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Polish Poetry

September 2011

We present a group of contemporary Polish poets, selected by the critic Grzegorz Jankowski, including new poems by Jacek Dehnel, Julia Fiedorczuk, Justyna Bargielska, Edward Pasewicz, and Piotr Sommer.

Alterity
By Jacek Dehnel
There’s no such thing as comfort for unhappy men.
Translated from Polish by Benjamin Paloff
Multilingual
I Wish I Had a Master
By Julia Fiedorczuk
for one stray word / would mean the fall of kingdoms
Translated from Polish by Benjamin Paloff
only i am
By Justyna Bargielska
only i am cruelty-free
Translated from Polish by Katarzyna Szuster
Old-Fashioned
By Edward Pasewicz
And then she died on us, utterly.
Translated from Polish by Benjamin Paloff
Multilingual
An impressionist oil painting of a country house with trees and a garden in front of it.
"Spring in France" (1890) by Robert William Vonnoh. Wirt D. Walker Fund. Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago. Public Domain.
Adjectival Poem
By Piotr Sommer
Amazing spring, warm, humid / and full of backlit trees.
Translated from Polish by W. Martin & Christian Hawkey
Multilingual
Bugging
By Piotr Sommer
All the hazel eyes are rotting now underground.
Translated from Polish by W. Martin & Christian Hawkey
Multilingual
Utensils Shrink
By Piotr Sommer
Verbs swell before your eyes or / burst their seams.
Translated from Polish by W. Martin & Christian Hawkey
Multilingual