Do Not Awaken Them with Hammers

by Lidija Dimkovska, Лидија Димковска

Poetry. Translation. The first English-language edition of the sensational young Macedonian poet Lidija Dimkovska. Translated into English by Ljubica Arsovska and Peggy Reid and published in a facing-page, bilingual edition as part of UDP's Eastern European Poets Series. "The rock of translation is broken into stones, lined up and moved around to form a solid multitextured dwelling that Lidija Dimkovska then smashes apart with the authority of pure existentialist 21st century hard-earned riotous despair. Long live the stone-throwers! They make poetry much greater than the sum of its parts"--Fanny Howe.

Genres: Poetry

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 2006

About the author

Poet and novelist from North Macedonia living in Slovenia. Born in 1971, Lidija writes in Macedonian. She has published seven books of poetry, three novels, one American diary and one collection of short stories which have been awarded and translated into 15 languages (English, German, Polish, Hungarian, Slovak, Czech, Romanian, Serbian, Slovenian, French, Croatian, Italian, Albanian, Bulgarian and Latvian).

Lidija has participated at numerous international literary festivals (Princeton Poetry Festival, Stockholm, Rotterdam, Sarajevo, Belgrade, Vilnius, Manchester, Chicago, Zagreb, Vilenica, Medana, Struga, Leipzig, Lido Adriano, Manchester, Kazan, Dresden, Taipei, Cork, Warsaw, Berlin, etc.) and was a writer-in-residence in London, Berlin, Iowa, Vienna, Graz, Salzburg, Krems, Tirana, and Split.

Reviews

[Mara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Lidija Dimkovska’s DO NOT AWAKEN THEM WITH HAMMERS (Ugly Duckling Presse). Ljubica Arsovska’s and Peggy Reid’s English translations from the Macedonian are seamless. Perhaps only a Macedonian poet could so eloquently merge counter-culture and New Age references with the essence of Surrealism, Ginsberg, Virginia Woolf, Aristotle, mythology, pop culture, and personal narrative, creating a brilliant cacophony that reflects a shifting, complex identity and witty movement of mind. Lines like, “My brothers are retro-refugees in the new exile of the asylum-seekers' hostel" are pure rock-n-roll. If one was the merge the poetry Bob Dylan, Arthur Rimbaud, Andre Breton, and Paul Celan, one would get the work of Lidija Dimkovska.

[Amira Hanafi]

these are fantatastic poems

[Shappi · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best new poetry books I've read in a long time. One of my favorite things about her voice is its strength; no melancholy reverie here.

[Daisy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really my thing. I'm going to return it to the library. I didn't really read all the poems.