Iztok Osojnik: Spodnie na niebie

Translated by: Marcin Warmuz
Afterword: Alenka Jovanovski, Jelka Kernev Štrajn, Darja Pavlič
Published by: Instytut Mikołowski
100 pp.
Format: 145x205mm
Paperback
Year: 2012
ISBN 978-83-60949-22-1 (Instytut Mikołowski)

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At a brief review critical records generated on the basis of Osojnik’s numerous books of poetry, I noticed that the critics have written quite a lot about the specifics of his writing. When I try to bring their statements to a few common denominators, and at the same separate myself from the too strong truisms, I can say that Osojnik’s poetry, exceeding the thematization of different sensitivities, has left behind a forest of symbols long time ago and was never really settled down firmly in it (How could it settle down in this eternal nomadism?), that her voice is tempered among evocation of chaos and cosmos which cause dizziness, where the moderately low tones, with touches of satirical, ironic, and even the grotesque Osojnik managed to surprise with lyrical high tones; that thanks to that Osojnik managed to break throug with recognition, which now brings us the place and time, things and events and travels and also protects them in a moderately long verses with frequent enjambements, constantly; and at the same time Osojnik’s speaker, who is distinguished by unique ability of association, is appearing as a being of one thousand faces, "Being in himself / is worn in a variety of self "(The Sky above Berlin).
Shortly, we are dealing with poetry, where, in poetic words, we actually feel that "man is speeding over everyday life in a cloud passing" (One day in Prague).
(Jelka Kernev Štrajn – fragment of the afterword)

Iztok Osojnik born 1951 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He is a poet, fiction writer, literary scientist, essayist, editor, translator, artist, tour director, mountain climber. He graduated in Comparative Literature at the University of Ljubljana (1977). Postgraduate studies at Osaka Gaidai University (1980–1982). PhD in historical anthropology at the University of  Koper. He is the former director of the International Literary Festival Vilenica and currently runs The Golden Boat International Poetry Translation Workshop. So far he published 26 collections of poetry, 4 novels and 3 volumes of essays on literature, anthropology, and philosophy.
He published four books of poetry in English: Alluminations (City Gallery of Arts of Ljubljana), a collection of poetry And Some Things Happen for the First Time (Modry Peter, Canada 2001), Mister Today (Jacaranda Press, California 2004) and New and Selected Poems (Sampark, New Delhi 2010). His poems and essays were translated and published in 25 languages. He was awarded several national and international literary awards, most recently the International Literary Award KONS (2011).