Adam Zagajewski

In Lemberg geboren und in Gleiwitz aufgewachsen, verbringt Adam Zagajewski seine Jugend im Krakau der sechziger Jahre. Er erzählt vom Stöbern nach verbotenen Büchern im Antiquariat, vom verwahrlosten ehemaligen Judenviertel Kazimierz und von einem jungen Geistlichen namens Karol Woityla, der bei seiner Tante ein und aus ging. Wie beiläufig verdichten sich die Erinnerungen zum persönlichen Bildungsroman eines der wichtigsten polnischen Dichter der Gegenwart.

Powerful New work by a modern master. You must listen, listen, listen.Tired springs breathe under water.At four in the morningthe last, lonely bolt of lightningscribbles something quickly in the sky.It says "No." Or "Never."Or "Take courage, the fire's not dead."-from "The Last Storm" Mysticism for Beginners is the third and most beautiful of Adam Zagajewski's collections to appear in English. The poems are about nature, history, the life of cities, the transformations of art, the spiritual essence of everyday life. Their remarkable staying power derives from the gentle meditative authority of Zagajewski's voice, here expertly rered into English by Clare Cavanagh. Zagajewski's committed, compassionate poems offer access to the mysteries at the heart of experience.

"Canvas," Zagajewski's second book to appear in English, features all of this poet's distinctive traits. In these sixty-one poems, syntax explodes, masses of detail spill from profuse catalogs, lines break in ways apt but unexpected, and compressed lyrics alternate with extended riffs. European culture is the poet's native province throughout these explorations, and time is a recurrent metaphysical concern.