This is the newest selection of poems from Ewa Lipska, who is one of Poland's best contemporary poets and an author who enjoys great renown throughout the world. The book contains works from all of her previous collections, from her debut volume to her most recent titles, "1999" and "Sklepy zoologiczne" / "Pet Shops"...
This is the newest selection of poems from Ewa Lipska, who is one of Poland's best contemporary poets and an author who enjoys great renown throughout the world, most recently having been an ambassador of Polish culture in Austria. The book contains works from all of her previous collections, from her debut volume to her most recent titles, 1999 and Sklepy zoologiczne / Pet Shops (more...).
Lipska's published collections like 1999 (1999), Ludzie dla poczatkujacych / People for Beginners (1997), Sklepy zoologiczne / Pet Shops (2001) or the two-language edition of Biale truskawki / White Strawberries that was masterfully translated by Barbara Plebanek and Tony Howard, left readers enthusiastic about the author's skills with words, the linguistic precision of her metaphors, figurative phrases and antinomies. Seemingly exhausted concepts like transcendence, time, love, death, guilt or the issue of responsibility for one's actions, when read by Lipska sound like a new Decalogue of truths revealed in words and images. "To be" and "to have" are posited as causal forces and the discord between them, self-irony and paradox all become elements of her worldview, one that can best be compared to that of Wislawa Szymborska. It is Lipska's original language, however, that has made her work a poetically distinct phenomenon. Her doubt in achieving an understanding between her "I" and the external world additionally strengthens her original philosophy of life, one she expresses in a highly original poetic vernacular.Intriguing at the least, Lipska's works not only embody a mastery of poetic condensation and brilliant metaphors, but also manifest an ever fresh and current view of issues that affect the contemporary world and the existential problems that humans confront.
- Ewa Lipska
Uwaga: stopień / Watch your step
Wydawnictwo Literackie, Krakow 2002
123 x 198, 110 pages, hardcover
ISBN 83-08-03294-X