The Indian summer issue of the mostly literary magazine Žoklis
The issue features poetry by Vasilijs Karasjovs and Evelīna Andžāne, as well as the debut poetry publications of Betija Zvejniece and Reinis Pelle Karlsons. The title poem is Lauris Veips’ rendition of Apollinaire’s Mirabeau Bridge. The appendix, printed on blue paper, is a literary and visual feast by Marija Luīze Meļķe, a long poem titled Marija Luīze Meļķe Sorting Out Her Relationship With Reality, with illustrations by the author. Likewise included in Žoklis are Ieva Lapiņa’s translations of poems by the modern Chinese poet Yang Lian and the first part of the long poem ACID IS SWEET by Lithuanian poet Mantas Gimžauskas in Emija Grigorjeva’s translation.
Kārlis Vērdiņš resumes the criticism series titled “100 Latvian poetry books ‘you must read before you die’” with a piece on Mirdza Ķempe’s The Morning Wind (Rīta vējš, 1946). Playwright Matīss Gricmanis continues the series of reflections upon a single Latvian poem with a dialogue about I Was Born Right After the Millenium, the first poem in Marts Pujāts’ collection The Lamp Itself Comes to Light. Lauris Veips continues the column on Classical Troubles, discussing the problem of sentimentality in literature.
The issue also marks the first publication of Gunars Saliņš’ story In New York, Sans Calendar (Bez kalendāra Ņujorkā), unearthed in the poet’s archive and prepared for publication by Kārlis Vērdiņš. A translation of part 1 of Gaston Bachelard’s Air and Dreams by Lauris Veips is likewise featured.
In the editorial, Kirils Ēcis compares reading with dreaming. “I am striving to experience reading anew with the same naiveté I’ve always had. ‘I believe what they’re telling me…’ I yield myself to being led by the nose and tail. To being told to stand in the garden under the hammer of moonlight and watching mom sail down the river on a wooden spoon. I am coming with my eyes wide open and hands in clear view. And the words will come on their own accord. They have, after all, caught up with us until now, even if we’re “running away towards them incessantly.”
The child of a group of young people, the Žoklis mostly literary magazine focuses on creative young people in all forms of art, promoting an interdisciplinary practice of writing and reading. As people from different fields and generations are invited to publish their pieces in Žoklis, there’s a diversity that ensures the vitality of the publication and brings diverse color to the fabric of Latvian culture. Five young literati – Raimonds Ķirķis, Marija Luīze Meļķe, Lauris Veips, Roberts Vilsons and Kirils Ēcis – are in charge of the magazine, which is published by the Žoklis association.