A Wake for the Living

Translated and introduced with the surrealist wit that is Charles Simic's signature, A Wake for the Living offers American readers, for the first time in English, the brash and breezy brilliance of Serbian poet Radmila Lazic. Through her compelling if strange leaps and dodges, Lazic's verse describes an identity, both personal and political, informed by catastrophe and victimization. Yet she can also restlessly and imaginatively swerve into irreverence, absurdity, comedy, or play. "Goodness is boring," she writes, "It seems it's hell I'm getting myself ready for."

These poems, presented in a bilingual edition with Serbian and English on facing pages, careen from Lazic's lament for beauty faded to a "Dorothy Parker Blues," from searching for names among obituaries to sexual desires free of guilt or obligation. A Wake for the Living displays a virtuosity that has established its author as one of Eastern Europe's best and most vivacious contemporary poets.

Praise

"How do we find words to say what we only feel and do not recognize until someone else has said it? As we see from Lazic’s poetry, that may be one of the noblest roles of the poet."—Charles Simic, from his Introduction

"Simic is a poet-critic-translator without peer. I would follow him anywhere. This time it is straight into the arms of a Serbian poet and feminist named Radmila Lazic, whose sexual frankness is breathtaking. I would think that she'd scare most Serbian men out of their wits; I hope American men are tougher. At any rate, this American woman would deny under oath how much she sympathizes with Lazic's point of view. Of her phenomenal eloquence and honesty there is no question, carried over into English by Simic with skill and verve."—Carolyn Kizer

About the Author(s)

Radmila Lazic

Radmila Lazic, born in 1949, is widely considered one of the finest living Serbian poets. She is the author of six collections of poetry and has received several literary prizes. She has also published numerous essays on literature and edited an anthology of women’s poetry and another of anti-war letters. Lazic is the founder and editor of the journal Profemina.

Charles Simic is a poet, essayist, and translator. He has published over 15 collections of his own poetry, several books of essays, a memoir, and numerous books of translations. Among the many literary awards he has received are the PEN Translation Award and the 1990 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. Simic teaches American literature and creative writing at the University of New Hampshire.