Tatjana T. Jamnik: Poems (2011)

TATJANA T. JAMNIK

TREATISE ON THE END OF THE WORLD maybe we are already dying slowly with a sense of aesthetics and above all public order and rhymes a bosom hanging like two giant pig’s teats but dry useless where does this wind come from where does this fieldcome from why this slaughtering man is no animal and neither a beast man is a being unworthy of being © Tatjana T. Jamnik © for translation Sonja Kravanja & Andrea Brady

1

called human let alone humane

ÂŠ Tatjana T. Jamnik ÂŠ for translation Sonja Kravanja & Andrea Brady

2

my little garden has three lines: the first is red, the second yellow the third green all three invented

ÂŠ Tatjana T. Jamnik ÂŠ for translation Sonja Kravanja & Andrea Brady

3

where should I turn to arrive at truth? why this need to speak about surfaces, in my own language? where is the potential hidden? did it exist at all potential is a borrowed material so it is like it never was run away, run away, rover! the sea is burning

ÂŠ Tatjana T. Jamnik ÂŠ for translation Sonja Kravanja & Andrea Brady

4

just as the letters are getting fat and round so are paper constructs as if whipped into the froth of crimes egg on your face doesn’t itch but it gives your skin a lovely shine and so with cynicism you kill every trace of life every scrap of moving of breathing, of metabolising you exploit destroy everything and self

5

volatile reserves curves my rebellious thoughts my unruly pencil my ruler ruling no incentive is helpful I arrived at the border that can’t be crossed even by my double it is locked perhaps we are already dying on this side

6

powerful scenes how are words composed? read the sparks save the fleeting betrayal at each step: I betray myself, you yourself, both of us everything I gave you everything, which I wouldn’t do with anyone else, because they aren’t you the automatism of noting associations simultaneous accentuations non-insights, non-comprehensions misunderstandings shallow knowledge= narrow-mindedness shut inside this circle

Translated by Sonja Kravanja & Andrea Brady

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