Obleganje SreÄe by Cvetka Lipuš

departure: / flowerpower vinyls strewn and sleeveless." And therein isperhaps theoverarching meaning of Perplexed Skin: a modern genera tion lives in search ofmeaning and, though comfortable, remains psychi cally unfulfilled. The social debris of our forebears remains, but as a hin drance, outmoded and meaningless. And in poetry, inwhich every word ispotentially sacred and must be used deliberately, as itmust be read, the reader is left,as the titleof thiscollection suggests, perplexed? by purpose and bymeaning. SlaterRhea Universityof Oklahoma Astride Ivaska. Dzeja un Atdzeja. Riga, Latvia. Petergailis. 2008. 448 pages. 10.44LS. isbn978-9984-33-232-1 Dzeja un Atdzeja, a massive volume of AstrTde Ivaska's poetry, contains both new and old. There are selec tions from her published volumes of Latvian poetry as well as unpub lished poems and her translations of poems from six languages (Eng lish,Spanish, Russian, Finnish, Esto nian, Lithuanian). The textsgive the reader an overview of the author's linguistic authority and creativity to transpose poems which may not be linguistically related, from one linguistic system toanother. Though Ivaska's experiences of war and exile cover one of the most excruciating events inmodern times, the tone of Ivaska's poetry ismostly subdued, without references to the brutal ity and injustice thathave warped human existence. Ivaska's poetry focuses on human relations and emotions gen erated by contemplating nature in its various forms, which can range from the lyrical Finnish landscape to the dynamic sun-drenched Span ish arena and often evoking closely observed and assimilated Latvian scenes. Against this backdrop and similar descriptions of the physical world evolves a point of view that elicits reflectionon humanity's des tinyduring these climactic times. In the author's delicately bal anced attitudes of closeness to and distance from the physical and human worlds, she knows how to endow nature's beauty with feelings that are fresh and gently moving, imbued with the so distinctly Lat vian sense of closeness and identity with nature. Ivaska's poetic forms are not iconoclastic, yet a sensitive reader will find them refreshingly novel and will appreciate the sense and feelings that overflow in her poetry.With thisprecious volume, a sort of summation of the author's poetry, Astride Ivaska has estab lished her prominent place in the pantheon ofLatvian poetry. JurisSilenieks Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Cvetka LipuS.Obleganje Srece. Lju bljana, Slovenia. Cankarjeva zalozba. 2008. 124 pages. 16.95. isbn978-961 231-658-7 Cvetka Lipus is a very talented poet fromZelezna kapla / Eisen kappel, Austria, who writes in her first language, Slovene. The book at hand, the titleofwhich translates as "Besieging Happiness," is her fifthto appear since 1989; her poet ry collections have garnered much praise inboth Slovenia and Austria. Unfortunately, only a fewof Lipus's poems have appeared so far in Eng lish translation.This book is confir mation, ifany was needed, of how much we need to see a major set of her poems come out in an English language edition. Inone of thecycles in thisbook, E "Red Sugar," Lipus writes (in a E translation by Tom Priestly), that E "there is no grammar book, no die- E tionary / for the Sunday dialect E when the tinyshot glasses of child- E hood / are sipped fordessert." The E setting is vintage Lipus: an everday E action poignantly described ina few E strokes thatalso invest this individ- E ual or simple actionwith something E incantatory or ritualistic.Out of a E wide-ranging (but carefully regulat- E ed) wealth of colors,weather terms, E and geographic, anatomic, and other E natural features, Lipus creates last- E ing symbols, powerful but never E gratuitous. E These poems are grouped into E sets or cycles, which are a feature of E Lipus's earlier work as well. Their E settings range from Pittsburgh to E Vienna to the Yucatan, and from E rollingCarinthia to the farreaches of E the solar system. E Although Lipus lives and E works at the intersection of three E languages (Slovene, German, and E now English), her writing should E not be blithelyboxed up and given a E topical or reductionistic label such as E IMay-June2009 i69 ^^^^H "identity search." Lipus's freeverse, ^^^^H with its roving

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