User:Melf316/Try to Praise the Mutilated World

Try to Praise the Mutilated World is a poem written by Adam Zagajewski and translated from Polish to English by Clare Cavanagh. Adam Zagajewski is a well known and well received contemporary poet and essayist, especially in the United states. Although written before the events on September 11, 2001, it became famous after it was published on The Back Page of The New Yorker on September 24, 2001.

Poem Text
Try to praise the mutilated world.

Remember June's long days,

and wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew.

The nettles that methodically overgrow

the abandoned homesteads of exiles.

You must praise the mutilated world.

You watched the stylish yachts and ships;

one of them had a long trip ahead of it,

while salty oblivion awaited others.

You've seen the refugees heading nowhere,

you've heard the executioners sing joyfully.

You should praise the mutilated world.

Remember the moments when we were together

in a white room and the curtain fluttered. Return in thought to the concert where music flared. You gathered acorns in the park in autumn

and leaves eddied over the earth's scars.

Praise the mutilated world

and the grey feather a thrush lost,

and the gentle light that strays and vanishes

and returns.

Backround
In the context of this poem, Adam Zagajewski's view of the "mutilated world" came from his experiences growing up in Soviet Ukraine. From a young age, he witnessed the anti-Jewish suppression in Communist parties also occurring at institutions of higher learning which had begun in the Moscow bloc after the Arab-Israeli war in 1967. Zagajewski also saw the repercussions of the Polish student protests and the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet army and its allies in 1968. Another event he had witnessed was the bloody suppression of polish workers' demonstrations in December of 1970. All of these events manifested into Zagajewski's support and sympathy of people under oppression.

Literary Elements
Adam Zagajewski's poem is characterized by anthropomorphism, a syntax full of the imagery of a beautiful, yet dark scene, repetition, and paradoxical ideas. It is made up of twenty-one lines written in blank verse. It uses the literary element of apostrophe as the speaker is recalling to someone who is absent. "Try to Praise the Mutilated World" begins with a soft, sentimental tone while the speaker asks the listener to "try to praise the mutilated world." The speaker goes on to describes in detail a beautiful, relaxing scene full of imagery in the next three lines. By the fourth line the speaker describes a deserted and neglected scene. The word "try" changes to "must" reinforcing a more forceful and aggressive tone. By the twelfth line, the tone changes back into the initial one. The poem brings up a paradox that the reader must face when one should "praise" something that is ″mutilated″. This poem is full of paradoxical ideas. Zagajewki also personifies the earth noting that its a fragile thing and has "scars". The phrase "praise the mutilated world" is often repeated throughout the poem. The anaphora of "you" and "and" is also repeated throughout the poem.

Adam Zagajewski Responds
When Zagajewski was asked by Agnieszka Tennant if any single event inspired this poem he answered saying, "No particular occasion, no single event. For me, it's the way I have always seen the world. When I was growing up I saw a lot of ruins in postwar Poland. This is my landscape. Somehow it stayed with me, this feeling that the world is wounded or mutilated. The poem reflects a philosophical conviction more than an event." Agnieszka Tennant then preceded to question the origins of Zagajewski's hope in reference to the last lines of this poem, ″the gentle light that strays and vanishes and returns.″ He responded with, "It's a very interesting question—one I never ask myself but I'll try to answer nevertheless. The experience of someone who tries to live and write is very rich and encompasses the register of ecstasy, of joy. Years ago I was with someone in a taxi, and he asked me, Do you believe in happiness? and I said, No, I don't believe in happiness, I believe in joy. I don't believe in happiness as a constant state, but I do believe in joy. Which I always think has to correspond to something."

“I will never be someone who writes only about bird song, although I admire birdsong highly – but not enough to withdraw from the historical world, for the historical world is fascinating. What really interests me is the interweaving of the historical and cosmic world. The cosmic world is unmoving – or rather, it moves to a completely different rhythm. I shall never know how these worlds coexist. They are in conflict yet they complement each other – and that merits our reflection. (Adam Zagajewski) ”