal, 1992),The Four Questions of Melancholy(White Pine, 1997),Feast(Harcourt, 2000),Poker(Ugly Duckling Presse),Row!(Arc Publications, 2006),The Book for My Brother(Harcourt),Woods and Chalices(Harcourt, 2008, translated by Brian Henry),There's the Hand and There's the Arid Chair(Counterpath, 2009),On the Tracks of Wild Game(Ugly Duckling Presse, 2012),Soy Realidad(Dalkey Archive Press, 2014),Justice(Black Ocean, 2015),Andes(Black Ocean, 2016),Druids(Black Ocean, 2019), andOpera Buffa(Black Ocean, 2022). American poets that influenced him includeFrank O'Hara,John Ashbery,andWalt Whitman.[1]

International reception[edit]

United States[edit]

In July 1970, he was personally invited to exhibit his work at theMuseum of Modern Artin New York City.[13]Šalamun spent two years at theUniversity of Iowa,including one year in theInternational Writing Programfrom 1971 to 1972, and lived for periods of time in theUnited Statesafter that.[3]From 2005 to 2007 he taught at theUniversity of Pittsburgh.

Slovenia[edit]

For a time, he served as Cultural Attaché to the Consulate General ofSloveniainNew York.Literary critic Miklavž Komelj wrote:[14] "Šalamun’s inventiveness with language has, indeed, never been more dynamic than in his most recent books. But in this dynamism there is also a monotone quality, which the poet makes no attempt to hide. It is as if this ecstasy resulted from spinning endlessly in a circle, like the whirling dervishes—a religious order, incidentally, that was founded by the mysticRumi,one of Šalamun’s favorite poets....It seems that the intensity of Šalamun’s language lies precisely in the endless insistence of its pulsation. "

Prizes[edit]

Šalamun won aPushcart Prize,as well as Slovenia'sPrešeren Fund Awardand Jenko Prize. Šalamun and his German translator, Fabjan Hafner, were awarded theEuropean Prize for Poetryby the German city of Muenster. In 2004, he was the recipient of Romania'sOvid Festival Prize.[15]

References[edit]

  1. ^abColm Tóibín(2004)The comet's trail,Guardian
  2. ^Martín López-Vega(2013)La poesía total de Tomaz Salamun,El Cultural
  3. ^ab"University of Iowa - International Writing Program - Šalamun".
  4. ^Tomaz Salamun - Poet,philosopher, 'monster',The Hour,13 May 2001
  5. ^"Remembering Tomaž Šalamun".Huffington Post.December 29, 2014.
  6. ^abRobert Hass (2004)Tomaž Šalamun: An Introduction,Poetry International.
  7. ^Stanko Janež (1971). Živan Milisavac (ed.).Jugoslovenski književni leksikon[Yugoslav Literary Lexicon] (in Serbo-Croatian).Novi Sad(SAP Vojvodina,SR Serbia):Matica srpska.p. 520.
  8. ^abTomaž Šalamun is this year's Vilenica festival author,Primorske Novice
  9. ^"Umrl je Tomaž Šalamun".delo.si.27 December 2014.Retrieved27 December2014.
  10. ^"Poslovil se je Tomaž Šalamun, ikonoklast slovenske poezije".Prvi interaktivni multimedijski portal, MMC RTV Slovenija.Retrieved27 December2014.
  11. ^Michale Thomas TarenTranslator on Tomaž Šalamun poetry.Transom Journal.
  12. ^Whirl. Selected by Matthew Zapruder
  13. ^Michale Thomas TarenTomaž Šalamun Acclaimed Slovenian Poet.Blue Flower Arts
  14. ^Miklavž Komelj on Tomaž ŠalamunTransom Journal.
  15. ^Tomaž Šalamun's page onSlovenian Academy of Sciences and Artswebsite.

External links[edit]

Profiles[edit]

Work[edit]

Interviews and review[edit]

2011 Symposium[edit]

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