Continuum

by Nina Cassian

Overview

"The poems in this work show Cassian to be . . . a poet who can work miracles with language."—Library Journal

Spanning nearly sixty years, these poems—both new English compositions and Nina Cassian's translations of her work in Romanian—blend her gallows humor with an engagement with the human experience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393338928
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	10/25/2010
Pages:	122
Product dimensions:	8.52(w) x 11.80(h) x 0.37(d)

About the Author

Nina Cassian (1924—2014) was born in Galati, Romania. A composer, journalist, film critic, and translator of Shakespeare and Brecht, Cassian was exiled from Romania in 1985.

Editorial Reviews

"Continuum contains many poems in which the pleasure is that of speaking out with a surrealist flourish."

Providence Journal

Spanning 60 years, the poems in this work show Cassian (b. 1924) to be, if not a "miraculous" poet, as NEA director Dana Gioia describes her, then a poet who can work miracles with language-and feelings. A Romanian immigrant, Cassian sought asylum in the United States after her satires of the repressive Ceausecu regime led to the death of a friend. Taken from Cassian's nearly 40 previous books of poetry, the work here spans Cassian's oeuvre, with poems written in Romanian and translated by her into English and other poems written in English. With sounds ranging from an understated imagistic style to poems heavy with repetition, the book begins with reflections on childhood and ends with musings on aging. Cassian approaches life with, as she puts it, "a creative urge with no vacations." "Interpreting Bach," the best poem in the collection and one that's worth the price of the book, traces the history of language from thought to sound to the relationship between sounds. Doing this, it heats poetry to "the boiling point," where it becomes music. Recommended for all contemporary poetry collections.
—Diane Scharper

Library Journal