When the Heart Bursts — Blackbird Archive

← v20n2, Fall 2021

I overtake at nightfall because I want to kill myself.

At the same time I’m deeply grateful for my entire

life. If I fall in love, my head bursts, a sad

novelty. I’m awake. I’m taking valium. As

a youth, I didn’t dare. I wanted to be pure.

Even now I want to be pure. Making love is

beautiful, but terrible. Poetry doesn’t contribute

to peace of any kind. It contributes to explosions and

pain. How it burns and crushes my chest, which might

seem humorous if dread and darkness didn’t start

there. Love kills, today is a bright day. Everything

is pure. Snow melted wildly for three whole days.

I remember being disgusted with Jaša when

we learned: Tito visited his sister. His sister

offered him wine and Tito said polish off this

plonk. The chauffeur opened a bottle for him. All

chauffeurs are terrible. All those who push my

poems into foreign languages just like I tell them.

mortality love translation

Tomaž Šalamun

Tomaž Šalamun has published more than thirty books of poetry in his home country of Slovenia and is recognized as one of the leading poets of Central Europe. His honors include the Prešeren Fund Prize, the Jenko Prize, a Pushcart Prize, a visiting Fulbright to Columbia University, and a fellowship to the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Nine collections of his poetry have been published in English: The Book for My Brother (Harcourt, 2005), Row (Arc Publications, 2005), Blackboards (Saturnalia Books, 2004), Poker (Ugly Duckling, 2003), A Ballad for Metka Krasovec (Twisted Spoon, 2001), Feast (Harcourt Brace, 2000), The Selected Poems of Tomaž Šalamun (Ecco, 1988, edited by Charles Simic), The Four Questions of Melancholy (White Pine, 1997), and The Shepherd, The Hunter (Pedernal, 1992). His poems have been translated into more than twenty languages. Woods and Chalices , translated with Brian Henry, is forthcoming from Harcourt in 2008.