With the Skin: Poems of Aleksander Wat

by Aleksander Wat, Czesław Miłosz (Translator), Leonard Nathan (Translator)

"Postwar Polish poetry is a wonder! To the names of Miłosz, Herbert, Szymborska, and Różewicz, who have told us so much about twentieth century experience, must be added the name of Aleksander Wat. He is a brilliantly sardonic and affecting poet; he gets under your skin." --Robert Hass

Genres: Poetry, Poland

111 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1989

About the author

Aleksander Wat, (born Aleksander Chwat to a Jewish father and a Polish mother) was a Polish poet, writer and art theoretician, one of the precursors of Polish futurism movement in early 1920s.

In 1919 he was among the young poets to proclaim the advent of new, futuristic poetry. The following year he published the first set of his poems, which gained much popularity among the supporters of the new trends in literature of the epoch. Until 1922 he was one of the creators of the Nowa Sztuka ("New Art") monthly, and then Almanachy Nowej Sztuki and Miesięcznik literacki. Initially a Communist, until 1931 he was also one of the main journalists of the Marxist Tygodnik literacki.

Reviews

[Jared · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read and heard much about Wat--as one of the most important Polish poets of the twentieth century--but this is my first introduction to his poetry. I wish I had not waited so long: this is a fantastic journey through Wat's early and late poetry, both short lyrics and longer, more complex poems. Particularly helpfully, the last few pages of the book are reserved for a conversation with translators Leonard Nathan and Czesław Miłosz on Aleksander Wat's poetry and poetics. Wat's poetry is at the same time intensely visceral and pristine. His images and subjects are frequently gritty, earthy, and sensual, but he imbues his lines with a more-than-subjective importance. Wat's poetics make much of the experience of the twentieth century, yet (like many of this period's Polish poets) remains both deeply historical, and seasoned with natural landscapes. Wat's poetry experiences and lives the weight of the world (as it seems a good twentieth century poet must), but also remains outside the experiences as an observer (much like Zagajewski). Many of the poems are written from the perspective of a rock, or a centuries old turtle, as Wat identifies with this creatures and elements which seem almost immortal in the length of their temporal experience.

[Hannah Gadbois · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Therefore,
let us return to essence. For with it we are more certain.
Since we create it ourselves. It is not dependent
on whether it 'is' or on whether it 'is not.'
How good it is to return to old rejected concepts!
(The meaning of that 'let us return' is
common. So, for example,
Odysseus returned to Penelope, to her who knew the secret:
that one must weave and unweave. And again weave and unweave.)"