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Precīzāk, priekšteči Bērziņam ir visi un visur – sākot no senās Divupes ķīļrakstu autoriem un Vecās Derības rakstītājiem un beidzot ar bezgala daudziem mūslaiku autoriem, no poēzijas ģēnijiem līdz anonīmiem ziņģu sacerētājiem – visi, kas vien kaut kādā veidā saskārušies ar vārdu vai, kā raksta Bērziņš, "izelpojuši vārdu". Jo – Bērziņam valoda nav instruments, ar ko aprakstīt pasauli vai "izteikt domu"; valoda ir dzīvs organisms, kas atrod izeju pasaulē caur cilvēku, un otrādi – cilvēks dzīvo valodā.
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Uldis Bērziņš (1944) has been writing an impressive epos his entire life; its subject is his relationship to language and the relationship of language to itself. Language and time are the central motifs in Bērziņš’s poetry, yet they are never separated. Bērziņš does not express thoughts so much as he creates them, sending the reader off on an expedition to a labyrinth of meaning. Although Bērziņš’s poetry is published in collections, one gets the impression that he is constantly working on one gigantic text, with each new poem adding another fragment. An encyclopedic or analytical approach to Bērziņš’s poetry can hardly be imagined: first of all because it is impossible to define the tradition to which he belongs. To be more precise, Bērziņš’s ancestors are found everywhere: from the Sumerian cuneiform scribes and authors of the Old Testament to many modern writers, from poetic geniuses to anonymous authors of popular songs: everyone who has an intimate connection to words or, as Bērziņš puts it, "have exhaled the word". Because to Bērziņš language is not an instrument with which to describe the world or express a thought; to him, language is a live organism that finds its way out into the world through man and vice versa: man is fully alive in language. From here the reverential attitude toward the word: Bērziņš does not divide language into the vernacular and the poetic: everything "exhaled" can become poetic.
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