Honoring her own dictum that the poet must be as sensitive as a diseased tooth, Anna Świrszczyńska tackles the themes of war, poverty, and death in a heartbreaking and intensely carnal way, as well as those of love, sensuality, tenderness, and joy. Its wide range is capable of intensely moving in various ways, surprising the reader with its continuous jumps from the darkest human emotions to the sweetest, most tender, almost childlike. His book Building the Barricade is a painful account of the Polish insurrection during the invasion of Nazi Germany, as well as of the amazement at the coexistence of misery and human courage in the face of desolation, humiliation, defeat and death. Inevitably and stubbornly obscure, it can nevertheless be considered, and without much risk, one of the most striking and important books of poetry of the twentieth century. Translation: Edgar Trevizo.
