Author Description

Caraion was one of Romania's leading poets, a major voice of the European war generation. His poems have been widely translated and anthologized abroad, but this is the first extensive English publication. The dual-text selection reflects with sad eloquence the tragedy of his life. His writing brought him to the attention of the Gestapo, which led to years of forced labor in extermination camps, during which time he composed and committed to memory many of his most powerful poems. Poetry will miss this presence and its immense creative energy which, in eighteen books of essays and criticism, strove continuously to put on the literary map of Europe the work of his generation and of the younger Romanian poets. ""Caraion's vision is expressionist in its general contours (the motifs of death, dark theatricality, decadence, and the ""error of being"" predominate) but is often surrealistic and hyperbolic in its imagery, depicting a monstrous universe both ethically and esthetically"" - World