Synopses & Reviews
The best work of one of Poland's greatest younger poets
I love to swim in the sea, which keeps
talking to itself
in the monotone of a vagabond
who no longer recalls
exactly how long he's been on the road.
Swimming is like prayer:
palms join and part,
join and part
almost without end.
--from "On Swimming"
This selection draws from Adam Zagajewski's English-language collections, both in and out of print; it also includes work from his early books, Communiqué and Butcher Shop, as well as new poems that are among Zagajewski's most refreshing and rewarding: meditations on human frailty and vigor, they are vividly imagined, of great clarity of thought and scrupulous attention to the natural world. In Clare Cavanagh's lucid, graceful translations these poems share the vocation that allows us, in Zagajewski's words, "to experience astonishment and to stop still in that astonishment for a long moment or two."
Adam Zagajewski was born in Lvov in 1945. His previous books include the poetry collections Tremor (1985), Canvas (1992), and Mysticism for Beginners (1998), and the essay collections Two Cities (1995) and Another Beauty (2000). He lives in Paris and Houston (where he teaches at the University of Houston).
National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee
This selection draws from each of Adam Zagajewski's English-language poetry collections, both in and out of print, including Tremor, Canvas, and Mysticism for Beginners. It also includes work from his early books, Communiqué and Butcher Shop, as well as some sixty pages of new poems that are among Zagajewski's most refreshing and rewarding. Meditating on both human frailty and vigor, this new poetry is vividly imagined, of great clarity of thought, and scrupulous in its attention to the natural world.
Featuring lucid and graceful translations by Clare Cavanagh, Renata Gorczynski, Benjamin Ivry, and C. K. Williams, Without End: New and Selected Poems allows us to view the whole arc of this master poet's career thus far--a career that might be seen as an ongoing attempt to, in Zagajewski's words, "experience astonishment and to stop still in that astonishment for a long moment or two."
"Zagajewski's poems pull us from whatever routine threatens to dull our senses, from whatever might lull us into mere existence. This is an astonishing book."--Philip Boehm, The New York Times Book Review
"[Zagajewski's poetry] is the quiet voice at the corner of the immense devastations of an obscene century, more intimate then Auden, yet as cosmopolitan as Milosz, Celan, or Brodsky . . . [Without End is a] stirring and profound and delightful collection."--Derek Walcott, The New Republic
"Zagajewski's variety of tone is remarkable . . . Recognizing [the influence of other poets in his work] clearly enriches our reading of Zagajewski's poems, but their force is by no means weakened if we do not, just as missing a coded homage to Beethoven hardly prevents us from feeling the power of Brahms. Zagajewski's work does, in fact, display a Brahmsian richness of color, intricacy of rhythm, and the occasional use of ambiguous tonality--all in the service of an inward urgency, powerfully captured in these translations . . . These renderings--by Clare Cavanagh and Renata Gorczynski, Benjamin Ivry, and C. K. Williams--have their own enchanting music, and the translators have consistently chosen elegant solutions for difficult passages . . . Zagajewski's poems pull us from whatever routine threatens to dull our senses, from whatever might lull us into mere existence. [Without End] is an astonishing book, worth standing hours in line for, a book to sneak into the workplace or smuggle abroad, to ship to relatives."--Philip Boehm, The New York Times Book Review
"Seldom has the muse spoken to anyone with such clarity and urgency as in Zagajewski's case."--Joseph Brodsky
"Zagajewski's poems put us in the presence of great mysteries. They deliver us to something deep and strange and perhaps even unlimited within ourselves . . . [They] are everywhere shadowed by death, and extremely conscious of human cruelty . . . Yet [they] are also filled with splendid moments by spiritual lucidity . . . Zagajewski has never forgotten the importance of addressing communal concerns, the necessity of civitas, and yet he has also learned the fundamental value of privacy, of the morality of speaking only for oneself . . . He is in some sense a pilgrim, a seeker, a celebrant in search of the divine, the unchanging, the absolute. His poems are filled with radiant moments of plentitude."--0Edward Hirsch, The Washington Post Book World
"From Central Europe, whose great writers have set the pitch for much of [the 20th] century's seriousness about feelings, about barbarism and culture, about the limits of the political, about the life of forms in art: these reflections, this voice. Adam Zagajewski, a wonderful poet . . . writes only about what really matters--with exemplary purity and skepticism."--Susan Sontag
Review
"Seldom has the muse spoken to anyone with such clarity and urgency as in Zagajewski's case."--Joseph Brodsky
Review
"[Zagajewski's poems] transport us into a realm that is majestic, boundless and unknown." —Edward Hirsch,
The Washington Post Book World"Poems [that] celebrate those rare moments when we catch a glimpse of a world from which all labels have been unpeeled." --Charles Simic, The New York Review of Books
Synopsis
The best work of one of Poland's greatest younger poets
I love to swim in the sea, which keeps
talking to itself
in the monotone of a vagabond
who no longer recalls
exactly how long he's been on the road.
Swimming is like prayer:
palms join and part,
join and part
almost without end.
--from "On Swimming"
This selection draws from Adam Zagajewski's English-language collections, both in and out of print; it also includes work from his early books, Communiqué and Butcher Shop, as well as new poems that are among Zagajewski's most refreshing and rewarding: meditations on human frailty and vigor, they are vividly imagined, of great clarity of thought and scrupulous attention to the natural world. In Clare Cavanagh's lucid, graceful translations these poems share the vocation that allows us, in Zagajewski's words, "to experience astonishment and to stop still in that astonishment for a long moment or two."
Synopsis
This large selection draws from Adam Zagajewski's English-language collections, both in and out of print; it also includes early work and new poems that are among his most refreshing and rewarding: meditations on human frailty and vigor, they are vividly imagined, of great clarity of thought and scrupulous, celebratory attention to the natural world. In this lucid translation, these poems share the vocation that allows us, in Zagajewski's words, "to experience astonishment and to stop still in that astonishment for a long moment or two".
Synopsis
The best work of one of Poland's greatest younger poets
"I love to swim in the sea, which keeps"
"talking to itself"
"in the monotone of a vagabond"
"who no longer recalls "
"exactly how long he's been on the road. "
"Swimming is like prayer: "
"palms join and part, "
"join and part"
"almost without end."
--from "On Swimming"
This selection draws from Adam Zagajewski's English-language collections, both in and out of print; it also includes work from his early books, "Communique" and "Butcher Shop," as well as new poems that are among Zagajewski's most refreshing and rewarding: meditations on human frailty and vigor, they are vividly imagined, of great clarity of thought and scrupulous attention to the natural world. In Clare Cavanagh's lucid, graceful translations these poems share the vocation that allows us, in Zagajewski's words, "to experience astonishment and to stop still in that astonishment for a long moment or two."
The best work of one of Poland's greatest younger poets
"I love to swim in the sea, which keeps"
"talking to itself"
"in the monotone of a vagabond"
"who no longer recalls "
"exactly how long he's been on the road. "
"Swimming is like prayer: "
"palms join and part, "
"join and part"
"almost without end."
--from "On Swimming"
This selection draws from Adam Zagajewski's English-language collections, both in and out of print; it also includes work from his early books, "Communique" and "Butcher Shop," as well as new poems that are among Zagajewski's most refreshing and rewarding: meditations on human frailty and vigor, they are vividly imagined, of great clarity of thought and scrupulous attention to the natural world. In Clare Cavanagh's lucid, graceful translations these poems share the vocation that allows us, in Zagajewski's words, "to experience astonishment and to stop still in that astonishment for a long moment or two."
Synopsis
I love to swim in the sea, which keepstalking to itself
in the monotone of a vagabond
who no longer recalls
exactly how long hes been on the road.
Swimming is like prayer:
palms join and part,
join and part,
almost without end.
--from "On Swimming"
Without End draws from each of Adam Zagajewski's English-language collections, both in and out of print--Tremor, Canvas, and Mysticism for Beginners--and features new work that is among his most refreshing and rewarding. These poems, lucidly translated, share the vocation that allows us, in Zagajewski's words, "to experience astonishment and to stop still in that astonishment for a long moment or two."
About the Author
Adam Zagajewski was born in Lvov in 1945. His previous books include the poetry collections Tremor (1985), Canvas (1992), and Mysticism for Beginners (1998), and the essay collections Two Cities (1995) and Another Beauty (2000). He lives in Paris and Houston (where he teaches at the University of Houston).