The Other Monk

by Ján Gavura
translated by James Sutherland-Smith
f.a.c.e., Fintice, Slovakia
2019
60 pages, paperback
ISBN 978-80-89763-41-2

The Other Monk presents a selection from three of Ján Gavura’s poetry collections – Každým ránom si (Every Morning You Are, 2006), Besa (2012), Kráľ hlad (King Hunger, 2017) – as well as some previously unpublished work. His poetry explores the fragile relationship between humans, nature, and divine consciousness. It emphasizes humility, recognizing individual otherness, and the divine in the natural world, drawing on everyday reality with doubts, fear, disillusionment, anger, and weakness.