What do you do when what sustains you no longer sustains you? A poet tries everything he can to reconnect with his art.

Adam Zagajewski was a Polish poet and novelist born at the end of World War II. English translations of his books of poetry include Mysticism for Beginners (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 1999), Without End (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2003), Eternal Enemies (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2009), and Asymmetry (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2019). Zagajewski was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (1982), the Neustadt International Prize for Literature (2004), and the Heinrich Mann Prize (2015).

Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.

We’re pleased to offer Adam Zagajewski’s poem translated by Clare Cavanagh, and invite you to connect with Poetry Unbound throughout this season.

Pre-order the forthcoming book Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World and join us in our new conversational space on Substack.

Peter Crouch: “Why Can’t I Just Laugh Anymore?!”