Tomaž Šalamun was one of the most influential and prolific poets in Central Europe over the past few decades. Thanks to the translation of his work, he also received wide international acclaim. A number of volumes of his poetry have been published in English, yet A Ballad for Metka Krašovec, originally published in Slovenia in the early 1980s at the mid-point of Šalamun’s career, is considered to be seminal in his oeuvre, not least for the influence it has had on younger poets bot...