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then touch me here (ten poems)
Edvīns Raups
Edvīns Raups was born in Sigulda in
1962 and studied English Langauge
and Literature at the University of
Latvia. He is one of the great
innovators in Latvian poetry, giving
back to language its metaphysical
purity and delight.
“Raups liberates words from the world, and his poetry is
made up of visions and perceptions. (‘Only by closing your
eyes can you see’). As soon as a word loses its connection
with the world of objects, it retreats into itself;
paradoxically, this retreat saturates a word with an infinite
number of new meanings, and the word can be perpetually
born anew.” – Latvian literary critic Guntis Berelis
These poems are translated from the Latvian by Margita
Gailitis.