Before and after the fall

the long version

"The poems in Before and After the Fall were written between 1985 and 1994, and have been translated by Len Roberts, a faithful translator of Csoori's work. Before and After the Fall is the first time these poems have appeared in English in a full-book format." "Csoori's poems record what he calls "the chronic memory of violence," namely the horrors of World War II and the repressions of the ensuing forty-five-year Communist occupation. A number of Csoori's poems written after 1989, the year Communism collapsed in Hungary, cast a cold eye on Hungary as a struggling, free nation. Never reluctant to examine greed or hypocrisy, his poems address the complex social and political systems human beings create, advance, and, at times, corrupt. Csoori has always believed that the poet must speak for those who may not be able to speak for themselves."--BOOK JACKET.