En värld så nyligen splittrad

by Andrei Codrescu, Dan Shafran (Översättning, Urval)

Andrei Codrescu har tidigare presenterats på svenska med prosaböckerna Tzara och Lenin spelar schack och Bibliograv. Han ser sig själv i första hand som poet, och En värld så nyligen splittrad är den första volymen med hans dikter på svenska. Den innehåller ett personligt urval ur Codrescus produktion och rymmer bland mycket annat tidigare opublicerade dikter riktade till svenska vänner som översättaren Dan Shafran och poetkollegan Gunnar Harding.

Genres: Poetry, Romania

88 pages, Paperback

First published December 11, 2012

About the author

Andrei Codrescu is a poet, novelist, essayist, and NPR commentator. His many books include Whatever Gets You through the Night, The Postmodern Dada Guide, and The Poetry Lesson. He was Mac Curdy Distinguished Professor of English at Louisiana State University from 1984 until his retirement in 2009.

Reviews

[D.A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Codrescu's revolutionary, bad boy spirit has continued to enliven American poetry for over 40 years. Working in a decidedly unconventional and anti-academic mode, he has created a body of work that stands in defiant contrast to both the theory-heavy experimentalism of the post-language cadre and the decorative diction of the late romantics. He is a pistol set squarely on the table of convention, and his new poems show that the pistol still has plenty of power.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't wish to embarrass myself by talking about--much less rating--poetry. But when going through a collection slowly and sporadically, as opposed to the standard uninterrupted cover-to-cover ideal, the experience of reading subtly sheds any external concerns such as (ahem) reviewing, or retaining in memory, or suitability to teach, or assaying potential for rereading, or the initiatory rite of that loftiest imaginary communion in the infinite discourse of meaning, and one can, for once, observe the absolutely momentary eye-opening blinkfast aha, and to look back at the fact of reading in the irrefutable lefthand bulk of pages mysteriously scoured of memory, and the aha may deign to repeat itself. "not a pot to piss in" is the best.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up because it was longlisted for the National Book Award in Poetry in September 2013.

I struggled to connect with it, as Codrescu is one of those reflection-poets (my own label), someone who sees or reads something, or gets asked a question, spins the idea around in his head and out comes a poem! The problem with this approach to me is that there isn't as much of a cohesive theme or driving force to the work, particularly in this volume with so many of his poems represented.

I think I preferred his earlier poems, written first in Romanian, they just seemed a little more heartfelt. This isn't that surprising either, since some of his middle-career works when he lived in San Francisco are him as other voices, writing poems as characters. To me, it is too distant, I just don't connect. With poetry, I want to connect.

My favorite poem of his more recent work is keep old hat in secret closet, bemoaning the lack of secrets in the 21st century. He has a lot of poems that talk about how Facebook changes how we relate.

[Bjorn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stark antologikänsla; ibland glimmar den till av både humor och röntgenblick, ibland känns den mest som lite smågubbig.

[daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

whose dreams are we
our own
which is the next question
why are most things round?
and the next:
will
we ever
be safe
from the
interior monologue?

and the next:

does anyone know how to get lost anymore?

and the other (which we already asked)

what disarms the reader?

what weapon must he be relieved of?

there will always be the exact same amount of god
vomit is the price of liberty
i for instance feign amnesia during the daytime
to hide from my own shadow