Volume 47, Number 13 · August 10, 2000
My Krakow
By Adam Zagajewski
Walking through the center of Krakow. The narrow medieval streets leading to the Old Market, the shifting perspectives, the nervous rhythm of the rooftops—all joined to form the blood vessels of a living, organic system. You could circle the old city center by way of the Planty gardens in an hour or less. Church steeples, white or blood-red, pierced the vast canopies of chestnuts, maples, ashes; they towered above the foliage like grownups hovering watchfully over their young in family photographs. Days and weeks went by when my mind was taken up by completely mundane matters:Will I get credit for history of philosophy, have I got enough money for both concerts and lunches, does my girlfriend still remember me? But sometimes, at odd moments, it seemed to me that I perceived the city's unity, that I grasped it by means of a special sense, the sense of wholeness.
Feature, 1534 words
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