Hippodrome

Komelj eschews the intrigues of the contemporary poetry world for a deep, personal engagement with his culture’s language and art.
Despite the natural divides between English and Slovene, throughout Hippodrome there are echoes of a familiar American modernism in Miklavž Komelj's polyglot, esoteric references, and in his sense of himself as embedded in an international tradition. Komelj is a bit of a chimera: his book includes imagistic lyrics, pastiches of quotes, persona poems, political polemics, and a reasonably faithful translation of Seneca. He references Futurist operas, NATO military action, personal friends, and literary and artistic heroes. His view is wide and deep, but throughout this book, and despite all these shifts in attention and approach, he builds a stable, unique vision.