{"id":9130,"date":"2023-09-08T22:37:38","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T20:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/?p=9130"},"modified":"2026-03-19T17:00:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T16:00:45","slug":"adam-zagajewski-a-distinct-poet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/09\/08\/adam-zagajewski-a-distinct-poet\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam Zagajewski, a Distinct Poet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Polish Poetry Unites<\/em><\/strong><\/a> is\u202fa video series for anyone interested in literature, history and reading. In each episode Edward Hirsch<\/strong><\/a>, a distinguished American poet, and the president of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, will introduce a celebrated Polish poet to American audiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Watch the episode<\/a><\/strong> on our YouTube channel. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Edward Hirsch had been a close friend of Adam Zagajewski (1945-2021)\u202fsince 1987, when Adam accepted Ed\u2019s invitation to come to Houston and teach Creative Writing at the University of Houston. In the early 2000s, together they started a remarkable series of American and Polish poets\u2019 meetings in Krak\u00f3w which attracted the prominent poets or poets to be from both countries. Adam Zagajewski\u202f\u202fpublished nine poetry collections in English, including\u202fAsymmetry<\/em>,\u202fEternal Enemies<\/em>,\u202fWithout End<\/em>, and\u202fMysticism for Beginners<\/em>. Translated around the world, Zagajewski received many of literature\u2019s most prestigious international awards, such as the 2004 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the 2010 European Poetry Prize, the 2013 Zhongkun International Poetry Prize, and the 2017 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature.\u202f He has loyal readers around the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021 renowned American translator Clare Cavanagh talked about Adam Zagajewski and their collaboration over the years in one of the episodes of our video series \u201cEncounters with Polish Literature<\/strong><\/a>\u201d hosted by David A. Goldfarb, PhD: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAdam Zagajewski\u2019s poems put us in the presence of great mysteries. They deliver us to something that\u2019s deep and strange and perhaps even unlimited within ourselves. They have a certain kinship to prayer, a paradoxical feeling for truth, a fiery sense of quest and a keen longing for luminosity,\u201d says Edward Hirsch in the beginning of the video. \u201d…Adam\u2019s poems are everywhere shadowed by death, he\u2019s highly aware of the cruelty in the world, of historical forces that dominate so much of history through cruelty and violence. He was born in Lw\u00f3w, now Lviv, which [then] was part of Poland. His family was displaced by the Soviet invasion which threw out the Germans and then took over Poland. His family suffered under two totalitarianisms.\u202f\u202f\u202fHe moved to Krak\u00f3w to go to school, studied philosophy and became a poet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His poems were strongly social, they\u2019re protest poems. As he said the collectivity was both the subject and the addressee of these poems, which are politically righteous and seek for justice, but somewhat limited aesthetically. And so, Zagajewski began to give sway to another part of his temperament. He said there was something anarchic in himself that was not interested in politics but interested in poetry and music, and art.\u202fAs a Polish poet he was always aware of the communal, the collective, what was happening in his country. As a poet interested in philosophy and religion he was also interested in the sacred, in what was beautiful. That\u2019s why the title of his book of prose ’Solidarity, Solitude<\/em>’ talked so clearly about this dialogue in his work, this search, this movement between what was temporal and historical and what was atemporal and ahistorical.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a personal note Ed continues: \u201cMy friendship with Adam was one of the great friendships of my life. I\u2019m still reeling from his death. I\u2019m wearing his tie now, that his wife Maja gave to me.\u202f\u202fI loved his work before I loved him.\u202f<\/strong>\u202fI read his book ’Tremor<\/em>’ which was his first book translated into English and I immediately\u2013started lobbying to hire Adam in Houston.\u202f<\/strong>I didn\u2019t know if he spoke English at all, I didn\u2019t know if he had ever taught before. But I was so enamored of his poetry that I decided that I wanted to hire him, and so in 1988 he got off a plane in Houston. He was wearing a red scarf, and he had a German-English dictionary and a migraine headache and I wondered what I had done. But he quickly settled in, the next day we started talking about poetry and it never stopped, we talked for the rest of our lives about poetry. First he influenced me, then he began to influence our students in our creative writing program, and then as he began giving readings and lectures across the United States he influenced the entire American scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My own favorite poem of Adam\u2019s is his poem ’Self Portrait<\/em><\/strong><\/a>’ which tells us exactly what he was like. But the poem he\u2019s most famous for, is the poem ’Try to Praise the Mutilated World<\/em>.’ Most people think Adam wrote this poem in response to September 11. He did not. He wrote this poem before. Because as a Polish poet he was highly aware of the violence and cruelty in the world, of how the world had been mutilated by history. And at the same time he was seeking for something beyond this mutilation, something to praise.\u202fAnd after September 11, The New Yorker had this poem in its bank, and they very wisely decided to put it on its back page by itself surrounded in black crepe. This is the beautiful poem that you see wonderfully rendered in the film. Through that presentation of The New Yorker Adam\u2019s poem spoke not just to New Yorkers but to people in Poland and everywhere else in the world too.\u202f\u202f\u202fIt found its audience of people who were seeking something beyond the mutilations of history even as they acknowledged the mutilations of history and found something to praise. And it\u2019s this quest for praise that I think gives such incredible radiance and resonance to Zagajewski\u2019s work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the part two famous Polish jazz vocalist Urszula Dudziak<\/strong><\/a> is reciting \u201cTry to Praise the Mutilated World\u201d in the video produced and scripted by Ewa Zadrzynska\u202f\u202fand directed by a film director Zbig Rybczynski<\/strong><\/a>, another famous Pole having extensively worked in the US like Dudziak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spr\u00f3buj opiewa\u0107 okaleczony \u015bwiat<\/strong>
by Adam Zagajewski<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spr\u00f3buj opiewa\u0107 okaleczony \u015bwiat. 
Pami\u0119taj o d\u0142ugich dniach czerwca 
i o poziomkach, kroplach wina ros\u00e9. 
O pokrzywach, kt\u00f3re metodycznie zarasta\u0142y 
opuszczone domostwa wygnanych. 
Musisz opiewa\u0107 okaleczony \u015bwiat. 
Patrzy\u0142e\u015b na eleganckie jachty i okr\u0119ty; 
jeden z nich mia\u0142 przed sob\u0105 d\u0142ug\u0105 podr\u00f3\u017c, 
na inny czeka\u0142a tylko s\u0142ona nico\u015b\u0107. 
Widzia\u0142e\u015b uchod\u017ac\u00f3w, kt\u00f3rzy szli donik\u0105d, 
s\u0142ysza\u0142e\u015b oprawc\u00f3w, kt\u00f3rzy rado\u015bnie \u015bpiewali. 
Powiniene\u015b opiewa\u0107 okaleczony \u015bwiat. 
Pami\u0119taj o chwilach, kiedy byli\u015bcie razem 
w bia\u0142ym pokoju i firanka poruszy\u0142a si\u0119. 
Wr\u00f3\u0107 my\u015bl\u0105 do koncertu, kiedy wybuch\u0142a muzyka. 
Jesieni\u0105 zbiera\u0142e\u015b \u017co\u0142\u0119dzie w parku 
a li\u015bcie wirowa\u0142y nad bliznami ziemi. 
Opiewaj okaleczony \u015bwiat 
i szare pi\u00f3rko, zgubione przez drozda, 
i delikatne \u015bwiat\u0142o, kt\u00f3re b\u0142\u0105dzi i znika 
i powraca. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

wiersz z tomu \u202fAnteny<\/em> 
cyt. za: Adam Zagajewski,\u202fWiersze wybrane<\/em>, Wydawnictwo a5, Krak\u00f3w 2010, s. 250 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Try to praise the mutilated world<\/strong>
by Adam Zagajewski
translated, from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Try to praise the mutilated world.\u202f 
Remember June’s long days, 
and wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew. 
The nettles that methodically overgrow 
the abandoned homesteads of exiles. 
You must praise the mutilated world.\u202f 
You watched the stylish yachts and ships; 
one of them had a long trip ahead of it, 
while salty oblivion awaited others. 
You’ve seen the refugees heading nowhere, 
you’ve heard the executioners sing joyfully. 
You should praise the mutilated world. 
Remember the moments when we were together\u202f 
in a white room and the curtain fluttered. 
Return in thought to the concert where music flared. 
You gathered acorns in the park in autumn\u202f 
and leaves eddied over the earth’s scars. 
Praise the mutilated world 
and the gray feather a thrush lost, 
and the gentle light that strays and vanishes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Adam Zagajewski<\/strong>, (born June 21, 1945, Lw\u00f3w,\u202fPoland\u202f[now Lviv, Ukraine]\u2014died March 21, 2021, Krak\u00f3w), Polish poet, novelist, and essayist whose works were grounded in the turbulent history of his homeland and concerned with the quandary of the modern\u202fintellectual. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zagajewski\u2019s family had resided in Lw\u00f3w for many centuries. Shortly after Adam\u2019s birth, Lw\u00f3w was incorporated into the\u202fSoviet Union, and his family was forcibly repatriated to Poland. They moved to Silesia and then later to\u202fKrak\u00f3w, where Zagajewski graduated from the Jagiellonian University. His first collections of\u202fpoetry,\u202fKomunikat\u202f(1972; \u201cCommuniqu\u00e9\u201d) and\u202fSklepy mi\u0119sne\u202f(1975; \u201cMeat Shops\u201d), came out of the Polish New Wave movement, which rejected the falseness of official\u202fcommunist\u202fpropaganda. Zagajewski was a major figure in the\u202fSolidarity\u202fmovement of the 1980s, and his volume\u202fList: oda do wielo\u015bci\u202f(1982; \u201cLetter: An Ode to Multiplicity\u201d) contained poems reacting to the imposition of\u202fmartial law\u202fin Poland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zagajewski\u2019s writings interwove the historical and political with the more spiritual aspects of life. His first\u202fnovel,\u202fCiep\u0142o, zimno\u202f(1975; \u201cWarm and Cold\u201d), was about a young intellectual who, tormented by self-doubts and unable to accept unambiguous principles, became a servant of the police state. Zagajewski left Poland for Paris in 1982, and there his work grew more lyrical and more personal. A\u202fromantic\u202fin whose worldview memory and\u202fnostalgia\u202fwere key elements, Zagajewski never let go of his sense of loss of historical roots. In his\u202fmemoir\u202fW cudzym pi\u0119knie\u202f(1998;\u202fAnother Beauty), he wrote of his growing\u202fconviction\u202fthat \u201ca poem,\u202fessay, or story must grow from an emotion, an observation, a joy, a sorrow that is my own, and not my nation\u2019s.\u201d His second novel,\u202fCienka kreska\u202f(1983; \u201cThe Thin Line\u201d), explored the spiritual dilemma of the contemporary artist who is caught between the splendour and the triviality of everyday experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zagajewski served as coeditor of the Paris-based Polish-language\u202fZeszyty literackie\u202f(\u201cLiterary Review\u201d). He published several more volumes of poetry, including\u202fJecha\u0107 du Lwowa\u202f(1985; \u201cTraveling to Lw\u00f3w\u201d),\u202fZiemia ognista\u202f(1994; \u201cThe Fiery Land\u201d), and\u202fAnteny\u202f(2005; \u201cAntenna\u201d). And he received acclaim as an essayist with such collections as\u202fDrugi oddech\u202f(1978; \u201cSecond Wind\u201d),\u202fSolidarno\u015b\u0107 i samtono\u015b\u0107\u202f(1986;\u202fSolidarity and Solitude),\u202fDwa miasta\u202f(1991;\u202fTwo Cities: On Exile, History, and the Imagination), and\u202fObrona \u017carliwo\u015bci\u202f(2002;\u202fA Defense of Ardor). Zagajewski gained\u202fnotoriety\u202fin the\u202fUnited States\u202fwhen a translation of his poem \u201cTry to Praise the Mutilated World\u201d was published in\u202fThe New Yorker\u202fshortly after the\u202fSeptember 11 attacks\u202fof 2001. He received several notable literary awards, including the Swedish PEN\u2019s\u202fKurt Tucholsky\u202fPrize, the\u202fTomas Transtr\u00f6mer\u202fPrize, and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. In the first decade of the 21st century, he taught at the\u202fUniversity of Chicago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biography source: Britannica<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

More about Adam Zagajewski<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adam Zagajewski on Culture.pl<\/strong><\/a>
Culture.pl Interview: Adam Zagajewski – Poetry, Future, Childhood<\/strong><\/a>
Poetry Foundation: Adam Zagajewski<\/a>
Poets.org: Adam Zagajewski<\/a>
New Yorker: Adam Zagajewski<\/a>
LA Review of Books: Poetry Defend Itself, Adam Zagajewski<\/a>
Culture.pl: Both Light and Shadow – te Work of Adam Zagajewski<\/a>
Washington Post: Adam Zagajewski Translation 'True Life’<\/a>
The New York Times: Adam Zagajewski Dead<\/a>
The Guardian: Adam Zagajewski Obituary<\/a>
Harvard Review: In Memoriam – Adam Zagajewski<\/a><\/strong>
Strony Poezji: Spr\u00f3buj Opiewa\u0107 Okaleczony \u015awiat<\/strong><\/a> – in Polish, Adam Zagajewski reads his poem<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Moderator: Edward Hirsch<\/em>
Writer and Director: Ewa Zadrzy\u0144ska
Cinematography: Jacek Mieros\u0142awski
Editor: Anna J\u0119drzejewska
Curator and Executive Producer: Bartek Remisko<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Edward Hirsch<\/a><\/strong> is an American poet and critic who wrote a national bestseller about reading poetry entitled How to Read A Poem And Fall In Love With Poetry<\/strong><\/a> <\/em>published in 2014. He has published nine books of poems, including The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems<\/em> (2010) and Gabriel: A Poem<\/em> (2014), a book-length elegy for his son that The New Yorker called \u201ca masterpiece of sorrow.\u201d He has also published five prose books about poetry.  His latest book of essays, 100 Poems to Break your Heart<\/strong><\/a><\/em> was published in 2021.  He is president of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in New York City. Currently he is finishing a book of essays called The Heart of American Poetry<\/strong><\/a>. <\/em>It will be published in April to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Library of America. The book consists of deeply personal readings of forty essential American poems. It rethinks the American tradition in poetry.  Ed Hirsch lives in New York City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Polish Poetry Unites is\u202fa video series for anyone interested in literature, history and reading. In each episode Edward Hirsch, a distinguished American poet, and the president of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, will introduce a celebrated Polish poet to American audiences. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel. Edward Hirsch had been a close friend of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":9132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-literature"],"yoast_head":"\nAdam Zagajewski, a Distinct Poet - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/09\/08\/adam-zagajewski-a-distinct-poet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"pl_PL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Adam Zagajewski, a Distinct Poet - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Polish Poetry Unites is\u202fa video series for anyone interested in literature, history and reading. 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In each episode Edward Hirsch, a distinguished American poet, and the president of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, will introduce a celebrated Polish poet to American audiences. \\nWatch the episode on our YouTube channel. \\nEdward Hirsch had been a close friend of Adam Zagajewski (1945-2021)\u202fsince 1987, when Adam accepted Ed\u2019s invitation to come to Houston and teach Creative Writing at the University of Houston. In the early 2000s, together they started a remarkable series of American and Polish poets\u2019 meetings in Krak\u00f3w which attracted the prominent poets or poets to be from both countries. Adam Zagajewski\u202f\u202fpublished nine poetry collections in English, including\u202fAsymmetry,\u202fEternal Enemies,\u202fWithout End, and\u202fMysticism for Beginners. Translated around the world, Zagajewski received many of literature\u2019s most prestigious international awards, such as the 2004 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the 2010 European Poetry Prize, the 2013 Zhongkun International Poetry Prize, and the 2017 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature.\u202f He has loyal readers around the world. \\nIn 2021 renowned American translator Clare Cavanagh talked about Adam Zagajewski and their collaboration over the years in one of the episodes of our video series \u201cEncounters with Polish Literature\u201d hosted by David A. Goldfarb, PhD: \\n\u201cAdam Zagajewski\u2019s poems put us in the presence of great mysteries. They deliver us to something that\u2019s deep and strange and perhaps even unlimited within ourselves. They have a certain kinship to prayer, a paradoxical feeling for truth, a fiery sense of quest and a keen longing for luminosity,\u201d says Edward Hirsch in the beginning of the video. \u201d...Adam\u2019s poems are everywhere shadowed by death, he\u2019s highly aware of the cruelty in the world, of historical forces that dominate so much of history through cruelty and violence. He was born in Lw\u00f3w, now Lviv, which [then] was part of Poland. His family was displaced by the Soviet invasion which threw out the Germans and then took over Poland. His family suffered under two totalitarianisms.\u202f\u202f\u202fHe moved to Krak\u00f3w to go to school, studied philosophy and became a poet.\\nHis poems were strongly social, they\u2019re protest poems. As he said the collectivity was both the subject and the addressee of these poems, which are politically righteous and seek for justice, but somewhat limited aesthetically. And so, Zagajewski began to give sway to another part of his temperament. He said there was something anarchic in himself that was not interested in politics but interested in poetry and music, and art.\u202fAs a Polish poet he was always aware of the communal, the collective, what was happening in his country. As a poet interested in philosophy and religion he was also interested in the sacred, in what was beautiful. That\u2019s why the title of his book of prose 'Solidarity, Solitude' talked so clearly about this dialogue in his work, this search, this movement between what was temporal and historical and what was atemporal and ahistorical.\u201d\\nOn a personal note Ed continues: \u201cMy friendship with Adam was one of the great friendships of my life. I\u2019m still reeling from his death. I\u2019m wearing his tie now, that his wife Maja gave to me.\u202f\u202fI loved his work before I loved him.\u202f\u202fI read his book 'Tremor' which was his first book translated into English and I immediately\u2013started lobbying to hire Adam in Houston.\u202fI didn\u2019t know if he spoke English at all, I didn\u2019t know if he had ever taught before. But I was so enamored of his poetry that I decided that I wanted to hire him, and so in 1988 he got off a plane in Houston. He was wearing a red scarf, and he had a German-English dictionary and a migraine headache and I wondered what I had done. But he quickly settled in, the next day we started talking about poetry and it never stopped, we talked for the rest of our lives about poetry. First he influenced me, then he began to influence our students in our creative writing program, and then as he began giving readings and lectures across the United States he influenced the entire American scene.\\nMy own favorite poem of Adam\u2019s is his poem 'Self Portrait' which tells us exactly what he was like. But the poem he\u2019s most famous for, is the poem 'Try to Praise the Mutilated World.' Most people think Adam wrote this poem in response to September 11. He did not. He wrote this poem before. Because as a Polish poet he was highly aware of the violence and cruelty in the world, of how the world had been mutilated by history. And at the same time he was seeking for something beyond this mutilation, something to praise.\u202fAnd after September 11, The New Yorker had this poem in its bank, and they very wisely decided to put it on its back page by itself surrounded in black crepe. This is the beautiful poem that you see wonderfully rendered in the film. Through that presentation of The New Yorker Adam\u2019s poem spoke not just to New Yorkers but to people in Poland and everywhere else in the world too.\u202f\u202f\u202fIt found its audience of people who were seeking something beyond the mutilations of history even as they acknowledged the mutilations of history and found something to praise. And it\u2019s this quest for praise that I think gives such incredible radiance and resonance to Zagajewski\u2019s work.\u201d\\nIn the part two famous Polish jazz vocalist Urszula Dudziak is reciting \u201cTry to Praise the Mutilated World\u201d in the video produced and scripted by Ewa Zadrzynska\u202f\u202fand directed by a film director Zbig Rybczynski, another famous Pole having extensively worked in the US like Dudziak.\\nSpr\u00f3buj opiewa\u0107 okaleczony \u015bwiatby Adam Zagajewski\\nSpr\u00f3buj opiewa\u0107 okaleczony \u015bwiat. Pami\u0119taj o d\u0142ugich dniach czerwca i o poziomkach, kroplach wina ros\u00e9. O pokrzywach, kt\u00f3re metodycznie zarasta\u0142y opuszczone domostwa wygnanych. Musisz opiewa\u0107 okaleczony \u015bwiat. Patrzy\u0142e\u015b na eleganckie jachty i okr\u0119ty; jeden z nich mia\u0142 przed sob\u0105 d\u0142ug\u0105 podr\u00f3\u017c, na inny czeka\u0142a tylko s\u0142ona nico\u015b\u0107. Widzia\u0142e\u015b uchod\u017ac\u00f3w, kt\u00f3rzy szli donik\u0105d, s\u0142ysza\u0142e\u015b oprawc\u00f3w, kt\u00f3rzy rado\u015bnie \u015bpiewali. Powiniene\u015b opiewa\u0107 okaleczony \u015bwiat. Pami\u0119taj o chwilach, kiedy byli\u015bcie razem w bia\u0142ym pokoju i firanka poruszy\u0142a si\u0119. Wr\u00f3\u0107 my\u015bl\u0105 do koncertu, kiedy wybuch\u0142a muzyka. Jesieni\u0105 zbiera\u0142e\u015b \u017co\u0142\u0119dzie w parku a li\u015bcie wirowa\u0142y nad bliznami ziemi. Opiewaj okaleczony \u015bwiat i szare pi\u00f3rko, zgubione przez drozda, i delikatne \u015bwiat\u0142o, kt\u00f3re b\u0142\u0105dzi i znika i powraca. \\nwiersz z tomu \u202fAnteny cyt. za: Adam Zagajewski,\u202fWiersze wybrane, Wydawnictwo a5, Krak\u00f3w 2010, s. 250 \\nTry to praise the mutilated worldby Adam Zagajewskitranslated, from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh\\nTry to praise the mutilated world.\u202f Remember June's long days, and wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew. The nettles that methodically overgrow the abandoned homesteads of exiles. You must praise the mutilated world.\u202f You watched the stylish yachts and ships; one of them had a long trip ahead of it, while salty oblivion awaited others. You've seen the refugees heading nowhere, you've heard the executioners sing joyfully. You should praise the mutilated world. Remember the moments when we were together\u202f in a white room and the curtain fluttered. Return in thought to the concert where music flared. You gathered acorns in the park in autumn\u202f and leaves eddied over the earth's scars. Praise the mutilated world and the gray feather a thrush lost, and the gentle light that strays and vanishes.\\nAdam Zagajewski, (born June 21, 1945, Lw\u00f3w,\u202fPoland\u202f[now Lviv, Ukraine]\u2014died March 21, 2021, Krak\u00f3w), Polish poet, novelist, and essayist whose works were grounded in the turbulent history of his homeland and concerned with the quandary of the modern\u202fintellectual. \\nZagajewski\u2019s family had resided in Lw\u00f3w for many centuries. Shortly after Adam\u2019s birth, Lw\u00f3w was incorporated into the\u202fSoviet Union, and his family was forcibly repatriated to Poland. They moved to Silesia and then later to\u202fKrak\u00f3w, where Zagajewski graduated from the Jagiellonian University. His first collections of\u202fpoetry,\u202fKomunikat\u202f(1972; \u201cCommuniqu\u00e9\u201d) and\u202fSklepy mi\u0119sne\u202f(1975; \u201cMeat Shops\u201d), came out of the Polish New Wave movement, which rejected the falseness of official\u202fcommunist\u202fpropaganda. Zagajewski was a major figure in the\u202fSolidarity\u202fmovement of the 1980s, and his volume\u202fList: oda do wielo\u015bci\u202f(1982; \u201cLetter: An Ode to Multiplicity\u201d) contained poems reacting to the imposition of\u202fmartial law\u202fin Poland. \\nZagajewski\u2019s writings interwove the historical and political with the more spiritual aspects of life. His first\u202fnovel,\u202fCiep\u0142o, zimno\u202f(1975; \u201cWarm and Cold\u201d), was about a young intellectual who, tormented by self-doubts and unable to accept unambiguous principles, became a servant of the police state. Zagajewski left Poland for Paris in 1982, and there his work grew more lyrical and more personal. A\u202fromantic\u202fin whose worldview memory and\u202fnostalgia\u202fwere key elements, Zagajewski never let go of his sense of loss of historical roots. In his\u202fmemoir\u202fW cudzym pi\u0119knie\u202f(1998;\u202fAnother Beauty), he wrote of his growing\u202fconviction\u202fthat \u201ca poem,\u202fessay, or story must grow from an emotion, an observation, a joy, a sorrow that is my own, and not my nation\u2019s.\u201d His second novel,\u202fCienka kreska\u202f(1983; \u201cThe Thin Line\u201d), explored the spiritual dilemma of the contemporary artist who is caught between the splendour and the triviality of everyday experience. \\nZagajewski served as coeditor of the Paris-based Polish-language\u202fZeszyty literackie\u202f(\u201cLiterary Review\u201d). He published several more volumes of poetry, including\u202fJecha\u0107 du Lwowa\u202f(1985; \u201cTraveling to Lw\u00f3w\u201d),\u202fZiemia ognista\u202f(1994; \u201cThe Fiery Land\u201d), and\u202fAnteny\u202f(2005; \u201cAntenna\u201d). And he received acclaim as an essayist with such collections as\u202fDrugi oddech\u202f(1978; \u201cSecond Wind\u201d),\u202fSolidarno\u015b\u0107 i samtono\u015b\u0107\u202f(1986;\u202fSolidarity and Solitude),\u202fDwa miasta\u202f(1991;\u202fTwo Cities: On Exile, History, and the Imagination), and\u202fObrona \u017carliwo\u015bci\u202f(2002;\u202fA Defense of Ardor). Zagajewski gained\u202fnotoriety\u202fin the\u202fUnited States\u202fwhen a translation of his poem \u201cTry to Praise the Mutilated World\u201d was published in\u202fThe New Yorker\u202fshortly after the\u202fSeptember 11 attacks\u202fof 2001. He received several notable literary awards, including the Swedish PEN\u2019s\u202fKurt Tucholsky\u202fPrize, the\u202fTomas Transtr\u00f6mer\u202fPrize, and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. In the first decade of the 21st century, he taught at the\u202fUniversity of Chicago.\\nBiography source: Britannica.\\nMore about Adam Zagajewski\\nAdam Zagajewski on Culture.plCulture.pl Interview: Adam Zagajewski - Poetry, Future, ChildhoodPoetry Foundation: Adam ZagajewskiPoets.org: Adam ZagajewskiNew Yorker: Adam ZagajewskiLA Review of Books: Poetry Defend Itself, Adam ZagajewskiCulture.pl: Both Light and Shadow - te Work of Adam ZagajewskiWashington Post: Adam Zagajewski Translation 'True Life'The New York Times: Adam Zagajewski DeadThe Guardian: Adam Zagajewski ObituaryHarvard Review: In Memoriam - Adam ZagajewskiStrony Poezji: Spr\u00f3buj Opiewa\u0107 Okaleczony \u015awiat - in Polish, Adam Zagajewski reads his poem\\nModerator: Edward HirschWriter and Director: Ewa Zadrzy\u0144skaCinematography: Jacek Mieros\u0142awskiEditor: Anna J\u0119drzejewskaCurator and Executive Producer: Bartek Remisko\\nEdward Hirsch is an American poet and critic who wrote a national bestseller about reading poetry entitled How to Read A Poem And Fall In Love With Poetry published in 2014. He has published nine books of poems, including The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems (2010) and Gabriel: A Poem (2014), a book-length elegy for his son that The New Yorker called \u201ca masterpiece of sorrow.\u201d He has also published five prose books about poetry. His latest book of essays, 100 Poems to Break your Heart was published in 2021. He is president of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in New York City. Currently he is finishing a book of essays called The Heart of American Poetry. It will be published in April to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Library of America. The book consists of deeply personal readings of forty essential American poems. It rethinks the American tradition in poetry. Ed Hirsch lives in New York City.\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/09\/08\/adam-zagajewski-a-distinct-poet\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/09\/Adam-Zagajewski-by-MICHAL-LEPECKI.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/09\/Adam-Zagajewski-by-MICHAL-LEPECKI.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/09\/08\/adam-zagajewski-a-distinct-poet\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Adam Zagajewski, a Distinct Poet\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/\",\"name\":\"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku\",\"description\":\"Instytuty Polskie\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/04d40cd80c1729a7f440613bee4073b6\",\"name\":\"klaudia\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/649cd2d4f6b3f48c5bf42d51f7e665fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/649cd2d4f6b3f48c5bf42d51f7e665fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"klaudia\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/lukasz.sienkiewicz@msz.gov.pl\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/author\/stypulkowskaa\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Adam Zagajewski, a Distinct Poet - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/09\/08\/adam-zagajewski-a-distinct-poet\/","og_locale":"pl_PL","og_type":"article","og_title":"Adam Zagajewski, a Distinct Poet - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","og_description":"Polish Poetry Unites is\u202fa video series for anyone interested in literature, history and reading. In each episode Edward Hirsch, a distinguished American poet, and the president of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, will introduce a celebrated Polish poet to American audiences. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel. Edward Hirsch had been a close friend of […]","og_url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/09\/08\/adam-zagajewski-a-distinct-poet\/","og_site_name":"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","article_published_time":"2023-09-08T20:37:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-03-19T16:00:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/09\/Adam-Zagajewski-by-MICHAL-LEPECKI.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"klaudia","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Napisane przez":"klaudia","Szacowany czas czytania":"13 minut"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"event","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/09\/08\/adam-zagajewski-a-distinct-poet\/","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/09\/08\/adam-zagajewski-a-distinct-poet\/","name":"Adam Zagajewski, a Distinct Poet","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/09\/08\/adam-zagajewski-a-distinct-poet\/#primaryimage"},"image":["https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/09\/Adam-Zagajewski-by-MICHAL-LEPECKI.jpg","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/09\/Adam-Zagajewski-by-MICHAL-LEPECKI-300x200.jpg","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/09\/Adam-Zagajewski-by-MICHAL-LEPECKI-1024x683.jpg","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/09\/Adam-Zagajewski-by-MICHAL-LEPECKI.jpg"],"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/09\/Adam-Zagajewski-by-MICHAL-LEPECKI.jpg","datePublished":"2023-09-08T20:37:38+02:00","dateModified":"2026-03-19T16:00:45+02:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/04d40cd80c1729a7f440613bee4073b6"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/09\/08\/adam-zagajewski-a-distinct-poet\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"pl-PL","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/09\/08\/adam-zagajewski-a-distinct-poet\/"]}],"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","startDate":"2023-09-08","endDate":"2023-09-08","eventStatus":"EventScheduled","eventAttendanceMode":"OfflineEventAttendanceMode","location":{"@type":"place","name":"","address":"","geo":{"@type":"GeoCoordinates","latitude":"","longitude":""}},"description":"Polish Poetry Unites is\u202fa video series for anyone interested in literature, history and reading. In each episode Edward Hirsch, a distinguished American poet, and the president of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, will introduce a celebrated Polish poet to American audiences. \nWatch the episode on our YouTube channel. \nEdward Hirsch had been a close friend of Adam Zagajewski (1945-2021)\u202fsince 1987, when Adam accepted Ed\u2019s invitation to come to Houston and teach Creative Writing at the University of Houston. In the early 2000s, together they started a remarkable series of American and Polish poets\u2019 meetings in Krak\u00f3w which attracted the prominent poets or poets to be from both countries. Adam Zagajewski\u202f\u202fpublished nine poetry collections in English, including\u202fAsymmetry,\u202fEternal Enemies,\u202fWithout End, and\u202fMysticism for Beginners. Translated around the world, Zagajewski received many of literature\u2019s most prestigious international awards, such as the 2004 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the 2010 European Poetry Prize, the 2013 Zhongkun International Poetry Prize, and the 2017 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature.\u202f He has loyal readers around the world. \nIn 2021 renowned American translator Clare Cavanagh talked about Adam Zagajewski and their collaboration over the years in one of the episodes of our video series \u201cEncounters with Polish Literature\u201d hosted by David A. Goldfarb, PhD: \n\u201cAdam Zagajewski\u2019s poems put us in the presence of great mysteries. They deliver us to something that\u2019s deep and strange and perhaps even unlimited within ourselves. They have a certain kinship to prayer, a paradoxical feeling for truth, a fiery sense of quest and a keen longing for luminosity,\u201d says Edward Hirsch in the beginning of the video. \u201d...Adam\u2019s poems are everywhere shadowed by death, he\u2019s highly aware of the cruelty in the world, of historical forces that dominate so much of history through cruelty and violence. He was born in Lw\u00f3w, now Lviv, which [then] was part of Poland. His family was displaced by the Soviet invasion which threw out the Germans and then took over Poland. His family suffered under two totalitarianisms.\u202f\u202f\u202fHe moved to Krak\u00f3w to go to school, studied philosophy and became a poet.\nHis poems were strongly social, they\u2019re protest poems. As he said the collectivity was both the subject and the addressee of these poems, which are politically righteous and seek for justice, but somewhat limited aesthetically. And so, Zagajewski began to give sway to another part of his temperament. He said there was something anarchic in himself that was not interested in politics but interested in poetry and music, and art.\u202fAs a Polish poet he was always aware of the communal, the collective, what was happening in his country. As a poet interested in philosophy and religion he was also interested in the sacred, in what was beautiful. That\u2019s why the title of his book of prose 'Solidarity, Solitude' talked so clearly about this dialogue in his work, this search, this movement between what was temporal and historical and what was atemporal and ahistorical.\u201d\nOn a personal note Ed continues: \u201cMy friendship with Adam was one of the great friendships of my life. I\u2019m still reeling from his death. I\u2019m wearing his tie now, that his wife Maja gave to me.\u202f\u202fI loved his work before I loved him.\u202f\u202fI read his book 'Tremor' which was his first book translated into English and I immediately\u2013started lobbying to hire Adam in Houston.\u202fI didn\u2019t know if he spoke English at all, I didn\u2019t know if he had ever taught before. But I was so enamored of his poetry that I decided that I wanted to hire him, and so in 1988 he got off a plane in Houston. He was wearing a red scarf, and he had a German-English dictionary and a migraine headache and I wondered what I had done. But he quickly settled in, the next day we started talking about poetry and it never stopped, we talked for the rest of our lives about poetry. First he influenced me, then he began to influence our students in our creative writing program, and then as he began giving readings and lectures across the United States he influenced the entire American scene.\nMy own favorite poem of Adam\u2019s is his poem 'Self Portrait' which tells us exactly what he was like. But the poem he\u2019s most famous for, is the poem 'Try to Praise the Mutilated World.' Most people think Adam wrote this poem in response to September 11. He did not. He wrote this poem before. Because as a Polish poet he was highly aware of the violence and cruelty in the world, of how the world had been mutilated by history. And at the same time he was seeking for something beyond this mutilation, something to praise.\u202fAnd after September 11, The New Yorker had this poem in its bank, and they very wisely decided to put it on its back page by itself surrounded in black crepe. This is the beautiful poem that you see wonderfully rendered in the film. Through that presentation of The New Yorker Adam\u2019s poem spoke not just to New Yorkers but to people in Poland and everywhere else in the world too.\u202f\u202f\u202fIt found its audience of people who were seeking something beyond the mutilations of history even as they acknowledged the mutilations of history and found something to praise. And it\u2019s this quest for praise that I think gives such incredible radiance and resonance to Zagajewski\u2019s work.\u201d\nIn the part two famous Polish jazz vocalist Urszula Dudziak is reciting \u201cTry to Praise the Mutilated World\u201d in the video produced and scripted by Ewa Zadrzynska\u202f\u202fand directed by a film director Zbig Rybczynski, another famous Pole having extensively worked in the US like Dudziak.\nSpr\u00f3buj opiewa\u0107 okaleczony \u015bwiatby Adam Zagajewski\nSpr\u00f3buj opiewa\u0107 okaleczony \u015bwiat. Pami\u0119taj o d\u0142ugich dniach czerwca i o poziomkach, kroplach wina ros\u00e9. O pokrzywach, kt\u00f3re metodycznie zarasta\u0142y opuszczone domostwa wygnanych. Musisz opiewa\u0107 okaleczony \u015bwiat. Patrzy\u0142e\u015b na eleganckie jachty i okr\u0119ty; jeden z nich mia\u0142 przed sob\u0105 d\u0142ug\u0105 podr\u00f3\u017c, na inny czeka\u0142a tylko s\u0142ona nico\u015b\u0107. Widzia\u0142e\u015b uchod\u017ac\u00f3w, kt\u00f3rzy szli donik\u0105d, s\u0142ysza\u0142e\u015b oprawc\u00f3w, kt\u00f3rzy rado\u015bnie \u015bpiewali. Powiniene\u015b opiewa\u0107 okaleczony \u015bwiat. Pami\u0119taj o chwilach, kiedy byli\u015bcie razem w bia\u0142ym pokoju i firanka poruszy\u0142a si\u0119. Wr\u00f3\u0107 my\u015bl\u0105 do koncertu, kiedy wybuch\u0142a muzyka. Jesieni\u0105 zbiera\u0142e\u015b \u017co\u0142\u0119dzie w parku a li\u015bcie wirowa\u0142y nad bliznami ziemi. Opiewaj okaleczony \u015bwiat i szare pi\u00f3rko, zgubione przez drozda, i delikatne \u015bwiat\u0142o, kt\u00f3re b\u0142\u0105dzi i znika i powraca. \nwiersz z tomu \u202fAnteny cyt. za: Adam Zagajewski,\u202fWiersze wybrane, Wydawnictwo a5, Krak\u00f3w 2010, s. 250 \nTry to praise the mutilated worldby Adam Zagajewskitranslated, from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh\nTry to praise the mutilated world.\u202f Remember June's long days, and wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew. The nettles that methodically overgrow the abandoned homesteads of exiles. You must praise the mutilated world.\u202f You watched the stylish yachts and ships; one of them had a long trip ahead of it, while salty oblivion awaited others. You've seen the refugees heading nowhere, you've heard the executioners sing joyfully. You should praise the mutilated world. Remember the moments when we were together\u202f in a white room and the curtain fluttered. Return in thought to the concert where music flared. You gathered acorns in the park in autumn\u202f and leaves eddied over the earth's scars. Praise the mutilated world and the gray feather a thrush lost, and the gentle light that strays and vanishes.\nAdam Zagajewski, (born June 21, 1945, Lw\u00f3w,\u202fPoland\u202f[now Lviv, Ukraine]\u2014died March 21, 2021, Krak\u00f3w), Polish poet, novelist, and essayist whose works were grounded in the turbulent history of his homeland and concerned with the quandary of the modern\u202fintellectual. \nZagajewski\u2019s family had resided in Lw\u00f3w for many centuries. Shortly after Adam\u2019s birth, Lw\u00f3w was incorporated into the\u202fSoviet Union, and his family was forcibly repatriated to Poland. They moved to Silesia and then later to\u202fKrak\u00f3w, where Zagajewski graduated from the Jagiellonian University. His first collections of\u202fpoetry,\u202fKomunikat\u202f(1972; \u201cCommuniqu\u00e9\u201d) and\u202fSklepy mi\u0119sne\u202f(1975; \u201cMeat Shops\u201d), came out of the Polish New Wave movement, which rejected the falseness of official\u202fcommunist\u202fpropaganda. Zagajewski was a major figure in the\u202fSolidarity\u202fmovement of the 1980s, and his volume\u202fList: oda do wielo\u015bci\u202f(1982; \u201cLetter: An Ode to Multiplicity\u201d) contained poems reacting to the imposition of\u202fmartial law\u202fin Poland. \nZagajewski\u2019s writings interwove the historical and political with the more spiritual aspects of life. His first\u202fnovel,\u202fCiep\u0142o, zimno\u202f(1975; \u201cWarm and Cold\u201d), was about a young intellectual who, tormented by self-doubts and unable to accept unambiguous principles, became a servant of the police state. Zagajewski left Poland for Paris in 1982, and there his work grew more lyrical and more personal. A\u202fromantic\u202fin whose worldview memory and\u202fnostalgia\u202fwere key elements, Zagajewski never let go of his sense of loss of historical roots. In his\u202fmemoir\u202fW cudzym pi\u0119knie\u202f(1998;\u202fAnother Beauty), he wrote of his growing\u202fconviction\u202fthat \u201ca poem,\u202fessay, or story must grow from an emotion, an observation, a joy, a sorrow that is my own, and not my nation\u2019s.\u201d His second novel,\u202fCienka kreska\u202f(1983; \u201cThe Thin Line\u201d), explored the spiritual dilemma of the contemporary artist who is caught between the splendour and the triviality of everyday experience. \nZagajewski served as coeditor of the Paris-based Polish-language\u202fZeszyty literackie\u202f(\u201cLiterary Review\u201d). He published several more volumes of poetry, including\u202fJecha\u0107 du Lwowa\u202f(1985; \u201cTraveling to Lw\u00f3w\u201d),\u202fZiemia ognista\u202f(1994; \u201cThe Fiery Land\u201d), and\u202fAnteny\u202f(2005; \u201cAntenna\u201d). And he received acclaim as an essayist with such collections as\u202fDrugi oddech\u202f(1978; \u201cSecond Wind\u201d),\u202fSolidarno\u015b\u0107 i samtono\u015b\u0107\u202f(1986;\u202fSolidarity and Solitude),\u202fDwa miasta\u202f(1991;\u202fTwo Cities: On Exile, History, and the Imagination), and\u202fObrona \u017carliwo\u015bci\u202f(2002;\u202fA Defense of Ardor). Zagajewski gained\u202fnotoriety\u202fin the\u202fUnited States\u202fwhen a translation of his poem \u201cTry to Praise the Mutilated World\u201d was published in\u202fThe New Yorker\u202fshortly after the\u202fSeptember 11 attacks\u202fof 2001. He received several notable literary awards, including the Swedish PEN\u2019s\u202fKurt Tucholsky\u202fPrize, the\u202fTomas Transtr\u00f6mer\u202fPrize, and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. In the first decade of the 21st century, he taught at the\u202fUniversity of Chicago.\nBiography source: Britannica.\nMore about Adam Zagajewski\nAdam Zagajewski on Culture.plCulture.pl Interview: Adam Zagajewski - Poetry, Future, ChildhoodPoetry Foundation: Adam ZagajewskiPoets.org: Adam ZagajewskiNew Yorker: Adam ZagajewskiLA Review of Books: Poetry Defend Itself, Adam ZagajewskiCulture.pl: Both Light and Shadow - te Work of Adam ZagajewskiWashington Post: Adam Zagajewski Translation 'True Life'The New York Times: Adam Zagajewski DeadThe Guardian: Adam Zagajewski ObituaryHarvard Review: In Memoriam - Adam ZagajewskiStrony Poezji: Spr\u00f3buj Opiewa\u0107 Okaleczony \u015awiat - in Polish, Adam Zagajewski reads his poem\nModerator: Edward HirschWriter and Director: Ewa Zadrzy\u0144skaCinematography: Jacek Mieros\u0142awskiEditor: Anna J\u0119drzejewskaCurator and Executive Producer: Bartek Remisko\nEdward Hirsch is an American poet and critic who wrote a national bestseller about reading poetry entitled How to Read A Poem And Fall In Love With Poetry published in 2014. He has published nine books of poems, including The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems (2010) and Gabriel: A Poem (2014), a book-length elegy for his son that The New Yorker called \u201ca masterpiece of sorrow.\u201d He has also published five prose books about poetry. His latest book of essays, 100 Poems to Break your Heart was published in 2021. He is president of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in New York City. Currently he is finishing a book of essays called The Heart of American Poetry. It will be published in April to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Library of America. The book consists of deeply personal readings of forty essential American poems. It rethinks the American tradition in poetry. Ed Hirsch lives in New York City."},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"pl-PL","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/09\/08\/adam-zagajewski-a-distinct-poet\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/09\/Adam-Zagajewski-by-MICHAL-LEPECKI.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/09\/Adam-Zagajewski-by-MICHAL-LEPECKI.jpg","width":1200,"height":800},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/09\/08\/adam-zagajewski-a-distinct-poet\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Adam Zagajewski, a Distinct Poet"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/","name":"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","description":"Instytuty Polskie","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"pl-PL"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/04d40cd80c1729a7f440613bee4073b6","name":"klaudia","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"pl-PL","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/649cd2d4f6b3f48c5bf42d51f7e665fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/649cd2d4f6b3f48c5bf42d51f7e665fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"klaudia"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/lukasz.sienkiewicz@msz.gov.pl"],"url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/author\/stypulkowskaa\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9130"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20114,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9130\/revisions\/20114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}