The Daily Glance
Look Back, Look Ahead: The Selected Poems of Srečko Kosovel is a translation by Ana Jelnikar and Barbara Siegel Carlson of a selection of Kosovel's poetry. The collection includes an introduction by Richard Jackson, a translator's note, and an afterword by Jelnikar, and I found these texts very useful because Kosovel is the first Slovenian poet that I have read at any length, so it was good to read about his career and life along with reading his poetry. His work changed fairly significantly over his short career (He died very young)--he incorporated the experiments he saw coming out of the rest of Europe during Modernism; thus, his work shifts to more innovative work near the end of his life, but you can tell that he was just transforming as his life was cut short.
His work has a heavy political feel. He's concerned about the state of Slovenia, and we can see he was right knowing what happened there. His work is similar to the work of many other European writers of his period but with a definite Slovenian flare.
A barrel of herrings
arrived in Ljubljana.
They were asked
about their political conviction.
They said
they were from Iceland.
A modern poet
warns of ruin.
The herrings were kept in the barrel all week
and began to stink.
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