Kocbek Edvard:
Into the Dark
And when I stretch my hands into the darkness
gently, cautiously, lovingly,
I know that I am close to you,
and that I start to call you softly,
endlessly, you who were,
who are, who will be yet again;
and look, my calling brings you close
and your presence starts to fill
the limitless darkness,
where the distances are short
and everything is tangible, though unseen.
I call more quietly
and more sincerely
and suddenly you’re here,
when I move my hands again
in the irritable darkness
my fingers discover you,
I recognize your shapes
and know that you are here
and that I can never
again neglect you.
Edvard Kocbek
(1904-1981) One of Slovenian most important post-WWII writers. A poet, writer, essayist, and translator. He studied theology, dropped out after two years, and took up the study of Romance languages in Ljubljana, Berlin, Lyon and Paris. After he graduated in Ljubljana in 1930, he taught French. During WWII he joined the National Liberation Front wherein he held various positions as a representative of the Christian Socialist Party. After the war he continued to hold high offices in the Yugoslav federation, yet he was, in a vicious public campaign of character - assassination, forced to withdraw from political life after his prose collection Fear and Courage (Strah in pogum) appeared in 1951, revealing the dark side of the resistance. A winner of the 1964 Prešeren Prize for lifetime achievement, Kocbek published ten poetry books and more than fifteen books of fiction and essays. His memoirs and diaries of the war played a crucial role in the contemporary debate on Slovenian historical self-reflection. His work has appeared in numerous translations, including a Slovenian-English volume of selected poems At the Door in the Evening/Na vratih zvečer (Muses & Co, Quebec 1993).By the same author
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