Skin

by Tone Škrjanec

Poetry. Translated from the Slovene by Matthew Rohrer and Ana Pepelnik. Originally published in Slovenia in 2006 as Koža , SKIN is Tone Škrjanec's first full-length collection to appear in English. Škrjanec's poetic credo is not to be but to let be. His poems exist between the world of things and the mysteries of consciousness in language that is direct, shape- shifting, and lyrical. The underlying poetic procedure is assembly. His aim is to magnify and celebrate. His work in SKIN is humming with the landscape, the city, and as the title suggests, the human body. Škrjanec's is the poetry of a mindful observer.

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Tone Škrjanec (Ljubljana, 1953), pesnik in prevajalec. Zaključil je študij sociologije na nekdanji ljubljanski Fakulteti za sociologijo, politične vede in novinarstvo. Po krajšem službovanju v prosveti je bil skoraj deset let zaposlen kot novinar. Od leta 1990 deluje je koordinator programa v KUD-u France Prešeren, kjer od samega začetka leta 1994 organizira ljubljanski festivala poezije Trnovski terceti. Pesmi Toneta Škrjanca so našle svoje mesto v mnogih domačih in tujih antologijah slovenske sodobne poezije in so prevedene v številne svetovne jezike. Poleg pisanja poezije tudi prevaja, predvsem sodobno ameriško literaturo (Paul Bowles, William S. Burroughs, Charles Bukowski, Gary Snyder, Frank O’Hara, Timothy Liu, Kenneth Koch, Jack Spicer, Anselm Hollo, Kenneth Rexroth, …), sicer pa tudi iz hrvaškega in srbskega jezika.
Izdal je pesniške zbirke Blues zamaha (1997), Sonce na kolenu (1999), Pagode na veter (2001), Noži (2002), Baker (2004), Koža (2006), Duh želve je majhen in zelo star (2009) in Med drevesi/Among Trees (slo/ang 2010). Njegove pesniške zbirke, izdane v tujini, so: Pilnowanie chwil (Zielona Sowa, Krakow, 2005), Vseki ima svoja bljan (Izdatelstvo »Karina-Mariana Todorova«, Sofija, 2008), Sun on a Knee (Ugly Duckling Presse; New York, 2005/2008/2010), I’ll Calm the Horses (Ugly Duckling Presse; New York, 2010), Koža (Naklada Lara, Zagreb, 2012).
Diskografija (poezija z glasbo): Košček hrupa in ščepec soli (2003, več avtorjev), Lovljenje ritma (2006, samostojna plošča z glasbenikom Janijem Mujičem), Pri besedi z glasom in zvokom (2011, več avtorjev).

Reviews

[Benjamin Niespodziany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found this one while diving into Matthew Rohrer's bibliography and was blown away with this collection. Really fast-paced pieces that teeter between gritty and mystical.

[Trace · Rating 3 out of 5]

i imagine reading this collection would be like studying a rorscharch test or going through a stranger's bag. škrjanec thrives in his attention to detail: mundane observations made remarkable. however, the poems often felt like just that: detached, surreal memories void of the emotion and passion i crave in literature. a few poems in the collection stood out, but i seek variety, and many poems felt like slightly-different versions of the same thing.