How fire descends : new and selected poems / Serhiy Zhadan ; translated from the Ukrainian by Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps ; foreword by Ilya Kaminsky.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Z︠H︡adan, Serhiĭ, 1974- author.

Contributor:

Tkacz, Virlana, 1952- translator.

Phipps, Wanda, translator.

Kaminsky, Ilya, 1977- writer of foreword.

Rosengarten Family Fund.

Series:

Margellos world republic of letters book

A Margellos world republic of letters book

Standardized Title:

Poems. Selections. English

Language:

English

Ukrainian

Subjects (All):

Ukrainian poetry--21st century--Translations into English.

Ukrainian poetry.

Genre:

poetry.

Poetry

Poetry.

Physical Description:

xv, 112 pages ; 20 cm.

Place of Publication:

New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, [2023]

Language Note:

In English, translated from Ukrainian.

Summary:

"A searing testament to poetry's power to define and defy injustice, from iconic writer-activist Serhiy Zhadan Since the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014, the Ukrainian poet Serhiy Zhadan has brought international attention to his country's struggle through his unflinching poetry of witness. In this searing testament to poetry's power to define and defy injustice, Zhadan honors the memory of the lost and addresses the living, inviting us to consider what language can offer to a country threatened with extinction. Young lovers, marginalized outsiders, and ordinary citizens pulse with life in a composite portrait of a people newly unified by extremity. Even in the midst of enemy fire, Zhadan's lyrical monuments beat with a subterranean thrum of hope. With a foreword by the poet Ilya Kaminsky, this selection of Zhadan's poetry, forged entirely in wartime, is an homage to the Ukrainian people, a forceful reckoning with the violence of the past and present, and an act of artistic imagination that breaks with trauma and charts a new future for Ukraine."--Front cover flap.

Contents:

New poems (2021-2022)

"When so much is taken away"

"Remember every building"

"Of all literature"

"They didn't tell you"

"Your attention is great"

"...speak now"

Brecht

"The meaning of winter changes"

"I don't know who killed you or when"

From Psalms to aviation (2021)

"There were words I said"

"Someday they'll talk about this time"

"You will never write"

"When you realize"

"In the summertime"

"Tell me again"

"From now on there's so much amazement"

"People are lonely"

"Waiting for snow"

"No matter how you approach this tree"

"There will be waters"

"We watch"

"What if we set aside"

"A long Sunday psalm to aviation"

"This is a good opportunity to be thankful"

"Just don't call it a language"

"It will be the same with this book"

From List of ships (2020)

"Let's be brave this summer"

"Just write a few sentences"

"After finding my way here"

"Maybe the most important thing"

"Between what we manage to lose"

"So what does this man do?"

"How many times have I heard the poets declare their love?"

"This should not be voiced"

"Someone touches your hand"

From Antenna (2018)

"Stories of love"

Tobacco factories

"How are poems written?"

"An argument starts between them"

"After two years of silence"

"Every morning"

"These past few weeks"

"They stand on the train platform"

"Cold morning air"

"And here is one more poem"

"All eternity lies ahead"

"To make it to the cold weather"

From Templars (2016)

"How did we build our homes?"

"'You haven't shaved'"

"The boats are loaded with grain"

"So much light"

"It's all just like it was a hundred years ago".

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

ISBN:

9780300272468

0300272464

OCLC:

1375552329