Magnetic Point (Paperback)

Ryszard Krynicki

ISBN 10: 0811225003 / ISBN 13: 9780811225007

Published by New Directions Publishing Corporation, New York, 2017

About this Item

Paperback. born in transit / I came upon on the place of death So Ryszard Krynicki begins the early lyric that gave his 1969 debut volume Act of Birth its title (a poem which ends: "I live / in the place of death"). These are not simply metaphors. One of the greatest poets of postwar Poland, Krynicki was born in 1943 in a Nazi labor camp in Austria, where his parents, Polish peasants from Ukraine, served as slave laborers. Act of Birth marked the emergence of a major voice-alongside Adam Zagajewski and Stanislaw Baranczak-in Poland's "Generation of 68" or "New Wave." Political and poetic rebellion converged, and the regime took notice. During the 1970s and 80s, Krynicki was arrested on trumped-up charges, dismissed from work, and forbidden from publishing. But to read his poetry as purely political would be a mistake. The early lyric "Act of Birth" displays the acute linguistic and ethical sensitivity at work. A distinctive combination of mysticism, compression, and wit shapes Krynicki's writing from the early dissident poems to his late haiku.Small wonder that his influences span the distance from Issa to Zbigniew Herbert, and include Nelly Sachs and Paul Celan (both of whom he has translated splendidly). Himself an editor, publisher, and acclaimed translator, Krynicki has won major prizes, from the Polish Poets' Award to, most recently, the 2015 Zbigniew Herbert International Literature Prize. With a splendid selection from a half century of marvelous poems, a major Polish poet appears in English at last Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780811225007

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Magnetic Point (Paperback)
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation, New York
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0811225003
• ISBN 13: 9780811225007
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

With a splendid selection from a half century of marvelous poems, a major Polish poet appears in English at last

One of Poland's greatest living poets―now in English at last―Ryszard Krynicki was born in 1943 in a Nazi labor camp, the son of Polish slave laborers. His 1969 volume, Act of Birth, marked the emergence of a major voice in the "New Wave" of Polish poetry. In Krynicki's work, political and poetic rebellion converged during the 1970s and '80s, he was arrested on trumped-up charges and forbidden from publishing. But his poetry is hardly just political. From the early dissident poems to his recent haiku, Krynicki's lyrical work taps deep wells of linguistic acuity, mysticism, compression, and wit.

About the Authors

Ryszard Krynicki―an editor, publisher, and acclaimed translator as well as a poet―lives in Krakow with six cats and his collaborator Krystyna Krynicka, with whom he runs a5, one of Poland’s finest publishing houses. His poetry has won the Polish Poets' Award, the Robert Graves-PEN Club Award, and the Zbigniew Herbert International Literature Prize.

Winner of the NBCC in criticism, Clare Cavanagh is the Frances Hooper Professor of Arts and Humanities at Northwestern University. Her translations include Wislawa Szymborska’s Map: Collected and Last Poems, with Stanislaw Baranczak, and Adam Zagajewski’s Slight Exaggeration.