Tremor: Selected Poems

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Zagajewski, Adam. Tremor. Farrar. 1985. c.83p. tr. from Polish by Renata Gorczynski. ISBN 0-374-27873-3. $11.95. poetry These collections encompass two generations of East European poetry. Prolific and reclusive, Czech poet Holan (1905-80) chose to remain in his homeland despite an official ban on his work until 1963. His poems are often stories reflecting some ``knowledge of the heart.'' Pain and death inform his work, though love is never far away: ``free, you liberate, and I cannot want more.'' Zagajewski, on the other hand, born in Lvov in 1946, left Poland for Paris soon after martial law was declared. Both lyrical and discursive, Tremor introduces an exciting and major new poetic voice. Zagajewski pursues ordinary situations in contemporary life to accentuate divisions and contradictionsa waiting room (``We have always been divided. Men, nations,/waiting rooms.'') , or an escalator (``We/ who ride down already know: no one is waiting/ up there.'') . And yet he knows, ``What was ordinary isn't possible anymore/ A different wind turns the tin vane.'' Both volumes are highly recommended for foreign poetry collections. Robert Hudzik, P.L. of Cincinnati & Hamilton Cty.
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