Widely held to be the most influential Polish poet of a generation that includes Czeslaw Milosz and Wislawa Szymborska, Tadeusz Rózewicz gives voice in the sharpest, most disturbing way to the crisis of values that has plagued our civilization. Joanna Trzeciak's new translation displays Rózewicz's supernatural simplicity, his stark diction and sudden turns.

From "regression into the primordial soup"
     finally I too came into the world
     in the year 1921 and suddenly . . .
     atchoo! time passes I am old and forgot where I put my glasses
     I forgot there was
     history Caesar Hitler Mata Hari
     Stalin capitalism communism
     Einstein Picasso Al Capone
     Alka Seltzer Al Qaeda