From Publishers Weekly
This volume appropriates the allegorical style and metrical standards of the old dainas , or Latvian folk songs, giving the verse a timeless mythological quality that intends to evoke an archetypal community living in harmony with itself, with nature and with its gods. Unfortunately, Ziedonis addresses his basic themes--birth, death, love, spirituality--with a kind of naive simplicity. These poems long for some sublime musical accompaniment to elevate the banal sentiments of the verse: "Latvia, O chock-full and sweet sister, / O butter churn / bursting at the seams, / your chin dripping cream." Admittedly, the poet frequently conveys the rustic communality of farming with a charmingly amusing air, yet he just as often annoys the reader with repetitious language and Zen-like platitudes about the intuitiveness of nature. Ziedonis's prose poems, called "Epiphanies," are for the most part equally trite. Perhaps a portion of the blame belongs to the translator, who explains that he is unable to either read or speak Latvian and worked from literal translations, "trying to feel the meaning" of the poems. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
poetry, Latvia, tr Barry Calla
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
From the Publisher
6 x 8 3/4 trim. 3 illus. LC 90-8041
Flowers of Ice FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
This volume appropriates the allegorical style and metrical standards of the old dainas , or Latvian folk songs, giving the verse a timeless mythological quality that intends to evoke an archetypal community living in harmony with itself, with nature and with its gods. Unfortunately, Ziedonis addresses his basic themes--birth, death, love, spirituality--with a kind of naive simplicity. These poems long for some sublime musical accompaniment to elevate the banal sentiments of the verse: ``Latvia, O chock-full and sweet sister, / O butter churn / bursting at the seams, / your chin dripping cream.'' Admittedly, the poet frequently conveys the rustic communality of farming with a charmingly amusing air, yet he just as often annoys the reader with repetitious language and Zen-like platitudes about the intuitiveness of nature. Ziedonis's prose poems, called ``Epiphanies,'' are for the most part equally trite. Perhaps a portion of the blame belongs to the translator, who explains that he is unable to either read or speak Latvian and worked from literal translations, ``trying to feel the meaning'' of the poems. (Sept.)
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