I RUN ON THE BEACH
I run on the beach.
People are surprised.
– A grey-haired hag who runs.
I run on the beach
with a cheeky face.
People laugh.
– Grey-haired and cheeky.
They approve.
WHILE BUILDING THE BARRICADE
We were afraid, building the barricade
under fire.
Barman, jeweler’s mistress, barber,
all of us cowards.
The housemaid hit the ground
hauling a cobblestone, and we were very afraid,
all of us cowards –
groundskeeper, stallholder, pensioner.
The pharmacist dragging the toilet door
hit the ground,
and we got very scared,
smuggler girl, dressmaker, tram driver,
all of us cowards.
The boy from a reform school
fell dragging a sandbag,
and we got scared
for real.
Although no one forced us,
we built the barricade
under fire.
TOMORROW THEY’LL CUT ME OPEN
She came and stood beside me.
I said: I’m ready.
I’m bedridden in the surgical clinic in Kraków.
Tomorrow
they’ll cut me open.
I have many powers in me. I can live,
I can run, dance and sing.
All of that is in me, but if need be,
I’ll walk away.
Today
I take stock of my life.
I was a sinner,
I banged my head against the ground,
I asked for forgiveness
from earth and sky.
I was beautiful and hideous,
wise and stupid,
very happy and very unhappy,
oftentimes I had wings
and I sailed through the air.
I trampled thousands of trails in the sun and in snow,
I danced with a friend under the stars.
I saw love
in many human eyes.
I ate with admiration
my slice of happiness.
Now I’m bedridden in the surgical clinic in Kraków,
and she stands beside me.
Tomorrow
they’ll cut me open.
Outside the window are May trees beautiful with life,
and in me are humility, fear and peace.
MY DAUGHTER
I built a house,
I chose a man,
I do my work.
Then I’ll go and my daughter will come.
She will build a house,
choose a man,
do her work.
Then she will go.
By giving birth I condemned her.
Translated by Piotr Florczyk
Selected samples
She climbed her first peaks in a headscarf at a time when women in the mountains were treated by climbers as an additional backpack. It was with her that female alpinism began! She gained recognition in a spectacular way. The path was considered a crossing for madmen. Especially since the tragic accident in 1929, preserved … Continue reading “Halina”
First, Marysia, a student of an exclusive private school in Warsaw’s Mokotów district, dies under the wheels of a train. Her teacher, Elżbieta, tries to find out what really happened. She starts a private investigation only soon to perish herself. But her body disappears, and the only people who have seen anything are Gniewomir, a … Continue reading “Wound”
A young girl, Regina Wieczorek, was found dead on the beach. She was nineteen years old and had no enemies. Fortunately, the culprit was quickly found. At least, that’s what the militia think. Meanwhile, one day in November, Jan Kowalski appears at the police station. He claims to have killed not only Regina but also … Continue reading “Penance”
The year is 1922. A dangerous time of breakthrough. In the Eastern Borderlands of the Republic of Poland, Bolshevik gangs sow terror, leaving behind the corpses of men and disgraced women. A ruthless secret intelligence race takes place between the Lviv-Warsaw-Free City of Gdańsk line. Lviv investigator Edward Popielski, called Łysy (“Hairless”), receives an offer … Continue reading “A Girl with Four Fingers”
This question is closely related to the next one, namely: if any goal exists, does life lead us to that goal in an orderly manner? In other words, is everything that happens to us just a set of chaotic events that, combined together, do not form a whole? To understand how the concept of providence … Continue reading “Order and Love”
The work of Józef Łobodowski (1909-1988) – a remarkable poet, prose writer, and translator, who spent most of his life in exile – is slowly being revived in Poland. Łobodowski’s brilliant three- volume novel, composed on an epic scale, concerns the fate of families and orphans unmoored by the Bolshevik Revolution and civil war and … Continue reading “Ukrainian Trilogy: Thickets, The Settlement, The Way Back”
