Бажанов, А. Стихи и поэмы о саамском крае = Verses & poems on the Saami land / Аскольд Бажанов ; English translation by Naomi Caffee ; with an essay by Johanna Domokos. - Berlin : Nordeuropa-Institut der Humboldt-Universitat, 2009.

1 9 3 For Bazhanov the history of the »I« embedded in the »we« is con tained in memories of the sites of their intimacy. The reoccurring motifs of the seasons (for instance, the motif of spring in the poems on pages 25, 29, 49, 79, 85, 107, 121, 123, 125, 127, 153), of personal memories (memories of childhood in the poems on pages 73, 81, 83, 91, i3i) 153 and 157), of the traditional life o f his Saami community (reindeer in the poems on pages 23, 27, 29, 37, 49, 53, 55, 89, 93,109, 115, 149. 157) override the linearity of this volume, transforming it into a spiral. This spiral composition represents time with no begin ning and no end, as well as a kind of nomadic route in the region - and it reveals archaic features underlying the Saami consciousness. Bazhanov’s work, as one of the best examples of Saami homeland literature, was born out o f a passionate commitment to his people. His orientation to and their specific places transitory, partly or def initely lost, and helps us to reconfigure our own partly concrete, partly imaginative, but eternally personal life-worlds, or homes. This search for a deeper understanding o f time and place is the foun dation of Bazhanov’s poetics. The drive to rebuild a sense of identity after displacement is best summarized by a Crow Native American and quoted by Jonathan Lear: »I am trying to live a life I do not understands This search for identity is not a uniquely Saami or indigenous phenomenon; rather, it parallels developments all over the world (e.g. the Polish literary tradition of »small homelands«, the »farm« literature in South Africa, or the environmental literature from all over the world). 4. LiminalityinBazhanov’spoetry Generally literature can be experienced as a liminal zone, where thoughts and impressions o f everyday and transcendental life might be analyzed and recombined in new ways. In the sacred space of lit erature, beyond normal time and space, the reader can be changed, or prepared for a process of change, before re-entering society. Moreover, many great authors have their creative core rooted in the mental and spiritual clarity caused by liminal events. Often these liminal events occur as the extremes o f either trauma or transcen dental joy. For the first type let me recall the works o f the Hungarian Nobel Prize winning author, Imre Kertesz, the French philosopher of