Poems by ​Aleš Šteger

​Dež nas uči
 
Dež nas uči:
Ne išči, postavi se na dež.
 
Uči nas, dež, kako razpihati
Oblake v sebi,
Komu naj dežuje iz milega neba?
 
Dež narekuje:
Vsak popravek je stranpot.
So le približki veliki nevihti.
 
Potem mi zaupaj naskrivaj:
Za druge bom padal celo noč,
Zate celo tvoje kratko življenje.
 
 
 
Rain teaches us
 
 
Rain teaches us:
Don’t search, place yourself in the rain.
 
It teaches us, rain, how to scatter
The clouds inside us.
For whom does it rain from a clear sky?
 
Rain tells us:
Every correction is a detour.
They are only approximations of large storms.
 
It secretly confided in me:
For others, I will fall all night,
For you only, your entire life.
 
 
            Translated from the Slovenian by Brian Henry
 
 
 
Všeč mi je most
 
Všeč mi je most
Do gradu.
Širok je in trden.
Nekoč je moral biti
Most dvižni,
Spuščal se je le izbranim.
Sedaj je to prostran
Trden most, ki ne izbira,
Kdo ga bo prečkal.
Moj most.
 
 
 
I like the bridge
 
 
I like the bridge
To the castle.
It is wide and solid.
Once it must have been
A drawbridge,
Lowered only for the chosen ones.
Now it is a vast
Solid bridge that does not choose
Who will cross it.
My bridge.
 
 
 
Translated from the Slovenian by Brian Henry

Aleš Šteger is a poet and prose writer, based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. His work has been widely translated. The Bavarian Academy of Arts awarded him in 2016 with the International Bienek Prize for poetry calling him »one of the most original European poets witing today«. His English translation of Knjiga reči (The Book of Things) won two mayor U.S. translation awards (BTBA award and AATSEL). He received the title Chevalier des Artes et Lettres from the French state and is a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts and the German Academy for Language and Literature.

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