Such Times: Selected Poems

by Ewa Lipska, Krystyna Sadowska, John Roberto Colombo

Such Times is the first collection in English of the poems of the talented young Polish Poet, Ewa Lipska. The fifty-six poems in this volume have been selected from the 139 that appear in Dom Spokojnej Młodości: Wierze Wybrane (The Home for Peaceful Youth: Selected Poems) published in Cracow, in 1979. Even in English translation the poems convey the vivid impression of an alert mind, torn emotions, quirky temperament, highly individual talent. As well, they dramatize much of the poet's time and place.

Genres: Poetry, Poland

67 pages, Paperback

First published March 3, 1981

About the author

Ewa Lipska, born October 8, 1945, in Kraków is a Polish poet from the generation of the Polish "New Wave." Collections of her verse have been translated into English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, German and Hungarian. She lives in Vienna and Kraków.

The Adam Mickiewicz Institute commented: "While her verse may have some connections with politics, it always documents concrete personal experiences without reaching for grand generalizations. As it unmasks the language of propaganda, her poetry also indicates the weaknesses of language in general as an instrument of human perception and communication"

Reviews

[raluca]

No flood saved me
though I have touched bottom.
No fire saved me
though I have been burning for years.
No disasters saved me
though trains and cars continually pass over me.
No airplanes saved me
exploding with me in the air.
Collapsing all over me
were great cities' walls.
No poisonous mushrooms saved me,
nor the deadly accuracy of firing squads.
No end of the world saved me
for it had not enough time.
Nothing saved me.
I am still alive.