Bill Johnston's New Poems by Tadeusz Rozewicz Wins Translation Award

Bill Johnston recently received the first annual Found in Translation Award for his translation of New Poems by Tadeusz Rozewicz (Archipelago Books, 2007). The award, established in 2007, is given annually for the best translation of a work of Polish literature into English.

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Rozewicz has had a number of excellent translators over the years including Milosz, Adam Czerniawski, and Victor Contoski, and Bill Johnston continues that tradition. He captures the essential calmness and sanity of Rozewicz's voice as it speaks of a world that is mostly chaotic and insane.

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Here's one of Johnston's translations:

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AND ONCE AGAIN

"It's past and gone [...]

Best would be to go mad."

(Tadeusz Konwicki, Afterglows)

And once again

the past begins

best would be to go mad

you're right Tadzio

but our generation doesn't go mad

our eyes stay open

to the very end

we don't need to be blindfolded

we have no use for the paradises

of faiths sects religions

with broken backs

we crawl on

yes Tadzio at the end

we have to relive everything

from the beginning

you know that as well as I

at times we whisper

all people will be brothers

in life's labyrinth

we encounter

distorted faces of friends

enemies

nameless

you hear me

I'll tell you an image from the past

again I'm running away

from a specter who

wrapped in a gaberdine of sky

stands in a green meadow

and speaks to me in an unknown language

I am the lord thy god

who led thee out of the house of bondage

everything starts from the beginning

once again Mr. Turski

my singing teacher

looks at me with the handsome

sweet eyes

of Omar Sharif

and I sing

the apple tree has blossomed (...)

red apples did it bear ...

I know I'm out of tune

but Mr. Turski has been smiling

at me since 1930

and I get an A

Mr. Turski in a fragrant

strange cloud

exotic and mysterious

for an elementary school

in a provincial town

between Częstochowa and Piotrków Trybunalski

smiles

and takes his mystery

to the grave

when will the past

finally end

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Two excellent review-essays on Johnston's translation of Rozewicz's New Poems are available online. Ron Slate writes about it at his blog, and Rainer J. Hanshe's "Writing the Apocalypse: Voicing Silence Through Time" appears at the Nietzsche Circle.

RECENT NEWS

Recently, I've been moving (from Georgia to Virginia via U-Haul), and I've been ill (shingles!), and it's taken me a while to get back to posting about writing and writing projects the readers of this blog may be interested in. But the boxes are getting emptied (thanks to my wife Linda's will and courage) and the shingles are a little less painful than they were.

So here's some of the news I've come across:

Tony Bukoski's new collection of short stories, North of the Port, is available from Southern Methodist University Press and Amazon. This is what Stuart Dybek said about the collection: "A quintessential writer of place, Bukoski is one in whom imagination is indistinguishable from empathy. A lovely, soulful book." I know Dybek has it right. I've read Bukoski's other collections about the Polish Americans living in the hard North Country, and those stories are perfect.

Phil Boiarski, the author of the powerful Coal and Ice has recently started a blog called Boiarski the Blog. There, he shares his thoughts about writing, creativity, mother's day, and reading. The site also includes generous samplings of his creative writing.

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The latest issue of Mark Pawlak's journal Hanging Loose is out now and contains poems by three Polish-American: Sharon Mesmer, Stephen Lewandowski, and me. The journal and Hanging Loose Press has a rich history of publishing excellent young and established writers.

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Elisabeth Murawski has recently published a poem entitle "Twelve, Awkward, with Shame" in The Literary Review. The poem is available online at ESCENE: The Best of the Literary Journals.

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Polish-American poet Jeremy Edward Shiok, the editor of Two Review, wrote to invite the readers of this blog to submit to his independent, annual print journal of poetry and nonfiction. He also invites people to stop by the journal's website to get a sense of what the journal's like.