Uldis Bērziņš’ (1944–2021) was a Latvian poet and translator. The last of his many books of poetry, Idylls, appeared in 2018. An astounding polyglot, he translated into Latvian El Cantar de mio Cid, the Edda, the Qur’an, several books of the Hebrew Bible, modern authors including Szymborska, Khlebnikov, Auden, and Borges, and much else.
Illustration by Karenna BrownConversation with a Postman
I get used to loneliness, she says.
Autumn is utterly close; politics distant. The cat’s
a refined soul, but pisses all over the flowers.
The g…