Adam Zagajewski (1945–2021)

Overwhelmingly grand. Even without all the historic or intertextual references (which you don't necessarily need) the language here is rich and broad but without becoming pedantic or stilted. Some of the poems here took me considerable time and several rereads to grasp. But even in the longer poems you get the experience, the emotion before you 'understand' or are able to visualize anything or reflect on it. Remarkably, the shorter poems aren't that much easier but they're just as strong and show more have that immediate impact, e.g. This

This that lies
heavy and weighs down,
that aches like ache
and burns like a slap in the face,
is a stone
or an anchor. show less

This small book of poems, which I read in translation from Polish to English, is spare in words and deep in meaning. They take the reader around the world, often to locations where the author recalls someone no longer alive. Zagajewski also writes often of his father, who has Alzheimer's or some type of progressive dementia. He writes of Warsaw's Jewish ghettos. Just when you feel the gut punches and can't take another, the poetry spins a scene with clouds and azure sky. Or an ironic poem show more about poetry turns up the corner of its mouth. This is a treasure I think I'll read again. show less

ENLIGHTMENT

"Poetry is civilization’s childhood,
said the Enlightenment philosophers,
so did our Polish professor, tall, thin
as an exclamation point that has lost its faith.
I didn’t know what to answer then,
I was still a bit childish myself,
but I think I sought wisdom
(without resignation) in poems
and also a certain calm madness.
I found, much later, a moment’s joy
and melancholy’s dark contentment."

Moving collection of poems.

My son gave me this collection of essays. I am not a particular student of Polish literature, but I recognized many of the writers mentioned or discussed in this collection. The prose is fluent and impactful, but I don't know how much credit goes to his translator, Clare Cavanagh, and how much to the poet himself. I enjoyed each one, from reminiscences to reviews to autobiographical reflections. On the whole, this is a five star book, but I found myself comparing Zagajewski to Marilynne show more Robinson--each has the same refreshing sharpness of thought, eloquence, and a perspective framed by place. As an American, I realized as I read through this book, that I prefer Robinson's acerbically American perspective to Zagajewski's reflective but no less acerbic European perspective. show less