Poetry. Bilingual Edition. Translated from the Polish by Piotr
Florczyk. "At the start of this book you will find one of my
favorite poems from contemporary Poland, 'My Wife's Spine.' 'And
when my wife's pregnant / her spine is a bough of an apple tree, '
Jarosław Mikołajewski begins, innocently enough, and then: 'On
nights of animal love / it is the zipper in a suitcase / that won't
close, even under a knee' and wow, we say, just about to take a
surprised breath, when a poet surprises us again: 'On nights of
human love / it is the steel rope / at the highest voltage, ' and
he goes on, with each metaphor more unpredictable than the
previous: 'On the noon walk / my wife's spine is the flag / carried
by the pilgrims' guide in a crowded church.' This is contemporary
European poetry at its best, I think: tender, unpredictable, a
hymn, a love poem, a moment of laughter, of revelation. And, there
are many moments like that in this collection, where 'the earth
howls loudly / because I've gone upstairs'--reading such lines one
thinks of the lineage of Vasko Popa and Miroslav Holub, but there
is a new music, too, set 'to the words that have aged / since the
last trip / "aeroporto" and "areoporto"'--and there is new wisdom,
too: 'how the words age in me, ' says the poet. Indeed. 'They are
like soft gums / losing teeth.' This is beautiful poetry. One's
gratitude is to Piotr Florczyk for bringing this new voice,
previously unknown to Americans, and making this poet available in
lines that captivate. Polish poets are much beloved in America
today, but introducing a new voice is never an easy task. And
Florczyk has done this many times over. This generosity of spirit
is astounding."--Ilya Kaminsky"Who's Jarosław Mikołajewski? Is he
an angry poet? No, not really. Is he pater familias? Yes, he is,
but this doesn't tell us much about his poetry. Reading his poems
we follow his itinerary, we go with him to Rome--he's at home in
the Italian culture though his first home is in Warsaw, we see his
wife, his daughters, we remember his father. Mikołajewski's poetry
is alive. This is a huge praise, maybe the highest one: it's not an
academic enterprise. His poems are kicking, running, appealing to
us, readers. His poems live."--Adam Zagajewski
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