Chitra Ganesh, How to Assemble a Flying Car (detail), 2018, linocut on tan BFK Rives. Courtesy of the artist & Durham Press.
“My mama asked after your death . . .”
Translated from the Polish by Jennifer Carter-Zielińska
My mama asked after your death for
anything and shortly she dreamed of a ray
coming down from heaven she clutched it like
a straw aunt and uncle also clutched and
nana and cousin and the ray snapped. Now
it hangs high above us resembling
sackcloth string. When the wind blows
its tip traces in the transparent air
invisible letters.
Tadeusz Dąbrowski (b. 1979) is a Polish poet, essayist, and critic who has won, among other honors, the Hubert Burda Prize (2008) and, from Tadeusz Różewicz, the Prize of the Foundation for Polish Culture (2006). His first collection to appear in English will soon be released by Zephyr Press. He lives in Gdańsk. (5/2009)
Jennifer Carter-Zielińska, an American freelance translator, lives in Sopot, Poland. In addition to numerous commercial and scientific translations, she has published translations of work by Kazimierz Wierzyński_,_ Andrzej Wajda, and Zbigniew Rossa. (5/2009)
Tadeusz Dąbrowski (b. 1979) is a Polish poet, essayist, and critic, editor of the literary bimonthly Topos, art director of the European Poet of Freedom Festival, and author of seven volumes of poetry, most recently Srodek wyrazu (2016). He has been published in many journals in his native country (among others, Tygodnik Powszechny and Polityka). His work has been translated into twenty languages; in English, it has appeared in The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, Little Star, Guernica, Poetry Daily, Boston Review, Poetry Ireland, AGNI, and Poetry Wales. He is the winner of numerous awards, including the Kościelski Prize (2009), the Hubert Burda Prize (2008), and the Prize of the Foundation for Polish Culture (2006), and was nominated for the NIKE Literary Award (2010). Dąbrowski’s other collections include*: Wypieki(1999), e-mail (2000), *mazurek (2002), Te Deum (2005, 2008), Czarny kwadrat(2009), Pomiędzy (2013), and Schwarzes Quadrat auf schwarzem Grund (2010, 2011), as well as a collection of poetry in English entitled Black Square (Zephyr Press, 2011). He is editor of the anthology* Poza slowa*: Antologia wierszy 1976–2006 (2006). His second collection to be released in the U.S., Posts, is forthcoming from Zephyr Press in 2018. He lives in Gdańsk on the Baltic coast of Poland. (updated 10/2017)
Jennifer Carter-Zielińska, an American freelance translator, lives in Sopot, Poland. In addition to numerous commercial and scientific translations, she has published translations of the poetry of Kazimierz Wierzyński (Poetry Salzburg Review, 2007), Katyn by Andrzej Wajda (Prószynski i S-ka, 2008), and Muse by Zbigniew Rossa (Grafikon, 2008). (updated 5/2009)