Zoran Pevec

Zoran Pevec, born in 1955 in Celje, is a poet, literary critic, essay author and editor. He completed his MA studies in literature with a thesis on female characters in Slovene poetic drama after the year 1960 and holds a Ph.D. in Slovene literature, his subject being Slovene urban poetry. He is a member of the Slovene Writers' Association, where he is the president of the Commission for Events. He is also editor of the literary magazine Vsesledje, co-founder and member of the editorial board of the magazine for poetry and the poetic Poetikon, and co-editor of the literary magazine Lirikon 21. His poems are published by all the major literary magazines in Slovenia. His published works include Orbis pictus (1986), Zapisi pozabljenih (Writings from the Forgotten, 1996), Pod silikonskim nebom (Underneath a Silicone Sky, 2000), Moški v sobi (A Man in a Room, 2004), V neki točki (At a Certain Point, 2006), and Kako narediti pesem (How to Make a Poem, 2006), a handbook for writing poetry.

(Foto: Murr) 

This isn't Robert Frost Mending Wall 

this isn’t Robert Frost’s Mending Wall
the barrier of stone has always been here
          a border wall of eyes
the oak beside it grows slowly, but steadily
we grow old with it as do our fences

these are not letters silently observing
not thinking not even twitching
          the great luminous gleams
when a youth leans against the wall
and carves his name into the trunk with a tiny knife

this isn’t a thriving oak an ageing man
it is but a gaze deceiving itself slightly
          thinking tomorrow it will all look the same
when someone else cuts down the tree
with his name

Translated by Tadeja Spruk