Adam Zagajewski who wrote the poem 'Try to Praise the Mutilated World', has left us at the age of 75.

[Eva Libre]

One of Poland's greatest poets, Adam Zagajewski, who wrote a poem that came to symbolize the world's sense of shock and loss after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, died in Krakow on Sunday March 21, 2021, aged 75

(picture alliance / dpa / Grzegorz Jakubowski)

Adam Zagajewski (21 June 1945 – 21 March 2021) was a Polish poet, novelist, translator, and essayist. He was awarded the 2004 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the 2016 Griffin Poetry Prize Lifetime Recognition Award, the 2017 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature and the 2018 Golden Wreath of Poetry at the Struga Poetry Evenings. He was considered a leading poet of the Generation of '68, or Polish New Wave (Polish: Nowa fala), and one of Poland's most prominent contemporary poets.

Here is one of his poems ...

Try to Praise the Mutilated World

By Adam Zagajewsk

Try to praise the mutilated world.

Remember June’s long days,

and wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew.

The nettles that methodically overgrow

the abandoned homesteads of exiles.

You must praise the mutilated world.

You watched the stylish yachts and ships;

one of them had a long trip ahead of it,

while salty oblivion awaited others.

You’ve seen the refugees heading nowhere,

you’ve heard the executioners sing joyfully.

You should praise the mutilated world.

Remember the moments when we were together

in a white room and the curtain fluttered.

Return in thought to the concert where music flared.

You gathered acorns in the park in autumn

and leaves eddied over the earth’s scars.

Praise the mutilated world

and the gray feather a thrush lost,

and the gentle light that strays and vanishes

and returns.

(Translated, from the Polish, by Clare Cavanagh.)

[Nada Jung]

Thank you for the memory of a wonderful person.
More and more are leaving us ... May he rest in peace.