The Daily Glance
Adam Czerniawski's The Invention of Poetry was translated by Iain Higgins, and while I know no Polish, I can say that this work reads well in English. Take, for instance, the poem "Man:"
On the lips, salt; in the thickets
wind; grains swirl
on the open palm, so
naked defenseless
in the sun he stands in sleep.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
So life passes in the unbounded
cosmos
till death,
desired, shuts eyes
by ignorance terrified.
Higgins handles the line breaks in English masterfully here. Czerniawski's theme here is also one of the oldest ones of poetry--humans and the state of life. Many of Czerniawski's pieces are like this, but many contain his unique perspective of growing up Polish during and just after WWII. In fact, Czerniawski in his poetry has a penchant for looking at his present while gazing at the past or through the past. This selection of his poetry gives us the chance to see his career at different stages and also see his common themes, and it shows him as a major figure in twentieth-century Polish literature.
Adam Czerniawski's The Invention of Poetry was translated by Iain Higgins, and while I know no Polish, I can say that this work reads well in English. Take, for instance, the poem "Man:"
On the lips, salt; in the thickets
wind; grains swirl
on the open palm, so
naked defenseless
in the sun he stands in sleep.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
So life passes in the unbounded
cosmos
till death,
desired, shuts eyes
by ignorance terrified.
Higgins handles the line breaks in English masterfully here. Czerniawski's theme here is also one of the oldest ones of poetry--humans and the state of life. Many of Czerniawski's pieces are like this, but many contain his unique perspective of growing up Polish during and just after WWII. In fact, Czerniawski in his poetry has a penchant for looking at his present while gazing at the past or through the past. This selection of his poetry gives us the chance to see his career at different stages and also see his common themes, and it shows him as a major figure in twentieth-century Polish literature.
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