Poems Before and After: Collected English Translations [Paperback]

Miroslav Holub (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Alphabet
Although
Anatomy Of A Leap Into The Void
And What's New
The Angel Of Death
Annunciation
At Home
Attempted Assassination
The Autumnal Bus
The Beginnings Of The Puppet Theatre
The Bell
The Best Room, Or Interpretation Of A Poem
Biodrama
Bones
A Boy's Head
Brief Reflection On An Old Woman With A Barrow
Brief Reflection On Cats Growing On Trees
Brief Reflection On Charlemagne
Brief Reflection On Childhood
Brief Reflection On Cracks
Brief Reflection On Death
Brief Reflection On Dwarfs
Brief Reflection On Eyes
Brief Reflection On Fence
Brief Reflection On Gargoyles
Brief Reflection On Johnny
Brief Reflection On Killing The Christmas Carp
Brief Reflection On Laughter
Brief Reflection On Light
Brief Reflection On Maps
Brief Reflection On Test-tubes
Brief Reflection On The Flood
Brief Reflection On The Sun
Brief Reflection On The Theory Of Relativity
Brief Reflection On The Word Pain
Bull Fight
Burning
The Cast
Casualty
The Cat
Cinderella
Clowns
Collision
Conversation With A Poet
Crucifix
The Dangers Of The Night
The Dead
Death In The Evening
Death Of A Sparrow
Dinner
Discobolus
Distant Howling
Dog In The Quarry
The Door
Door Ii
Elsewhere
Emmanuel Kant
Encyclopaedia: Sum Of All Knowledge
The End Of The World
Evening Idyll With A Protoplasm
Explosion
Fairy Tales
Faustus
A Few Very Clever People
Five Minutes After The Air Raid
The Fly
The Flypaper
Fog
The Forest
The Geology Of Man
The Gift Of Speech
Graves Of Prisoners
Half A Hedgehog
Harbour
Haul Of Fish
Heart Failure
A Helping Hand
A History Lesson
Homer
How We Played The Gilgamesh Epic
In The Box
In The Microscope
Injection
Interferon
Inventions
The Jesters
Jewish Cemetery At Olsany, Kafka's Grave, April, A Sunny Day
Landscapes
The Last Night Bus
A Lecture On Arthropods
A Lecture On Diseases
Lenora
Love
Love In August
Lyric Mood
Man Cursing The Sea
The Man Who Wants To Be Himself
Marguerite
Me I.
Memo To A Pre-school-age Daughter
Merry-go-round
Midday
The Minotaur On Love
The Minotaur's Loneliness
The Minotaur's Thoughts On Poetry
Minotaurus Faber
Napoleon
The New House
Night At The Observatory
Night In The Streets
Ode To Joy
The Old People's Garden
On Daedalus
On Sisyphus
On The Origin Of Football
On The Origin Of Full Power
On The Origin Of Memory
On The Origin Of The Contrary
The Origin Of 6m
Oxidation
Pathology
The Philosophy Of Autumn
A Philosophy Of Encounters
Planet
Poem Technology
Polonius
The Prague Of Jan Palach
Prince Hamlet's Milk Tooth
Prncesses
Punch, The Princess, Johnny And Other Children Watch Kittens
Questioning
The Rain At Night
Reality
Riders
The Root Of The Matter
Sand Game
Shooting Galleries
The Sick Primer
Sir Rudolph, The Knight
The Sorcerer's Lament
The Soul
Spice
Subway Station
Suffering
Sunday
Super-aesop
Supper A La Russell Edson
Swans In Flight
The Teacher
Teeth
Textbook Of A Dead Language
Theatre
Truth
Two
United Flight 1011
The Village Green
Voices In The Landscape
We Who Laughed
A Well-read Man Or A Meeting With Russell Edson
Whaling
What The Heart Is Like
When The Bees Fell Silent
Wings
Wisdom
Without Title
Zito The Magician
Brief Refelction On Accuracy
The Corporal Who Killed Archimedes
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Polish --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 276 pages
• Publisher: Dufour Editions (February 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852241225
• ISBN-13: 978-1852241223
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,605,253 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Too much of a great thing., May 20, 2005

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Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Poems Before and After: Collected English Translations (Hardcover)

Miroslav Holub, Poems Before and After (Bloodaxe Books, 1990)

Surrealism is rather like Death by Chocolate. It's great in small doses, but if you get too much at once, you're going to get sick. Poems Before and After, which is for all intents and purposes the Collected Translations up to 1990, is verging on the too much.

Miroslav Holub is a brilliant writer, one of the same generation of Eastern European writers that produced poetic giants Charles Simic and Vladimir Holan. And Holub's best work easily stands with Return to a Place Lit by a Glass of Milk or A Night with Hamlet (see, e.g., Vanishing Lung Syndrome). And there's no denying that the work here is, for the most part, fantastic. Absolutely lovely stuff. But there's so much of it, and Holub's work is so dense, that the reader is best advised to read this book over a space of months, dipping into it now and again before retreating and mulling over what he's read. This is one for your permanent collection; you'll be going back to it over the space of years. However, if you're a Holub newbie, as most folks are, you're probably best advised to start with one of the single collections and work your way up to this one. *** ½