Customer Reviews

Treasury of Polish Love: Poems, Quotations & Proverbs : In Polish and English (Treasury of Love)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Because of a historical interest, I've been looking for the poetry of Zygmunt Krasinski for years, and this is the first I've found even a little in the original language. It's only one poem, but at least it's something. There are also a few other poets in this collection who interest me, along with many I'd never heard of, since I don't really know much about Polish literature. I would have liked to have something by Cyprian Norwid included.

The only trouble with this collection, which is true of so many presentations of foreign language poetry, is that the "translations" are rhymed poems, which often have very little relation to the original meaning. I would SO much rather have literal translations. As it is, I have to struggle to translate the originals myself in order to have any idea what's really going on in the poems, and I don't have nearly enough skill in Polish for that to be reasonable.

I bought this book to supplement the learning I've been doing in my Polish class. I plan to write a bilingual book, much like this one, next semester. After less than one semester of Polish (with no prior knowledge of the language), I find this book easy to read and enjoyable. The quotes are really cute. A few of the poems are raunchy, but who knows... that may serve a purpose for someone.

I'd recommend this book to students of Polish, Polish students of English and anyone looking to give their brain a good tickle.