Metaphors of Dissent
Poetry from Beyond the Borders
Translations to English first published in the Pacific NW by
Mr. Cogito Press [John M. Gogol & Robert A. Davies]
and Trace Editions [Charles Seluzicki]
A representative Mr. Cogito sampler of poems by
and an essay on Polish poet Ryszard Krynicki
Excerpt: conclusion of Smuggling Mandelshtam into Texas, John M. Gogol
[he refers to a Texas customs official who stopped John in an old VW entering El Paso first publication]
Slowly he pores over page after page On the Word and Culture,
looking for the secrets he would have trembled
hidden in them. in his Texas boots
If hed only been able to translate to read:
the message, the final lines of the essay Classical poetry is the poetry of revolution.
Citizen R.K. Does Not Live
A selection of poems by Ryszard Krynicki Illustrations by Tom Cassidy
© 1985, 2008 Mr. Cogito Press Mr. Cogito Poetry Chapbook Series
BY SAYING
the executioners. Translated by |
MY LITTLE DAUGHTER
|
ALMOST ALL
Thats all 12/1977 Translated by |
THE TIME OF TRIAL
My time of trial only now 12/1981 Translated by |
TONGUE, THIS WILD MEAT
this child that learning the truth, truthfully lies Translated by Grazyna Drabik |
Mr. Cogito in the Ink |
CITIZEN R.K. DOES NOT LIVE
1974/1977 |
 |
|
BY ENTERING
and a host of other attractive products.
Translated by Magnus J. Krynski |
R ecognized by many critics as one of the most individual voices in contemporary Polish poetry, Ryszard Krynicki is also representative of a wider poetic movement. He is one of the most outstanding figures of the Generation of 68, an informal group of poets who entered the literary scene in the late 1960s and soon contributed to what has been perhaps the most dramatic breakthrough in Polish culture since World War II In the case of the most talented of them, such as Krynicki or Adam Zagajewski, this discovery led to a new conception of poetrys role in society; they began to view the lyric as totalitarianisms natural enemy In December of 1981, the poet was detained and given, like many other intellectuals, the chance to sign the loyalty oath (mentioned in the poem The Time of Trial), which he refused to do. [This] could give the impression that Krynick is a run-of-the-mill engage poet, a bard of this or that social or political cause. In fact, as the reader will certainly discover, he is simply too good a poet to be reduced to such a role. His cause, if any, is much more universal than any one ideology or doctrine; it lies in his personal search for the meaning of individual existence, his private crusade against the specter of despair, absurdity, nothingness. It may be the nothingness of a world in which entire countries disappear from the maps, people vanish into the dungeons of secret police, and meat never appears at the butchers. But it may also be the nothingness of the world in a broader sense, a world in which the meaning of individual life is incessantly threatened by indifference, transitoriness, oblivion. The individual is seen here as subject to multiple pressures of various kindsnot simply political or social pressures, but also those of love, the fear of death, or metaphysical doubt under which he must strive to maintain his shaky and frail integrity. It is worth noting how much Krynickis style changed in the course of his twenty years of writing. |
| [There is an] increasing importance in his work of the idea of the poem as a tiny splinter from some vast, ungraspable block of truth. While his early poems were simply mirrors multiplying the image of the worlds absurdity, his recent gnomic verse resembles rather a set of magnifying glasses, through which some inner sense of this apparently absurd world is patiently, though not passionlessly, scrutinized. | |
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