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Adam Zagajewski

Adam Zagajewski Quotes

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“Read for yourselves, read for the sake of your inspiration, for the sweet turmoil in your lovely head. But also read against yourselves, read for questioning and impotence, for despair and erudition, read the dry sardonic remarks of cynical philosophers like Cioran or even Carl Schmitt, read newspapers, read those who despise, dismiss or simply ignore poetry and try to understand why they do it. Read your enemies, read those who reinforce your sense of what's evolving in poetry, and also read those whose darkness or malice or madness or greatness you can't understand because only in this way will you grow, outlive yourself, and become what you are.”

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Book:A Defense of Ardor: Essays
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“Epithalamium Without silence there would be no music. Life paired is doubtless more difficult than solitary existence - just as a boat on the open sea with outstretched sails is trickier to steer than the same boat drowsing at a dock, but schooners after all are meant for wind and motion, not idleness and impassive quiet. A conversation continued through the years includes hours of anxiety, anger, even hatred, but also compassion, deep feeling. Only in marriage do love and time, eternal enemies, join forces. Only love and time, when reconciled, permit us to see other beings in their enigmatic, complex essence, unfolding slowly and certainly, like a new settlement in a valley, or among green hills. In begins from one day only, from joy and pledges, from the holy day of meeting, which is like a moist grain; then come the years of trial and labor, sometimes despair, fierce revelation, happiness and finally a great tree with rich greenery grows over us, casting its vast shadow. Cares vanish in it.”

Love PoemLove And TimeWedding PoemEpithalamium
Author:Adam Zagajewski
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“And now, advice for beginning mystics. Be sober, be intelligent, be educated, rely on the tangible reality as long as you can. Remember that the act of writing is a tiny part of a bigger something. Defend the value of the spiritual experience and if somebody tells you it's an old fashioned notion, laugh loudly and serenely.”

IfsWritingLongRealityRememberSpiritualValuesSpiritualityAttitudeLaughingAdviceBiggerIntelligentNotionIntelligenceTinyEducatedRelySoberOld FashionedTangibleSpiritual Experience
Author:Adam Zagajewski
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“A little rain, a little blood. Black fingernails in August; and going berserk, going bananas. As if entrapped in a tropical heatwave, with dozens of whirlwinds swirling in one’s mind, one thinks of a way out, or a way in: out of the scorching bosom of a volcano, and in – into the centre of a raging hurricane. And tracing the labyrinthine ways of your mind, the haphazard vagaries of your thoughts at ease, the odds and ends of your mental surplus you carelessly throw at the world, one wants to be at a loss, in a maze; amazed, and amazingly unabashed.”

IfsThinkingWorldWayWantMindLittlesEndsBlackLossBloodRainRageEaseDozenOddsAmazedCentreBosomsHurricanesAugustBananasSurplusMazesVolcanoesTropicalFingernailsTracingBerserkHaphazardScorchingOdds And Ends
Author:Adam Zagajewski
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“Once in a while it vanishes - in the sense that I become deaf to beauty for a week or two or three. This coming and going of the inner life - because this is what it is - is a curse and a blessing. I don't need to explain why it's a curse. A blessing because it brings about a movement, an energy which, when it peaks, creates a poem. Or a moment of happiness.”

NeedsTwoMomentsThreeEnergyWeekMovementBlessingCurseDeafInner LifeMoments Of Happiness
Author:Adam Zagajewski
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“Read for yourselves, read for the sake of your inspiration, for the sweet turmoil in your lovely head. But also read against yourselves, read for questioning and impotence, for despair and erudition... and also read those whose darkness or malice or madness or greatness you can't understand because only in this way will you grow, outlive yourself, and become what you are.”

WayInspirationGrowsDarknessGreatnessSweetDespairMadnessSakeLovelyQuestioningMaliceTurmoilImpotenceErudition
Author:Adam Zagajewski
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“Gabriel Levin's book is a journey through time and through entrenched animosities of the Middle East. What's astonishing and refreshing is his ability to combine the reporter's perspective with a deep knowledge of poetry, including pre-Islamic Arab poems. A brilliant poet is at work here-a poet in the rugged landscape of conflict and pain.”

BookPainAbilityJourneyMiddlePoetPerspectiveConflictIncludingEastBrilliantLandscapeIslamicMiddle EastReportersAstonishingRefreshingRough TimesGabrielAnimosityRugged
Author:Adam Zagajewski
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