This book contains the complete poems in Hungarian and in English translation of Hungary's great modern poet, Miklos Radnoti, murdered at the age of 35 during the Holocaust. His earliest poems, the six books published during his lifetime, and the poems published posthumously after World War II are included. There is a foreword by Győző Ferencz, one of Hungary's foremost experts on Radnoti's poems, and accompanying essays by the author on dominant themes and recurring images, as well as the relevance of Radnoti's work to Holocaust literature.

“…a truly great poet, one in whom the lyrical image-maker and the critical human intelligence dealing with the tragic twentieth century are utterly fused, as they so rarely are . . . The quality of the translation is such that it is hard to remember the poems were not first written in English, even though one is always aware of Radnóti’s vision as European and of his locus as Hungary.”—Denise Levertov The Hungarian Jewish poet Miklós Radnóti (1909-1944) was also a prolific translator and editor who wrote some of his greatest poems in the labor camps and copper mines of Yugoslavia before being killed by the Nazis. Leaving behind a body of work that ranks with the classics of Hungarian verse, his influence is now being felt among a younger generation. In 1946, Radnóti’s body was exhumed from a mass grave by his wife who found a notebook of his poems (many of which were addressed to her) in his coat pocket.

Presents a collection of poems by the Hungarian author

A groundbreaking anthology containing the work of poets who have witnessed war, imprisonment, torture, and slavery. A companion volume to Against Forgetting, Poetry of Witness is the first anthology to reveal a tradition that runs through English-language poetry. The 300 poems collected here were composed at an extreme of human endurance—while their authors awaited execution, endured imprisonment, fought on the battlefield, or labored on the brink of breakdown or death. All bear witness to historical events and the irresistibility of their impact. Alongside Shakespeare, Milton, and Wordsworth, this volume includes such writers as Anne Askew, tortured and executed for her religious beliefs during the reign of Henry VIII; Phillis Wheatley, abducted by slave traders; Samuel Bamford, present at the Peterloo Massacre in 1819; William Blake, who witnessed the Gordon Riots of 1780; and Samuel Menashe, survivor of the Battle of the Bulge. Poetry of Witness argues that such poets are a perennial feature of human history, and it presents the best of that tradition, proving that their work ranks alongside the greatest in the language.

Camp Notebook is a masterpiece in its own right, a crucial work of European verse. It is one of the greatest pieces of literature to emerge from the Holocaust, and probably the finest volume of poetry born from the horror of the Second World War. "... in a tiny concealed notebook, [the poet] wrote his "last and finest poems. In 1944, Radnóti was shot while being force-marched towards Germany and his body, exhumed from a ditch after the war, was identified from the notebook in his pocket. This notebook, reproduced here in facsimile ... adds tremendous poignancy to Francis R. Jones's new translation." - Translation Review, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2001 "The clarity, directness and formal skill of Francis Jones's translations ensure that Camp Notebook joins and extends the best of the Radnóti canon in English and is part of the process of sounding the full depth of the original poems." - George Szirtes

“A really beautiful book” of poems that delve into—and help us transcend—suffering, loss, fear, and loneliness, by the author of How to Read a Poem (The Boston Globe). Implicit in poetry is the idea that we are enriched by heartbreaks, by the recognition and understanding of suffering—not just our own suffering but also the pain of others. We are not so much diminished as enlarged by grief, by our refusal to vanish, or to let others vanish, without leaving a record. And poets are people who are determined to leave a trace in words, to transform oceanic depths of feeling into art that speaks to others. In 100 Poems to Break Your Heart, Edward Hirsch—prize-winning poet, critic, and author of How to Read a Poem—selects 100 poems, from the nineteenth century to the present, and illuminates them, unpacking context and references to help the reader fully experience the range of emotion and wisdom within them. “Darkly illuminating.” —Booklist (starred review) “These 100 poems will indeed break hearts, but they also offer examples of resilience, the lasting impact of words, and a wisdom that a reader can return to and share.” —New York Journal of Books

Forced March is a new edition of Radnoti s selected poems, in the powerful and moving translations of Clive Wilmer and George Gomori. Poet Dick Davis explains why this book is so important: Radnoti has emerged as the major poetic voice to record the civilian experience of World War II in occupied Europe. His poems are an extraordinary record of a mind determined to affirm its civilization in the face of overwhelming odds. He is one of the very greatest poets of the twentieth century, and Clive Wilmer s and George Gomori s versions are by far the best that exist in English. By the time the Second World War broke out, Miklos Radnoti was already an established poet. When the Nazis took over his home-town of Budapest, Radnoti was sent to a labour camp at Bor in occupied Serbia. Then, in 1944, as the Germans retreated from the eastern front, Radnoti and his fellow labourers were force-marched back into Hungary. On 9 November, too weak to carry on, he and many comrades were executed by firing-squad. When the bodies were exhumed the following year, Radnoti was identified by a notebook of poems in his greatcoat pocket. These poems, published in 1946 as Foaming Sky, secured his position as one of the giants of modern Hungarian poetry."