To the Letter: Poems by Tomasz Rozycki (English) Paperback Book

The Nile on eBay   To the Letter by Tomasz Rozycki, Mira Rosenthal

Frank, acute, and intimate poems of human loss, resilience, and love - detective poem, historical hopscotch, love story"A truly lyrical longing for the world to be transformed."-Polish Book InstituteFrank, acute, and intimate poems of human loss, resilience, and love - detective poem, historical hopscotch, love story"A truly lyrical longing for the world to be transformed."-Polish Book InstituteR ycki collects moments of illumination - a cat dashing out of a window and "feral sun" streaking in, a body planting itself in the ground like rhubarb and flowering. He collects and collects, opens a crack, and clutches a shrapnel of epiphany.Tomasz R ycki's To the Letter follows Lieutenant Anielewicz on the hunt for any clues that might lead 21st century human beings out of a sense of despair. With authoritarianism rising across Eastern Europe, the Lieutenant longs for a secret hero. At first, he suspects some hidden mechanism afoot- fruit tutors him in the ways of color, he drifts out to sea to study the grammar of tides, or he gazes at the sun as it thrums away like a timepiece. In one poem, he admits "this is the story of my confusion," and in the next the Lieutenant is back on the trail. "This lunacy needs a full investigation," he jibes.He wants to get to the bottom of it all, but he's often bewitched by letters and the trickery of language. Diacritics on Polish words form a "flock of sooty flecks, clinging to letters" and Lieutenant Anielewicz studies the tails, accents, and strokes that twist this script.While the Lieutenant can't write a coherent code to solve life's mysteries or to fill the absence of a country rent by war, his search for patterns throughout art, philosophy, and literature lead not to despair but to an affirmation of the importance of human love

FORMATPaperback LANGUAGEEnglish CONDITIONBrand New Author Biography

TOMASZ R _x017B_YCKI is the author of eleven volumes of poetry and prose. Over the last decade he has garnered almost every prize Poland has to offer as well as widespread critical acclaim, with work translated into numerous languages and frequent appearances at international festivals. In the U.S., he has been featured at the Unterberg Poetry Center, the Princeton Poetry Festival, and the Brooklyn Book Festival. His volume Colonies (translated by Mira Rosenthal) won the Northern California Book Award and was a finalist for numerous other prizes, including the International Griffin Poetry Prize and the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize.MIRA ROSENTHAL is the author of The Local World, which won the Wick Poetry Prize. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and Stanford University's Stegner Fellowship, and her work appears regularly in such journals as Poetry, Ploughshares, Threepenny Review, Guernica, Harvard Review, New England Review, A Public Space, and Oxford American. Her honors include a PEN/Heim Translation Fund Award, a Fulbright Fellowship, a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies, and residencies at Hedgebrook and MacDowell. She teaches creative writing at Cal Poly and lives on the central coast of California.

Table of Contents

I: Vacuum Theory1. Meadow  2. White Dwarf3. Scenario 4. To Give Water to the Thirsty5. First Poem for Menelik6. The Garden 7. Phantom 8. The Third Millennium9. When Do Acacias Bloom?10. The Place of "I" 11. The Clock12. Twelve Letters13. Pointers14. Heat Wave15. The Crisis of Polish Readership16. There Is No Answer17. / 18. Lavinia19. Vacuum Theory20. Mirror21. Elements22. The Measure of All Things23. A Room24. Dog25. A Few Hours26. Rain27. A Photograph28. Wild Strawberries29. Updraft30. Poor Painters31. Via Giulia32. Metamorphoses33. At the End of the Day II: The Third Planet34. Chaos Theory35. Effigy36. Ghost37. Message38. Inheritance39. A Turn40. Essential Features41. Hair by Hair42. The Eternal War of Opposites43. Glass Houses44. This Era45. Clay46. Contract47. Cocoon48. Settings49. Euromaidan50. An Act of Speech51. Lacki Brzeg, Ukraine52. In the Cave53. Revenge Bank54. Squiggle55. My Consultants56. Warsaw Saw War57. Demolition58. Two Days' Time59. The Third Planet 60. Rhythm, Order and Position61. Distillery62. Even Now63. The Crisis of the Polish State64. Wind65. Stone66. What of Him? III: Summer of Music67. Summer of Music68. Sorting 69. Why70. Scent71. Formula72. Summertime73. Porta Susa74. The Law of Conservation of Energy75. The Warmest Place 76. All-Night Shops77. Any Number78. The Crisis of Readership79. Spring Awakening80. Virus81. Puzzle82. Features83. Piazza del Nettuno84. An Unexpected Turn of Events85. The Silk Road86. Reverse87. In the Bushes88. A Glass89. This Dog's Life 90. Outside Prudnik 91. Backpack92. Never93. Shadow94. What Makes No Motion?95. The Cave of the Nymphs96. The Divine Comedy97. Second Poem for Menelik 98. The Trail Goes Cold99. Open

Review

"In this philosophical collection that explores doubt—regarding language, God, and the prospect of repeating history—many poems address an unreachable "you" who could be a lover, a deity, or a ghost of someone long dead. Rosenthal's translation draws out these poems' shades of melancholy and whimsy, along with the slant and irregular rhymes that contribute to their uncanny humor. Róycki's verse teems with sensuous, imaginatively rendered details." — The New Yorker"Across the ninety-nine poems of Polish poet Tomasz Róycki's To The Letter, presides a calling out to absence, often in the form of this "you" whether in loss—cultural, global, personal—or self-examination . . . This collection has, perhaps, added resonance landing in 2023: "You—out there where the future pushes through like a worm from an apple, only the hole is in heaven and so enormous we'll all fall in, along with tenements, convenience stores, our entire state—let's say it's nowhere—" A notable contribution to Polish poetry available in English–and a vital living voice, no less." — Rebecca Morgan Frank, LitHub"We live in feral times," the poet says, asking us "what shape this era will carve / in flesh." In Mira Rosenthal's exacting, beautiful translations, Tomasz Róycki's work gives us a moment of honest assessment, answering hard questions without patronizing, with lyric precision. One of Poland's best living poets, he is writing at the height of his powers. Which, for me, means: there is mystery in his work, that feels trustworthy—"we will dig ourselves out of our private muck /of subtext, shed the weight," he says, "and fly off, empty, for the nearest lightbulb." It is amongst the quotidian that he seeks to be saved, his is a vision in which despite all the tragedy of this new century, the thrush that sings "at two a.m. outside /our window in the parking lot has saved / the day, the month." If that is to be our new metaphysics, count me in. — Ilya Kaminsky, author of Deaf Republic and Dancing in Odessa"The poems are intimate and wry, philosophically complex, and charged with metaphors for absence and language itself." — Dana Isokawa, Poets & Writers Magazine"Irony is the spice of poetry . . . Róycki's irony can be caustic ("some people are so poor the only thing they have/is money, money"), or it can be sublimely political . . . Rosenthal deserves special praise for rendering Róycki's wordplay, musical density, and metonymic dazzle into powerful English . . . Róycki's poem as "rolled-up paper/gun" is a handmade, fragile, but potent technology for survival." — Ange Mlinko, The New York Review of Books"The past will never leave us. It will haunt our photographs; it will speak between the words that we read and write. Róycki's collection, brought to us through Rosenthal's beautiful translation, helps us remember that it is art that will lead us through to a bearable future, and art that will always speak the unspeakable." — Iris Dunkle, Words Without Borders"Mysterious events in Agualusa's stories reveal a kinship with García Márquez, whereas events of mysterious ambiguity fall into Bolaño's camp . . . Daniel Hahn's translation successfully conveys that straight-faced equanimity needed for staring absurdities in the eyes." — Tom Bowden, The Book Beat"[Mira Rosenthal's] English iterations fully relay the poems' accessibility, music, and humor—as well as the ways they integrate into surprising valences with creativity, love, and interbeing . . .To the Letter reminds us that fragmentation offers an opportunity to listen and create, that the blank spaces between words are places in which new life may yet be lived. It reminds us that the reader is doubly alive, watching and being watched, even from the shadows." — Michael Collins, Asymptote Journal"For Róycki, the void is . . . about loss—whether of the place he was forced to flee, or of the life he missed out on as a consequence . . . Where poetry usually stops at anguish, Róycki goes the whole length to realize the fullness of a proxy conjured by loss, the stranger who lives on in the mind." — Janani Ambikapathy, Harriet Books (the blog of the Poetry Foundation)

Details ISBN1953861725 Author Mira Rosenthal Pages 100 Publisher Archipelago Books Translator Mira Rosenthal ISBN-13 9781953861726 Format Paperback Imprint Archipelago Books Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States Translated from Polish AU Release Date 2023-11-28 NZ Release Date 2023-11-28 UK Release Date 2023-11-28 Subtitle Poems Audience General ISBN-10 1953861725 Language English Year 2024 Publication Date 2024-01-09 US Release Date 2024-01-09 DEWEY 891.85173 We've got this

At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it.With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love!

TheNile_Item_ID:157857909;