Slovenian poet, translator and literary critic. She was born in 1973. graduated in Romance linguistics and literature from Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium and completed her MA at the Sorbonne in Paris. She has published four poetry books: Inundations (2007), nominated for the Best First Book Award, Sheets of Paper Lost in the Crowd (2008), The Blue of the House (2013) and Alice in the Land of Coats (2016). Her selected poems are translated into Romanian, French and Spanish. Her poetry in translations has appeared in 30 languages, she has participated in more than 50 different literary manifestations. More than 150 authors have appeared in her translations. She is member Slovenian PEN and since 2017 member of the Management Board of Slovenian Writers Association. From 2001, she is on the editorial board of a central Slovenian literary magazine Literatura.

PUMPKINS LYING IN THE FIELD

The soot of morning mixing with the night.
A rushing train smarts from the summer-burnt fields.
Pumpkins are lying filled with peace underneath the sun, reddening on the horizon. As inconstant angels we are having a talk
under the arcades in the blue car with an open roof.
A light breeze is forcing the cream of clouds through our fingers.
When we lie on the hard bed of argument,
the stars are stepping over us.
The night shakes its dark mane under the arcades and hits the road.
On the run, I am eating the little stone apples from the facades in Ljubljana
and the wind is blowing angel`s tears away as though they were sand,
sending them to be sold in the supermarkets.
The hum of the sea around your
naked waist, which only half-gives itself
to an embrace – be it a letter.
The pumpkins are lying in the field,
the summer has left its fruits on the quiet tablecloths,
hid the timid pits into the fleshy armour of time.
The sun with its bare hand touches the forest,
the train for an instant tilts to the side, off the rails.

Translated from Slovenian by Ana Jelnikar