Things to Translate & Other Poems

Piotr Sommer is one of Poland's leading poets. The translations were made with the help of leading British and American poets, including John Ashbery, Douglas Dunn and D.J. Enright. This edition is now out of print but most of the poems are included in his later selection Continued (2005).'Piotr Sommer's poetry is low-key and terse: to adapt one of his phrases, it wants to say nothing it doesn't need to. Irony there is, but it keeps its head down, while the occasional uncertain joke raises an uncertain smile. Obliquity is the rule. An old dog entertains metaphysical thoughts, and in its own way expresses an opinion. or a knock on the door announces a milkwoman, not the secret police, but the one caller mirrors the other. This collection is marked by a disenchanted cheerfulness, a looking (or squinting) on the bright side. Even if new bathroom fittings were somehow acquired, it would still be necessary to get up early. And obtain a travel permit is a joyful event, denied to those who can go wherever they like. In one of his poems Czeslaw Milosz is amazed that "my Muse, Mnemosyne" fails to diminish his amazement. Sommer shares this same muse: "The heart doesn't give up easily." Countries with long and tortured histories have long and sometimes precious memories." - D.J. Enright