Brings one of the most versatile and interesting Polish poets to English readers for the first time;
Bilingual (Polish and English) poems on facing pages;
Recent Zephyr Eastern European titles have won or been short-listed for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Translation Award, the PEN Poetry in Translation Award, the Griffin International Poetry Prize, and the Found in Translation Prize;
Many of the book’s poems have been recorded as rock songs by the poet’s two rock bands;
Translator is an award-winning translator of Polish literature.
One of the most versatile and rebellious poets in Poland, Świetlicki takes us into streets, cafes, rooms, and conversations where — with his signature dark glasses — he ponders metaphysical questions in the minutiae of daily life. These are poems about life, forgiveness, communication, love, death, and time: in the slit of a mailbox, he sees “Not the light but / the galloping Now.” The poems have an urban edge and bite, and Świetlicki has recorded many of them as lyrics with his rock band. The collection, his first to be translated into English, culls work from all twelve of his published volumes.
