Zajc Dane:
Barren Harvest
She recognized his skull
by its beautiful white teeth, mother said.
Beautiful white teeth,
biting into the earth,
beautiful brown eyes,
filled with soil,
strong young bones,
which once were hands,
hands which had never caressed a woman,
strong young bones,
caressing the earth.
Full of young glistening teeth
shining in the earth.
Every spring the earth will blossom.
The cruel and hard earth
which swallows us with her dark jaws.
Hard is the death of old men.
Even harder is the harvest
of beautiful brown eyes
which have never seen a naked woman,
which have never been kissed by her
whispering lips: I’m yours
(these eyes which have not yet seen),
inconceivable is the harvest
of beautiful brown eyes,
the barren harvest
of the unfeeling earth.
I remember you, brother.
Our mother thought of
your beautiful white teeth.
Your beautiful white teeth
were the earth’s barren harvest.
Dane Zajc
(1929-2005) A poet, essayist, and playwright who, until his retirement, worked as a librarian in Ljubljana. Considered the doyen of postwar poets, he was active in the foundation of numerous literary magazines, including Review 57 (Revija 57), Problems (Problemi) and Perspectives (Perspektive), which he also edited. His lyrical poems displayed dark and depressing atmospheres, and were suffused with stark existentialist images which helped undermine the then-obligatory aesthetics of socialist realism. In the 1960s, with the advent of neoavant-garde writing, Zajc's poems won renewed appreciation and became part of the national canon. Zajc also writes for children (poems, prose and plays). He is best known, however, for his poetic plays, such as Children of the River (Otroka reke). A former Fulbright fellow at Columbia University in New York , he has seen the publication of his collected works in five volumes in 1990. Zajc received the Prešeren Prize for lifetime achievement in 1981.By the same author
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