WARSAW, Poland 鈥� Adam Zagajewski, the celebrated Polish poet whose melancholy reflections on the erosion of the world came to express an unfathomable moment of shock and loss after the
Zagajewski鈥檚 death on Sunday, which was UNESCO鈥檚 World Poetry Day, was confirmed by publisher Krystyna Krynicka of the a5 publishing house. No cause of death was given.
Zagajewski鈥檚 鈥淭ry to Praise the Mutilated World,鈥� was written well before the attacks, but took on new and historic meaning because of them. Translated into English by Clare Cavanaugh and published in The New Yorker just days after the 2001 tragedy, the poem was a tender look back at happier moments and an acknowledgement of the world鈥檚 ongoing cruelties.
You watched the stylish yachts and ships;
one of them had a long trip ahead of it,
while salty oblivion awaited others.
You鈥檝e seen the refugees going nowhere,
you鈥檝e heard the executioners sing joyfully.
You should praise the mutilated world.
Zagajewski used to say that what interested him the most was the intertwining of the 鈥渉istoric world with the cosmic world that is static, or rather moves in a totally different rhythm.鈥�
鈥淭hese worlds fight but also complete each other 鈥� and that is really worthy of deep reflection,鈥� he said in an interview.
He taught poetry workshops at Krakow鈥檚 Jagiellonian University, as well as creative writing at the University of Houston. He was also a faculty member at the University of Chicago.
Media in Sweden said he was repeatedly mentioned among candidates for the Nobel Prize in literature.
Writers worldwide praised Zagajewski.
The Pulitzer Prize winning poet Jorie Graham tweeted 鈥淒ear voyager & voice for the ages. We will not stop listening to you. You are forever here.鈥�
Salman Rushdie tweeted 鈥淩est, poet. Your work will live.鈥�
In Poland, Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk said that students 鈥渁dored him because he was especially gifted for poetry, he knew how to talk about it.鈥� She said he would read verse with 鈥渟pecial, ceremonial intonation that is due only to poetry.鈥�
Zagajewski was a leading figure in Poland鈥檚 New Wave, or Generation 鈥�68, literary movement of the late 1960s that called for a simple language to relate directly to reality. It was a reaction to pompous poetry praising life under the communist system.
Zagajewski and fellow-poet Julian Kornhauser authored a book that became the movement鈥檚 manifesto. Kornahuser鈥檚 daughter, Agata Kornhauser-Duda, is now Poland鈥檚 first lady.
Zagajewski鈥檚 works were banned in 1975 by Poland鈥檚 communist authorities of the time after he signed a protest by 59 intellectuals against ideological changes to the Polish Constitution that pledged unbreakable alliance with the Soviet Union and the leading role of the Communist Party. He emigrated to Paris in 1982, but returned to Poland in 2002 and lived in Krakow.
Zagajewski was born in June 1945 in Lwow, now Lviv in Ukraine. That same year his family had to move west, to central Poland, as borders were shifted following World War II and the city became part of the Soviet Union. A reflection on the family鈥檚 loss of homeland can be found in his works. He studied psychology and philosophy at Jagiellonian University.
His poetry collections included 鈥淯nseen Hand,鈥� 鈥淢ysticism for Beginners鈥� and 鈥淎symmetry.鈥� He won many literary awards, including the 2004 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, considered a forerunner to the Nobel Prize in Literature, and the 2017 Princess of Asturias Award, the Spanish-speaking world鈥檚 top humanities award.
He was awarded a number of Polish state distinctions and France鈥檚 Legion of Honor in 2016.
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Hillel Italie contributed to this report from New York.
Monika Scislowska, The Associated Press
