2018
First Published
4.39
Average Rating
53
Number of Pages
A Reading of Ashes: Poems (Odczytanie popiołów), which was first published in London (1979) and then reprinted in Warsaw (1983), with an English translation published in 1981, is in its entirety devoted to the Holocaust experience. After many years Ficowski takes up the issue of the crime committed on the Jewish people, particularly emphasizing the need for compassion, the ethical precept of perpetuating the sufferings, the issues of faithful memories, and the protest against lies and against the deliberate concealment of the tragedy. In A Reading of Ashes the author tries to reconcile three different approaches to the problem: the authentic documents in the form of excerpts from books quoted in extenso, voices, and testimonies, the personal experience taking the form of lyrical tales, and the rich language of images, metaphors, and rhetoric figures. Very moving is the force of the facts that cannot be replaced with a poetic comment. The impression of veracity is achieved through the exposed connection between the childhood biography and the Holocaust history. On the other hand, the high quality art of poetry does not serve the purpose of presenting artistic proficiency. It precisely expresses the truth, reveals inhuman cruelty, diversifies the spectrum of psychical perceptions, and, through a number of literary and cultural references, gives universal significance to the described facts.
Avg Rating
4.39
Number of Ratings
18
5 STARS
56%
4 STARS
28%
3 STARS
17%
2 STARS
0%
1 STARS
0%
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Author
Jerzy Ficowski
Author · 5 books
A Polish poet, writer and translator (from Yiddish, Russian and Romani).
