Nina Cassian

There is also an anthology of the favorite poems of each poet, many not previously published, as well as other tragic and comic literary surprises in this nothing-like-it book.

Spanning nearly sixty years, these poems—both new English compositions and Nina Cassian's translations of her work in Romanian—blend her gallows humor with an engagement with the human experience.

Nina Cassian er født 1924 i byen Galati ved bredden av Donau. Vokst opp under påvirkning fra flere kulturer, språk, religioner og under vedvarende ideologiske trykk, er hun blitt en “flyttfugl” som har krysset mange grenser. Hun har publisert mer enn femti bøker i ulike genre, skrevet filmkritikk og journalistikk, samt komponert klassisk musikk. Men først og fremst er hun poet: lekende, sensuell og skarp i kommentaren.

"Take My Word for It" is Nina Cassian's first collection of poems in English. Since being forced in 1985 to abandon her native Romania, where she had published more than 50 books, she has settled in New York. The American poet and critic Stanley Kunitz acclaims her as 'a world-class poet, high-spirited, fierce, intelligent, uncompromising, and wonderfully nervy'. These qualities are evident in her new poems, whose tone is playful and optimistic, sharp, witty, funny and wise.

Ars Poetica: a Polemic I am I. I am personal. I am subjective, intimate, private, particular, confessional. All that happens, happens to me. The landscape I describe is myself. . . . If you're interested in birds, trees, rivers, try reference books. Don't read my poems. I'm no indexed bird, tree or river, just a registered Self.

Poems deal with childhood, color, censorship, freedom, greed, loneliness, love, pain, and mortality.