{"id":92,"date":"2009-05-21T12:46:38","date_gmt":"2009-05-21T17:46:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/?p=92"},"modified":"2009-05-21T12:46:38","modified_gmt":"2009-05-21T17:46:38","slug":"amor-de-lonh-by-gabriel-olearnik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/2009\/05\/amor-de-lonh-by-gabriel-olearnik\/","title":{"rendered":"Amor de Lonh, by Gabriel Olearnik"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amor de Lonh by Gabriel Olearnik, Guest Reviewed by Grace Andreacchi<\/em>
\nAndromache Books, London, 2009
\nThe composer Robert Schumann once described the music of the man who is still arguably the Pole par excellence to the non-Polish world, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chopin, as \u2018a cannon buried in flowers\u2019, and this isn\u2019t a bad description of what the Polish-British poet Gabriel Olearnik is up to either. To carry the analogy a bit further, as Chopin built upon the old classical style with new, exciting harmonies, so Olearnik makes use of the rich traditions of the medieval troubadours as well as those found in such deeply reflective and intellectual poets as T.S. Eliot and Zbigniew Herbert to create a burning bright new poetry of the mind.
\nThere is of course an earlier poetical work known as Amor de Lonh, that of the twelfth century prince, Jaufr\u00e9 Rudel. His enigmatic verses on the theme of distant love serve as a template for this new Amor de Lonh, in which every kind of obstacle, both internal and external, must be vanquished before the soul is free to fly upwards towards its goal. Olearnik\u2019s book opens with a translation from the French troubadour.<\/p>\n

About to embark on a journey into the unknown in search of his \u2018distant love\u2019, he imagines himself already at her feet.<\/p>\n

In that far court, I shall sit beside her beauty
\nand draw sweet words from her mouth.<\/p>\n

According to the legend, Jaufr\u00e9 Rudel departed on Crusade, more on account of the imagined charms of his lady, the Countess of Tripoli, than out of any desire to do battle with Saracens, but he fell sick on the journey and arrived at her castle only just in time to die in her arms. To the medieval way of thinking this was not so much an exercise in futility as a confirmation of the power of the soul above that of the mere physical self. \u2018Distant love\u2019 only makes sense if you can see that, and if you can see it, then only \u2018distant love\u2019, unearthly love, a wholly purified and spiritual love becomes your aim.
\nThe book is divided into three parts dealing, approximately, with themes of science, war and the art of love. But the dividing walls are porous, there are cannons buried among Olearnik\u2019s flowers, and flowers bedeck his cannons. There are lines of heart-stopping beauty, as in this neatly counter-weighted conclusion to the early poem \u2018Acid and Optics\u2019:<\/p>\n

It may have been otherwise.
\nI could have singed my skin with strong waters,
\nyou might have stretched light and its daughter, shade,
\nbut in each weighed cosmos, every counterpoint of the real \u2014
\nin another world I would still find you.<\/p>\n

The language is rich but never cloying, vivid and direct, sometimes playful as well. There are references galore, from everything from Ryszard Kapuscinski to St. Exup\u00e9ry to Thucydides, adding layers of meaning in counterpoint.
\nIn the second part of the book we are plunged into the terrors of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. \u2018War comes and will not be gainsaid.\u2019 The tone is alternately apocalyptic, sardonic, or simple and moving as in the quiet poem \u2018Ice Wine\u2019:<\/p>\n

But I remembered my father, his hands brown
\nhis head red from the sun, steaming, sweated
\nhis height, his green bottle and the love in it
\nthirty summers ago.<\/p>\n

A theme begins to develop with this poem of fathers and sons, and lends a personal weight to the tragedy of war as part two unfolds.
\nThe third part opens with a poem of sickness, \u2018108 degrees\u2019. The poet speaks from a hospital bed, burning with fever, or is it love? We are never sure:
\nEvery heart is a dark forest.
\nI press the sand to stand still, gaze beyond the beachhead
\nAt times the language of the Song of Solomon is invoked, then suddenly we are in London\u2019s dirty streets where the \u2018Madonna of Soho\u2019 stands \u2018with stilletoed core and white innocence\u2019 \u2013 and sacred and profane love become one. The book ends with a reprise on the theme of distant love that is also, oddly enough, a joke. But the sly humour is one of the more unexpected notes, another moment of Chopiniana if you like.
\nThe book is beautifully illustrated with strangely evocative woodcuts, while on the cover a glittering mosaic from Ravenna aptly suggests the glowing treasures within.<\/p>\n

Amor de Lonh by Gabriel Olearnik
\nAndromache Books, London, 2009
\nISBN 978-1-4092-6668-6
\n86 pages
\nReviewed by Grace Andreacchi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amor de Lonh by Gabriel Olearnik, Guest Reviewed by Grace Andreacchi Andromache Books, London, 2009 The composer Robert Schumann once described the music of the man who is still arguably the Pole par excellence to the non-Polish world, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chopin, as \u2018a cannon buried in flowers\u2019, and this isn\u2019t a \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,11],"tags":[15,27,29,89,226],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-reviews","category-poetry","tag-amor-de-lonh","tag-andreacchi","tag-andromanche","tag-olearnik","tag-poetry"],"yoast_head":"\nAmor de Lonh, by Gabriel Olearnik - 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