Adam Zagajewski

Polish poet (1945-2021)

Adam Zagajewski (21 June 1945 – 21 March 2021) was a Polish poet, novelist, translator and essayist. His poem "Try To Praise The Mutilated World", printed in The New Yorker, became famous after the September 11 attacks.

Adam Zagajewski in 2009

Quotes

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  • 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
    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
    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
    and returns.
  • Our life is ordinary,
    I read in a crumpled paper
    abandoned on a bench.
    Our life is ordinary,
    the philosophers told me.
  • December, herald of destruction,
    takes you on a long stroll
    through the black torsos of trees
    and leaves scorched in autumn’s fire,

    as if to say: so much then for
    your secrets and your treasures,
    the fervent trill of small birds,
    the promises of summer months.

    • December.
  • Don't allow the lucid moment to dissolve
    Let the radiant thought last in stillness
    though the page is almost filled and the flame flickers
    We haven't risen yet to the level of ourselves.
    • Don't Allow The Lucid Moment To Dissolve.
  • Probably I am an ordinary middle-class
    believer in individual rights, the word
    "freedom" is simple to me, it doesn't mean
    the freedom of any class in particular.
    • Fire.
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