Something Indecent: Poems Recommended by Eastern European Poets

by Valzhyna Mort (Editor)

Something Indecent is intended as a kind of symposium on European poetry. Seven contemporary Eastern European poets—Adam Zagajewski, Vera Pavlova, Tomaž Šalamun, Aleš Šteger, Nikola Madzirov, Eugenijus Ališanka, and editor Valzhyna Mort—introduce us to poems by writers who have become for them windows onto the world. They were Who are the best representative poets of your region? Your generation? And, more Who are your favorite European poets of the 20th century? What European poets, across the millennia, are most important to an understanding of your particular region? Spanning thousands of years and thousands of miles, their surprising, often unpredictable choices—and the reasons for those choices—are collected here, forming the latest entry in a poetic conversation carried across centuries, countries, and traditions. More than a presentation of contemporary Eastern European poets, Something Indecent is a conversation about how European poets view themselves, their contemporaries, their century, and the place of their region in the millennia.
Includes poems by Guillaume Apollinaire, Bertolt Brecht, Joseph Brodsky, Catullus, Paul Celan, John Donne, Zbigniew Herbert, Nâzim Hikmet, Antonio Machado, Czesław Miłosz, Cesare Pavese, Raymond Queneau, Rainer Maria Rilke, Tomaž Šalamun, Sappho, Anna Swir, Wisława Szymborska, Georg Trakl, Tomas Tranströmer, César Vallejo, Paul Valéry, and many others.

Genres: Poetry

200 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2013

Reviews

[Mikaela S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

In two phrases: thought-provoking & disturbingly inspiring.

This collection of poetry was astounding in its simplistic uniqueness. Some of the selected poems are deeply resplendent, inviting the reader to ask questions and consider Truth. While others are vaguely telling a story through words or boasting an idea that is far too personal to hold any value for the passerby/reader.

All that to say, everyone should read works, especially poetry, that are not within their norm because it opens the space for you to interact with thoughts, memories, and influences vastly different yet wholly similar through the notion of the authors writing to portray themselves to the world.

“To become a poet is to step into the void, to jump into the dark, to make some kind of treason toward your education, toward your parents.” (Pg. 170)

4.5 ⭐️ — the good outweighed the weird

[Cody Stetzel · Rating 4 out of 5]

So grateful for this anthology, this collection. So many new and interesting authors to read and explore!

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title is taken from a poem by the Polish Nobelist Czeslaw Milosz. The recommendations run from Sappho to currently living and writing Eastern European Poets. The value of this book is in the introduction to poetry rarely read in this country but powerful because of the oppressive conditions under which much of it was written.