In Romania, a translation of Tadeusz Dąbrowski’s collection Czarny Kwadrat (“Black Square”) has recently been published. The book was translated by Constantin Geambaşu. The publication of the book was supported by the Book Institute as part of the ©POLAND Translation Programme.
The volume Pătratul negru, as reads the Romanina translation of the book, has been published by EIKON publishing house in Bucharest.
Black Square is a renowned volume of poems by the winner of the Kościelski Award, which confirms the rank of one of the most talented poets of the younger generation, as a continuator of metaphysical tradition in Polish poetry. Dabrowski’s poetry moves within the circle of problems of identity (understood ontologically), the relationship between body and mind (soul?), the absence or unawareness of God, the experience of time and history. The volume also contains autothematic works about the ambivalence of language, hiding and opening access to reality, elegies on the death of poetry, ironic evaluations of contemporary times, and even a funny reckoning with Polishness. Finally, there are very personal pieces, dedicated to loved ones, but – just like all of Dabrowski’s poetry – deliberately aloof, washed away from ingratiating sentimentality.
The translator of the book, Constantin Geambaşu, is a one-man-institution; he has about fifty translations of Polish books to his name, which have been published in the most prestigious Romanian publishing houses. In 2016, the Book Institute awarded Geambaşu with the prestigious Transatlantyk Award, which is granted to the most outstanding translators of Polish literature into foreign languages.
