Paul Polansky

Living Through It Twice: Poems of the Romany Holocaust (1940-1997) Paul Polansky

Poetry. A beautifully produced, bilingual edition mentioned on BBC Radio and NPR's All Things Considered, LIVING THROUGH IT TWICE has also inspired a forthcoming CBS television documentary. Paul Polansky's spare, stark renderings of Romany survivors' voices have the hardness of memorial stone. But in reading them, the stone dissolves and something infinitely tender and unspeakable takes its place. The restraint and hardness hold in the tears-just barely. The Romany Holocaust, the Czech Romany Holocaust, the denial of it by the Havel government, the repetition of history today - these unknowns are thrown into sharp relief by Polansky's unblinking gaze. When we see what he sees, we no longer have an excuse to avert our eyes -- Andrei Codrescu. It was raining when I arrived. / How many came like me / smelling the wet countryside, / hearing no sounds from the city? (Auschwitz).