Born in 1945, a poet, novelist, essayist and the winner of many prestigious literary prizes.

He was born in Lwów but never lived there: his parents were repatriated to Poland shortly after his birth. He spent his childhood in Gliwice, in Silesia. He became well known as the leading poet of the "Generation of 1968". He took part in the unofficial literary movement of the 1970s, and moved to Paris in 1982. He joined the staff of "Zeszyty Literackie" there. He has also lectured on creative writing at the University of Houston.

His first collections of poetry, "Communique / Komunikat" (1972) and "Meat Shops / Sklepy mięsne" (1975), carried out his generation's program of speaking the truth about the public realities around him and exposing the falsity of the official language. His volume "Letter: An Ode to Multiplicity / List. Oda do wielości" (1982) included poems that reacted to the imposition of Martial Law, but also contained those themes that were to become a permanent feature of Zagajewski's work: meditative poems full of question marks and essays written by a "problematic person". Zagajewski's standard poetic themes include a constant questioning of the biographical-existential role of the protagonist of lyric poetry, and praise for life viewed in "its changeability, its pulsation, its ambiguity" (as he wrote in "Solidarity and Solitude / Solidarność i samotność" (1986). Other themes are immersion in European culture and the contemplation of its heritage, reaching into the depths of his own roots (the poem "Traveling to Lvov / Jechać do Lwowa", 1985), and the exploration of variations on his own fate by trying on costumes and masks. A frequently recurring image in Zagajewski's poems is that of a pensive wanderer with a book in his hand, traveling through a world "borrowed from the great library" ("The Canvas / Płótno", 1986). Similar themes are found in his prose. The novel "Warm and Cold / Ciepło, zimno" (1975) recounts the passage into adult life and exposure to temptation of a young intellectual: he is tormented by doubts and by an inability to opt for a world of unambiguous principles. As a result, he begins to serve the police state. The subsequent novels "The Thin Line / Cienka kreska" (1983) and "Absolute Pitch / Słuch absolutny" (published only in German translation) recount the spiritual conundrums of the contemporary artist. "I understood that the world is double, divided, splendid and trivial at once, ponderous and feathery, heroic and cowardly," a communist functionary finally admits in the short story "Treason" in the collection "Two Cities", 1991. Zagajewski's essays present the world in a similar way. After the youthful literary manifesto "The Unpresented World / Świat nieprzedstawiony" (1974), they become a series of chapters in the author's spiritual autobiography. "Solidarity and Solitude" (1986) highlights the pathologies and illusions of a culture too deeply involved in politics while weighing the dilemmas that face writers and artists today. The prose and mini-essays in "Two Cities" and "In the Beauty of Others" (1998) contain philosophical deliberations and reflections on reading and travelling through Europe. Zagajewski writes about Cracow and about Paris, about the cities of his childhood and the mythical cities of his "Central European" education, about Nietzsche, Junger, Bruno Schulz, Cioran, and Gottfried Benn, as well as about the dangers that our society presents to spiritual life and the paradoxes that arise when there are more and more informational media and less and less information worth conveying, as well as many other issues and figures who are crucial to our modern times.

"I will never be someone who writes only about bird song, although I admire birdsong highly - but not enough to withdraw from the historical world, for the historical world is fascinating. What really interests me is the interweaving of the historical and cosmic world. The cosmic world is unmoving - or rather, it moves to a completely different rhythm. I shall never know how these worlds coexist. They are in conflict, yet they complement each other - and that merits our reflection." (Adam Zagajewski)

Source: www.polska2000.pl, Copyright: Stowarzyszenie Willa Decjusza

Selected Bibliography

Poetry:

• "Komunikat (Communique)". Cracow: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1972.
• "Sklepy miesne (Meat Shops)". Cracow: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1975.
• "Letter: An Ode to Multiplicity". Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1983.
• "Jechac do Lwowa (Travelling to Lwow)". London: Aneks, 1985.
• "Płótno (The Canvas)". Paris: Zeszyty Literackie, 1990.
• "Ziemia ognista (The Fiery Land)". Poznan: a5, 1994.
• "Pragnienie (Desire)". Cracow: a5, 1999.

Novels and Other Prose:

• "Cieplo, zimno (Warm and Cold)". Warsaw: PIW, 1975.
• "Cienka kreska (The Thin Line)". Cracow: Znak, 1978.

Essays:

• "Swiat nieprzedstawiony (The Unpresented World)" (With Julian Kornhauser). Cracow: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1974.
• "Drugi oddech (Second Wind)". Cracow: Znak, 1978.
• "Solidarnosc i samotnosc (Solidarity and Solitude)". Paris: Zeszyty literackie, 1986.
• "Dwa miasta (Two Cities)". Paris-Cracow, 1991.
• "W cudzym pieknie (In the Beauty of Others)". Cracow: a5, 1998.
• "Obrona zarliwosci (In Defense of Passion)". Krakow: a5, 2002 "(more...)".

Selected translations

• English: "Tremor: selected poems", New York : Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1985; "Mysticism for beginners", New York : Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c1997; "Trzej aniolowie. Three Angels", Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1998; "Solidarity, solitude: essays (Solidarnosc i samotnosc)", Ecco Press, 1990); "Canvas", New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1991; "Another beauty (W cudzym pieknie)", New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2000; "Without end: new and selected poems", New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2001.
• German: "Gedichte", München: Carl Hauser Verlag, 1984; "Stündlich Nachrichten", (antology), Berlin: Oberbaum, 1984; "Der dünne Strich, (Cienka kreska)", München: Hanser, 1985; "Polen. Staat im Schatten der Sowjetunion", Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowolth, 1981; "Das absolute Gehör (Sluch absolutny)", Zürich: Unionsverlag, 1982; "Solidarität und Einsamkeit". Essays, München: Hanser, 1986; "Mystik für Anfänger". Gedichte, München: Hanser, 1997.
• French: "Solidarité, Solitude (Solidarnosc i samotnosc)", Édition Fayard, 1986; "Coup de crayon (Cienka kreska)", Édition Fayard, 1987; "La Trahison (Dwa miasta)", Édition Fayard, 1993; "Palissade, Marronniers, Liseron, Dieu", Édition Fayard, 1989.
• Swedish: "Ode till mangfallen". Stockholm: Hoganas, 1987.
• Slovakian: "Dive ceresne". Bratislava, 1994.

Browsing history