We considered the work of Polish poet Tadeusz Rozewicz in February, when Norton published a major new selected poems translated by Joanna Trzeciak. Now arrives from Anvil the third edition of their selection of Rozewicz, They Came to See a Poet, translated by Adam Czerniawski and first published in 1982. How interesting! There is rather little overlap, allowing the reader to come away from the two with a broad swathe of Rozewicz. Here is a comparison:
Trzeciak:
Virtue and vice weigh the same
I’ve seen:
a man who was both
vicious and virtuous.
I’m searching for a teacher and a master
let him give me back my sight hearing and speech
let him name objects and concepts again
let him separate the light from the dark.
Czerniawski:
Virtue and crime weigh the same
I’ve seen it:
in a man who was both
criminal and virtuous.
I seek a teacher and a master
may he restore my sight hearing and speech
may he again name objects and ideas
may he separate darkness from light.
“The Survivor,” 1947
