The Wandering Border

Jaan Kaplinski

The poems in Jaan Kaplinski’s The Wandering Border engage with politics, nature, observation, children, sadness, the senses, knowledge, the seasons, and dreams. A substantial collection from a leading European poet, essayist, anthropologist, and translator.

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ISBN: 9781556590108

Format: Paperback

ISBN: 9781556590092

Format: Hardcover

We started home, my son and I.

Twilight already. The young moon
stood in the western sky and beside it
a single star. I showed them to my son
and explained how the moon should be greeted
and that this star is the moon’s servant.
As we neared home, he said
that the moon is far, as far
as that place where we went.
I told him the moon is much, much farther
and reckoned: if one were to walk
ten kilometers each day, it would take
almost a hundred years to reach the moon.
But this was not what he wanted to hear.
The road was already almost dry.
The river was spread on the marsh; ducks and other waterfowl
crowed the beginning of night. The snow’s crust
crackled underfoot – it must
have been freezing again. All the houses’ windows
were dark. Only in our kitchen
a light shone. Beside our chimney, the shining moon,
and beside the moon, a single star.

About the Author

Jaan Kaplinski, a linguist and anthropologist, was a leading poet of Estonia. He was born in Tartu, Estonia, the son of a Polish father and Estonian mother. Kaplinski studied Romance languages and structural and mathematical linguistics at Tartu State University. He has translated works from Spanish, French, English, Polish, and Chinese, and provided the literal translations for his own collection The Wandering Border, his second book published in the US.

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Reviews

“The second US publication of the fine Estonian poet, one of the most important in Eastern Europe… Weighty issues are couched in a plain poetry of gentle images, of great tenderness and sincerity.” —Booklist

“The depth and mysteriousness that his poems often evoke result from the slightly startling image sequences he favors as much as from the accuracy of his descriptions… [Kaplinski looks] for ways to nudge his reader to fresh sightings… At other times his pared-down, focused lyrics suggest through omission.” —World Literature Today

“If I should choose one word to characterize this collection, the word would be maturity… There are heights to soar to and depths to explore. There is truth and beauty… The poems do not read like translated poetry, there are no borders between the poet and the reader, and this is the great merit of the translators.” —Journal of Baltic Studies

“Quietistic in spirit, [Kaplinski’s] poems are notable for their warm acceptance and celebration of life… The untitled meditations on the world and our place in it are perfectly poised but take nothing for granted. Naive in a good sense, they suggest that beauty still has its claims to make alongside truth.” —Stand Magazine

“[Kaplinski] is re-thinking Europe, revisioning history, in these poems of our times. Elegant, musing, relentless, inward, fresh. Poems of gentle politics and love that sometimes scare you.” —Gary Snyder