The Burning Forest

The Burning Forest is an anthology of modern Polish poets, from Norwid to Bronislaw Maj, translated by one of the world's leading Polish translators and featuring large selections of poems, biographies and photographs. It includes major poets such as Herbert, Rozewicz and Szymborska, wartime writer-heroes like Stroinski, and young dissidents who have made their mark during the past ten years. The book's title is from a line by Juliusz Slowacki: 'No time to mourn roses, when forests burn.'

The book begins with Cyprian Norwid (1821-1883), the great post-romantic poet, at first abused and neglected, but eventually recognised as the guiding spirit of modern Polish poetry. It then focuses on poetry written since the outbreak of the Second World War, including the late work of Leopold Staff, work by poets involved in the wartime resistance (Leon Stroinski, Tadeusz Rozewicz), poets who began to flourish after the demise of Stalinism (Zbigniew Herbert, Tymoteusz Karpowicz, Wiktor Woroszylski, Wislawa Szymborska, Andrzej Bursa), exiles (Jan Darowski, Bogdan Czaykowski, Adam Czerniawski) and the new wave poets (Ryszard Krynicki, Stanislaw Baranczak, Anna Kowalska, Bronislaw Maj). However, Czeslaw Milosz is not included due to a disagreement.

All anthologies provoke controversies over which writers they include or exclude. This book will be no exception, for Adam Czerniawski's selection is based not just on the established Polish canon but on a stipulation that to merit inclusion a translation must stand up as a poem in English. His choices are also personal: these are the poets he has translated over the years, the poets he has wanted to translate for English readers.