Mila Haugova – författare

Arc New Voices from Europe and Beyond: 6The sixth in a much-praised series of bi-lingual anthologies which focus on the 'smaller' languages of Europe, and an ideal introduction to the 'here and now' of Slovak poetry.The sixth anthology in Arc's acclaimed series, this book features the work of six of Slovakia's leading poets: Ján Buzássy, Mila Haugová, Kamil Peteraj, Daniel Hevier, Peter Repka and Ivan Štrpka. With an introductory essay by translator Igor Hochel which sets the poets within a wider literary context, this bi-lingual edition features the Slovak original and the English translation on facing pages.

Mila Haugova has written a moving book about the farewell of loved ones and the slipping away of one’s own life. The starting point is a double loss: her mother dies and her lover goes his own way. During her dead mother’s childhood and distant past, the loved ones have faced a hoped-for future. Now only a reduced daily life remains, shot through with ever present memories. Haugova overlays the departed, and now recalculated, images of childhood and days spent with her lover. Is it possible to find some memory of lost warmth in this cold world?Re-encounter and farewells are one in Haugova’s poetry: there are intimate companions in the absence of loved ones, in the acceptance of their disappearance, which over time develop a cathartic force that makes possible new love.