In Praise of Adam Zagajewski (1945-2021)

Mysticism for Beginners

 

The day was mild, the light was generous.

The German on the café terrace

held a small book on his lap.

I caught sight of the title:

Mysticism for Beginners.

Suddenly I understood that the swallows

patrolling the streets of Montepulciano

with their shrill whistles,

and the hushed talk of timid travelers

from Eastern, so-called Central Europe,

and the white herons standing—yesterday? the day before?—

like nuns in fields of rice,

and the dusk, slow and systematic,

erasing the outlines of medieval houses,

and olive trees on little hills,

abandoned to the wind and heat,

and the head of the Unknown Princess

that I saw and admired in the Louvre,

and stained-glass windows like butterfly wings

sprinkled with pollen,

and the little nightingale practicing

its speech beside the highway,

and any journey, any kind of trip,

are only mysticism for beginners,

the elementary course, prelude

to a test that's been

postponed.

 

-- Adam Zagajewski (born June 21, 1945)

trans. CLARE CAVANAGH

photo by Star Black. Copyright (c) 2008 by Star Black.

Comments

[Lisa Kraken]

Great juxtaposition: the Zagajewski poem with the Sevick poem! Male and female mysticism!

[Emily Fragos]

Beautiful poem by Zagajewski. Thank you.