The Master of Insomnia: Selected Poems (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781564787835)

A collision between contemporary poetics and the Renaissance lyric, between aestheticism and political engagement, "The Master of Insomnia" is a collection of Slovenian poet Boris A. Novak's verse from the last fifteen years, including numerous poems never before available in English. In these sensitive translations, Novak stands revealed as both innovator and observer; as critic Aleš Debeljak has written: "The poet's power in bearing witness to Sarajevo and Dalmatia, to his childhood room and his retired father, to the indifferent passage of time and the desperate pain of loss, confirms the melancholy clairvoyance of Walter Benjamin, who stated that what is essential hides in the marginal, negligent, and hardly observed details. Whoever strives to see the 'big picture' will inevitably overlook the essential... [Novak's] wide-open eyes must watch over both the beauty of this life and the horror of its destruction."

Author: Boris A. Novak
ISBN-10: 1564787834
ISBN-13: 9781564787835
Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
Language: English
Published: 09/18/2012
Pages: 104
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.40lbs
Size: 7.80h x 5.50w x 0.50d