So a colleague approached me a couple of years ago
and said there's this book of his poems from 1946
through the years in Washington during the time when he decided
he just couldn't work for this government anymore,
sought political asylum in France,
wrote "The Captive Mind" to justify his leaving
after being in hiding because he wasn't sure
if he was going to be tracked down by the Polish government
or not.
And then found his way back to writing poetry
after a couple of years.
This period, from 1946 to '53.
So my friend David Frick who died
before we finished this project said to me, let's
just translate that whole book.
And I thought, you can't not do this.