5 Halina Poświatowska Translations by Karolina Zapal and Ryan Mihaly

By , and | 1 February 2022
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(mosquitos know)


mosquitos know

they need what sleeps

at the ends of our cruel fingers

when it comes to elbows

they are not very philanthropic

nailed by a ray of light

they buzz like sinister violins

carrying abdomens full of warm feed

in lazy circles

they break apart the air

only to return

lips unquenched by blood

to the bend of a blooming hand





(komary wiedzą to o życiu)


komary wiedzą to o życiu

co drzemie

w końcach naszych okrutnych palców

one nie uprawiają filantropii

na ostrym łokciu

przybite promieniem światła

brzęczą

w skrzypce złowieszczej natury

unoszą

pełne ciepłego pokarmu odwłoki

leniwymi skrzydłami koliście

roztrącają powietrze

by wrócić

i znów

wargi niesyte krwi

zagłębić

w zgięciu hojnie kwitnącej dłoni
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Ryan Mihaly is a writer and musician from New England. He is the author of B-Flat Clarinet Fingering Chart (New Michigan Press, 2022). He graduated from the MFA program at Naropa University where he was an Anne Waldman fellow. His poems, translations, and interviews have appeared in The Massachusetts Review, Asymptote, ANMLY, 3:AM Magazine, and elsewhere. He works at a non-profit music school, teaches saxophone to students of all ages, and is translating the work of Polish poet Halina Poświatowska with Karolina Zapal.

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Karolina Zapal is an itinerant poet, essayist, translator, and author of two books: Notes for Mid-Birth (Inside the Castle, 2019) and Polalka (Spuyten Duyvil, 2018). As an immigrant and activist writer, she writes frequently about her native Poland, languages, borders, and women’s rights. Her work has appeared in The Rumpus, Painted Bride Quarterly, Inverted Syntax, Tupelo Quarterly, The Seventh Wave, and others. She is translating Halina Poświatowska's poetry into English with her partner, Ryan Mihaly. She was the Anselm Hollo Fellow at Naropa University from 2015-2017.

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Halina Poświatowska (1935-1967) is one of Poland’s most beloved poets. She survived the Nazi invasion of her hometown, Częstochowa, in 1945, though it left her with a chronic heart condition that would claim her life at the age of 32. Knowing her life would be brief, Poświatowska wrote prolifically: her collected work includes 4 books of poetry, a memoir, and several hundred unpublished stories, essays, and plays. She travelled extensively across Europe and America and earned a degree in philosophy from Smith College. New editions of her work — as well as biographies and critical studies — continue to be published in Poland and around the world in translation.

More by Halina Poświatowska on Cordite Poetry Review →

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