Jüri Talvet
Jüri Talvet Poems
The passport lost — long live liberty!
A frown fell from your face,
the stamp's stern shield suddenly gave way,
and having shrugged from your shoulders twenty years
...
Waiting for reward, we decay into age.
It would have been better to pasture sheep,
to shelter under a tree while it rains
and listen to the fulminations of God,
...
We depart. Farewell and abrazos
remain hovering like a frightened handkerchief in the wind.
Lightness, smell of seaweed over a blue abyss.
Something warm, like a sleeping child in you,
...
The carousel had horses
and we ourselves pushed it
around under the pavilion.
(Was Carousel the name of your childhood street
...
Cars rush across the bridge
golden glint of glass at one point
the only more certain sign of existence
a woman hurrying alone on the sidewalk
...
Jüri Talvet Biography
Jüri Talvet (born December 17, 1945, Pärnu) is an Estonian poet and academic. He is the author of various literary works including poetry, criticism, and essays. Talvet received his MA degree in English philology from the University of Tartu in 1972 and defended his PhD degree in Western European literature at Leningrad (St. Petersburg) University in 1981. In 1974 Talvet began teaching Western literary history at the University of Tartu and has worked as a full time Professor and Chair of Comparative Literature at the university since 1992. In 1992/1993 he founded Spanish studies at the school. He has chaired the Estonian Association of Comparative Literature since 1994. He is the editor of Interlitteraria, the annual international journal of comparative literature published by Tartu University Press. In addition to his university roles, Talvet has also worked as an Estonian translator of Spanish works by authors such as Francisco de Quevedo and Gabriel García Márquez.)
The Best Poem Of Jüri Talvet
On Losing A Passport
The passport lost — long live liberty!
A frown fell from your face,
the stamp's stern shield suddenly gave way,
and having shrugged from your shoulders twenty years
and the border guard's careful watch,
you plunged into liberty. Liberty!
No address drew you back,
no signature, no Ariadnian thread of the future,
not even the myth with the help of which
you prudently tried to multiply yourself.
Rain and sleet chip at you,
foreign hands crush. Your form
fragments under trampling feet.
(Soon you yourself will feel the weight of history's feet.)
Liberty! Into the airspace where you were
a fresh snowflake floats, and briefly pauses.
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4/26/2024 6:32:57 PM # 1.0.0.1119
