All guests of the European Literature Days from 2009 to 2014.

[ Bogtip efter Beat Mazenauer ] What do we know of things? What do we know of their secrets and motives that are only clear to those who are observant? Aleš Šteger is one of those people. His poetry volume “Knjiga reč” (“The Book of Things”) is an attempt to make silent things speak.
In the beginning was the word that named things and, so too, their essence. In the original title, “Knjiga reč”, the Slovenian word “reč” – as the translator explains in his commentary – implies both the “thing” and “speech” that is uprooted. The lyrical identity brings everyday things to life: parcel, potato, hand-dryer, doll, knife, clip, chair. But – be careful! Things, which speak through the poet’s words, do not reveal themselves to us without opposition. As soon becomes apparent, the readers have to make their own contribution. They form the indispensable counterpart to the author. By reading, they penetrate the linguistic folds and criticisms to make things tangible for themselves. Lyrical identity is reflected in the things in the same way as the reader’s identity. That requires alertness, yet also patience.

Anyone who believes things can just be listened to would be wrong. On the other hand anyone who hears things also hears something wonderful.
These poems are like the cork that Šteger describes:
“You never know on whose sides it stands.
On the side of remembering or forgetting.”^
Does the cork offer the world protection from the genie of Aladdin’s legendary lamp? Or does it preserve the “last refuge of silence”?

Šteger’s language draws on myths and observations, at times, feigning openness and simplicity, and at other times remaining enigmatic, closed. These poems have to be conquered (in several goes) and read selectively. However, all those who become attuned will discover things from an entirely new angle, for instance, the hand-dryer with its talking winds that float in from all four compass points.

[ Favoritcitat ] Scheibenwischer

Beide verheimlichen etwas.
Darum agieren sie synchron.
Zwei Knechte in schwarzen Gummistiefeln.
Stehen auf, um sich gleich wieder hinzulegen.

Schlammspritzer. Tropfen. Tropfen. Verschmiertes Ungeziefer.
Sie wischen, ohne es zu tilgen.
Niemand verleiht ihnen die Kraft der Vergebung.
Ihr Streben nach klarer Sicht ist völlige Verblendung.

Folgt man Reflexen, ist man niemals frei vom Abglanz der Welt.
Die Windschutzscheibe hinauf gleiten sie ins Unbekannte.
Deine Schuld ist glasklar. Undurchlässig. Attestiert.
Erst wenn sie zu Staub zerspringt, vergisst du, dass du bist.

[ Boginfo ] Šteger, Aleš: Buch der Dinge. (original language: Deutsch) Suhrkamp, Frankfurt / M. , 2006 (2005).
Oversat fra Slowenisch af Urska P. Cerne & Matthias Göritz