Jure Detela—poet, activist, and mystic—was a key figure in the vibrant avant-garde movement that defined Slovenian culture in the 1980s. The forty-four poems of Moss & Silver anticipate the radical environmentalism and animal rights activism of the 21st century while engaging in a passionate dialogue with wide array of poets from William Wordsworth to Kobayashi Issa. Although he often railed against the “defenders of Slovene [traditional poetic] beauty” and “the tyranny of metaphor,” Detela was a meticulous craftsman who employed a stunning variety of rhythms and stanzaic forms.

Moss & Silver (Mah in srebro), originally published in 1983 by Obzorja (Maribor), is the first book of Jure Detela’s poems to appear in English. This bilingual edition has been translated by Raymond Miller with Tatjana Jamnik, and includes an introduction by Slovenian poet and critic Iztok Osojnik and a translator’s afterword by Raymond Miller.

Cover artwork by Mina Fina. Cover letterpressed at UDP.