Variable Directions: Selected Poetry by Dan Pagis

by Dan Pagis

No markings. Binding is tight, covers and spine fully intact. All edges are clean. Very clean, crisp, and tight copy. Not Ex-Library. All books offered from DSB are stocked at our store in Fayetteville, AR. Save on shipping by ordering multiple titles. 153pp. Softcover New 5 1/4" x 7 3/4" English Text

Genres: Poetry

Paperback

First published June 1, 1989

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this collection of poems on the recommendation of the great critic, Harold Bloom. Included in the Bloom’s Western Canon, I was very interested to read the poems of an author I had not ever heard of. In general, pages rates with great intelligence and wit. I fear that much of the language is lost in translation, but what survives documents of the difficulty of life in the 20th century. One of my favorite passages comes from the poem “Footprints”:
“Where to begin?
I don’t even know how to ask.
Too many tongues are mixed in my mouth. But

at the crossing of these winds,
very diligent, I immerse myself
in the laws of heavenly grammar: I am learning
the declensions and ascensions of
silence.
...
If it has been ordained that I pull out of here,
I’ll try to descend rung by rung,
I hold onto each one, carefully –
but there is no end to the ladder, and already
no time. All I can still do is fall into the world” (39)

The repeated lines from “Wind from Variable Directions” are haunting. The poem starts with a lines, “I am as yet / a storm of zero force. / Almost a breath.” (123)

The quality of these lines and brings you up cold. Pagis belongs to another time. These poems are a reminder of a world that used to be and sometimes still is.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books of poetry. Actually. Half books. I have never revisited the first half. The second half - which is why the book was recommended to me around 1992 (?) - charm. But really. Like, really. I reread some today after someone reminded me of Pagis.

[Mills College Library]

892.416 P136v 1989