Nachtgras

Fedia Filkova has lent her voice to some of the greatest Austrian poets – Ilse Aichinger, Ingeborg Bachmann, and Friederike Mayröcker – in order to translate their works into Bulgarian. This has done no harm whatsoever to her own voice – to the contrary, it has strengthened her voice and made it more precise, as showcased in this first selection of her poems in the German language. Filkova’s texts are often pithy and carefree, sooner to remain silent than turn overly talkative. Here and there enigmatic, mostly in-your-face: as if doused in bright light or drenched in resounding darkness, balancing on the fine line of everything. From one passage to the next Filkova establishes a seem-less and surprising lightness and ephemeral quality: her writings are like little sculptures made of temporarily immobile sand – briefly captured in the light – only to be discarded and later on newly molded and transformed.