The purpose of the poetry is not to dazzle with an astonishing thought, but to make one moment of existence unforgettable and worthy of unbearable nostalgia. — javi2541997

I don't think I fully understand what this is supposed to mean. I do agree that nostalgia is often unbearable (cloying and tawdry) but what is unbearable nostalgia? Is this what happens when gown men in their 50's collect Star Wars action figures in some attempt to recapture the summer of 1977? :wink:

I'm not a poetry enthusiast, so while I admire the technical skill of some poetic works, poems generally do not move me. I find essays (another form of compressed writing) more affecting.

If a poem uses language in a way that makes it memorable and cathartic, how exactly does this become nostalgia (a sentimental longing for a time past)? I'm assuming that the point of K's writing here is that we look back on the experince of encountering that moment in print with a nostalgia? The way we might feel when we remember hearing soem significant music for the first time.

After reading three novels by Kundera, I am starting to think that 'unbearable' is a concept of his own. We have the meaning of the adjective on one side, and then we have the meaning of Kundera on the other. It is important to notice that he also used or attached 'unbearable' to other things, such as love, sex, or art. 

Coming back to the main point of this thread and speaking about poetry, I think Kundera attached unbearable to nostalgia because the main character, Agnes, is sad and unhappy in her mature life. She lives in a constant state of heavy existentialism and uncertainty. Yet he had an acceptable childhood, and when she reads Goethe's poem years later, her last years showed up like a sparkle. She is learning German, she is spending time with her parents, who are now gone, when she moved to France, etc. 

She feels like: 'Where the time went?' Because she dislikes the present and she doesn't hope for the future. I guess that's why the nostalgia is too unbearable for Agnes.

:up: Interesting about the word 'unbearable'. A fine thing Kundera said, and I am paraphrasing - You build a utopia and pretty soon you're going to need to build a small concentration camp.