In Praise of the Unfinished

Selected Poems

Fiction & Literature, Poetry, Continental European
Cover of the book In Praise of the Unfinished by Julia Hartwig, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Julia Hartwig ISBN: 9780307496102
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Publication: November 7, 2012
Imprint: Knopf Language: English
Author: Julia Hartwig
ISBN: 9780307496102
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication: November 7, 2012
Imprint: Knopf
Language: English

Hailed by Czeslaw Milosz as “the grande dame of Polish poetry” and named “one of the foremost Polish poets of the twentieth century” by Ryszard Kapuscinski, Julia Hartwig has long been considered the gold standard of poetry in her native Poland. With this career-spanning collection, we finally have a book of her work in English.
The tragic story of the last century flows naturally through Hartwig’s poems. She evokes the husbands who returned silent from battle (“What woman was told about the hell at Monte Cassino?”) and asks, “Why didn’t I dance on the Champs-Élysées / when the crowd cheered the end of the war? . . . Why was I fated to be on the main street of Lublin / watching regiments with red stars enter the city.” But there is also a welcoming of new experience in her verse, a sense that life, finally, is too beautiful to condemn. She seeks a higher peace, urging us to hear other voices: “an ermine’s cry, moan of a dove, / complaint of an owl—that remind us / the hardship of solitude is measured out equally.”
Hartwig’s compassionate spirit in the face of destruction and suffering, her apparent need to live in the moment, make her poems monumental and deeply touching and the introduction of her work here long overdue.
Return to My Childhood Home
Amid a dark silence of pines—the shouts of
young birches calling each other.
Everything is as it was. Nothing is as it was.
Speak to me, Lord of the child. Speak,
innocent terror!
To understand nothing. Each time in a different
way, from the first cry to the last breath.
Yet happy moments come to me from the past,
like bridesmaids carrying oil lamps.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Hailed by Czeslaw Milosz as “the grande dame of Polish poetry” and named “one of the foremost Polish poets of the twentieth century” by Ryszard Kapuscinski, Julia Hartwig has long been considered the gold standard of poetry in her native Poland. With this career-spanning collection, we finally have a book of her work in English.
The tragic story of the last century flows naturally through Hartwig’s poems. She evokes the husbands who returned silent from battle (“What woman was told about the hell at Monte Cassino?”) and asks, “Why didn’t I dance on the Champs-Élysées / when the crowd cheered the end of the war? . . . Why was I fated to be on the main street of Lublin / watching regiments with red stars enter the city.” But there is also a welcoming of new experience in her verse, a sense that life, finally, is too beautiful to condemn. She seeks a higher peace, urging us to hear other voices: “an ermine’s cry, moan of a dove, / complaint of an owl—that remind us / the hardship of solitude is measured out equally.”
Hartwig’s compassionate spirit in the face of destruction and suffering, her apparent need to live in the moment, make her poems monumental and deeply touching and the introduction of her work here long overdue.
Return to My Childhood Home
Amid a dark silence of pines—the shouts of
young birches calling each other.
Everything is as it was. Nothing is as it was.
Speak to me, Lord of the child. Speak,
innocent terror!
To understand nothing. Each time in a different
way, from the first cry to the last breath.
Yet happy moments come to me from the past,
like bridesmaids carrying oil lamps.

More books from Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Cover of the book Gettysburg by Julia Hartwig
Cover of the book Bend Sinister by Julia Hartwig
Cover of the book The Cranes Dance by Julia Hartwig
Cover of the book Union Atlantic by Julia Hartwig
Cover of the book Life: The Movie by Julia Hartwig
Cover of the book King Bongo by Julia Hartwig
Cover of the book My Last Sigh by Julia Hartwig
Cover of the book The Stolen Child by Julia Hartwig
Cover of the book To the Castle and Back by Julia Hartwig
Cover of the book Slavery And Freedom by Julia Hartwig
Cover of the book Russian Fairy Tales by Julia Hartwig
Cover of the book The Age of Homespun by Julia Hartwig
Cover of the book Ten Letters by Julia Hartwig
Cover of the book The Three Pillars of Zen by Julia Hartwig
Cover of the book The Gift by Julia Hartwig
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy