Adam Zagajewski is the first European I've ever met who liked the US. He worked in Houston for awhile too. Then again, he's also from Poland. If you could find a person from Florence who preferred Houston, I'd give you $5. I loved his accent though. It made everything he said sound kind of brilliant and kind of creepy. It was melodic after awhile.
Considering that Adam writes poetry only in Polish and has it translated (doesn't even do it himself!) I was pretty impressed that his peoms were so lovely in English. I must not have been the only one, there were many questions during the question and answer session about his translator... more than about the poems themselves! What is truly incredible about the translation factor is that here is poet who completely gave up control of his craft! Show me the painter that left another artist add the finishing touches to his masterpiece! I'll give you another $5!
My husband and I are on the same level in every way... except the creative arts. He is not a writer, not a reader, and it doesn't occur to him to appreciate the beauty of the written word the way that I do. He owed me a favor, though, so I dragged him to the reading (key word being "dragged") and much to my amazement, while he didn't care much for the poetry, even he loved Adam. Certain things Adam said, phrases he used, "We are not loyal to our youth" and "I so often violate the chronological order" struck Mike, and he mused over them aloud all week. It was a pretty neat thing to observe, and allowed me to see a side of this man I know better than anyone that I had never seen before.
Adam also dedicated Kendra's favorite poem to her during the reading which I thought was really sweet. :)
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