The fourth collection of poetry by Ronalds Briedis.
In this collection, Ronalds Briedis throws the closing knot for one stage of his work, combining the echoes of his previous poetry collection with new motifs in a balanced and balanced arrangement. But the question of the ontological nature of laughter and the ability to laugh still resides in the center. Ronalds Briedis seems to have not read so much yet - the subtle polarity of the biographical cycle and the equally exquisite mastery of Latvian poetry in such a rare strict form - the crown of sonnets - are placed in the opposite poles of the collection. You will need to read this book slowly and repeatedly. Like - sometimes - your lived life. It helps to discourage,
Māris Salējs
Ronalds Briedis' collections of poems “Tear Gas” (2004), “Karaoke” (2008), “Medicine against Immortality” (2016) and the latest collection “Zero Sum” form the poetic tetralogy OROBORO. The author says: “Its cross-cutting motif is the trip of the third father-in-law to the uninjectable princess. Representatives of different eras and cultures encountered along the way “stick” to the hero’s march: gods and supernatural beings, literary figures, historical figures and people in general; becoming part of the process of ironic reassessment of humanity and each individual experience. In the last book of the tetralogy, the impamp gathered by the trickster has disbanded, and its participants are trying to find a place in a post-irony world that no longer needs the cultural heroes who have smiled at the princess.”
Briedis has received several awards (LaLiGaBa, Ojārs Vācietis Prize, etc.), and his poems have been translated into English, German, Russian, Spanish, French, Hungarian and Macedonian. In 2005, the Hungarian publishing house Szombathely published a selection of his poems.