Blackbird Archive
← v20n2, Fall 2021
Poetry · Volume 20, Number 2

Umbrella in a Bathtub

Tomaž Šalamun, translation from Slovene by Brian Henry

Slander the coffin so it

falls apart. So the corpse doesn’t

look like some

sushi. Warn the owner that the castle will

burn down. That flesh will be

inhaled. That people will

throw towels and a trough from

windows. Handles and

a trough. Alternating. Like Tesla’s

current. Like a steamboat that breaks down

outside the mill.

Like a fox curled up

in the forest. Like a child who

steps on a stool and falls.

mortalitysurrealismtranslation
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.