The first uncensored, English-language translation of a Polish dissident poet's brave act of witness in post-World-War-II Europe.

Ryszard Krynicki was born in Sankt Valentin (Lower Austria) and is considered one of Poland's most important contemporary poets. Since the early days of his career in the 1960s, Krynicki has been associated with the political opposition in Poland and, as a result, was banned from official publication between 1976 and 1980. In 1988, he founded the influential publishing house a5, focused on contemporary Polish poetry, including the works of Wislaw Szymborska. He has also translated several German writers, including Bertolt Brecht and Paul Celan. He lives in Krak w.Alissa Valles is a translator of Polish literature and a poet. Her debut poetry collection was Orphan Fire, and she edited and co-translated Zbigniew Herbert's Collected Poems- 1956-1998 as well as his Collected Prose- 1948-1998. She has contributed to Polish Writers on Writing and New European Poets. She is a recipient of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship and the Bess Hokin Prize. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.