Wolf One-Eye

Juris Kronbergs was born in Sweden in 1946, his parents having fled as wartime refugees from Latvia the previous year. He is a poet, translator, freelance journalist and lecturer and has also worked in radio and as a Latvian-Swedish interpreter for the Swedish government and the Nordic Council of Ministers. He has served in the Latvian diplomatic service for ten years as the Latvian Cultural Attache in Stockholm. He translates freely from Latvian to Swedish as well as Swedish to Latvian and has been instrumental in the introduction of all the major Latvian contemporary poets to Swedish readers as well as a great number of Swedish poets to a Latvian readership. His thirty translated books that have been published to critical acclaim in Sweden and Latvia include folksongs, novels and memoirs as well as poetry anthologies and for his services to the literature and culture of both countries he has received numerous awards including the Three Star Order from Latvia and the Swedish North Star Order. He has had eleven collections of his own poetry published in Latvia and one collection in Sweden. In its original version, Wolf One-Eye was awarded the Latvian Writers' Union prize in 1997 for best poetry collection. The present version is revised and contains a substantial body of new work. Mara Rozitis was born in Sydney, Australia in 1952 to parents who were refugees from Latvia during the Second World War. She studied drama at Flinders University, South Australia and in 1980 she moved to Sweden to study Baltic Languages at Stockholm University. She has worked as an actress and theatre director, has written a number of playscripts in Latvian, worked in Swedish radio and is currently teaching English in a primary school in Stockholm. She has translated a number of Latvian poets into English. Jaan Kaplinski (b.1941) is one of Estonia's best-known writers and an influential member of society. He is known particularly as a poet, essayist and as an active participant in cultural debate. His works have been translated into several languages. The philosophical poetry of Kaplinski is influenced by both western modernism and classical Chinese poetry and philosophy. Kaplinski studied philology and linguistics at the University of Tartu from where he graduated in 1964. He has worked as a researcher in linguistics, sociology and ecology and has translated poetry from many languages into Estonian.

Translator's preface / 10 Introduction / 14 Out of the blue / 19 A strange event / 21 Wolf One-Eye on his first day / 23 Wolf One-Eye thinks himself up a house / 25 How Wolf One-Eye lost his eye / 27 Wolf One-Eye two-eyes / 29 Wolf One-Eye goes farming / 31 Wolf One-Eye thinks about constancy / 33 A blessed net / 35 Wolf One-Eye goes searching / 37 Wolf One-Eye's winter prayer / 39 Wolf One-Eye believes that from this moment there will only be half of everything / 41 Wolf One-Eye observes his own thoughts / 43 A dream terrain / 45 Wolf One-Eye imagines darkness / 47 Wolf One-Eye detached from the world / 49 Wolf One-Eye reflects on himself / 51 Wolf One-Eye has changed / 53 Wolf One-Eye at the circus / 55 Wolf One-Eye the mute / 57 Wolf One-Eye rakes up the past / 59 Wolf One-Eye struggles / 61 Wolf One-Eye as the only victim / 63 Wolf One-Eye's burden / 65 Wolf One-Eye takes a walk / 67 Wolf One-Eye thinks about time / 69 Wolf One-Eye in time / 71 Lone wolf / 73 Whole wolf / 75 Wolf One-Eye hears his own breathing / 77 Wolf One-Eye forgives (forgets) / 79 Wolf One-Eye tries dancing / 81 Wolf One-Eye views himself as yesterday / 83 Wolf One-Eye is ailing / 85 Wolf One-Eye has shrunk / 87 The bridge / 89 Wolf One-Eye in confusion / 91 Wolf One-Eye has the solution / 93 Wolf One-Eye in memory and language / 95 Wolf One-Eye on Odin's Street / 99 Wolf One-Eye reasons / 101 Wolf One-Eye loses his head / 103 Wolf One-Eye has lost it / 105 Wolf One-Eye at peace / 107 Wolf One-Eye the monument / 109 Wolf One-Eye and force of habit / 111 Wolf the other / 113 Wolf One-Eye and Death, once more / 117 Wolf One-Eye feels free / 119 Room with a view / 123 Wolf One-Eye in spring / 125 Out of the dark / 127 The beginning / 129 Biographical notes / 130