Translator's Note

Born in Poland in 1962 and living in Copenhagen since 1985, Grzegorz Wróblewski is one of Poland’s major contemporary writers. The Polish versions of these poems first appeared in Wróblewski’s collection Pomieszczenia i ogrody (Warszawa: Biblioteka Narodowa, 2005). In translating these poems into English I tried to capture the mixture of directness and strangeness that makes Wróblewski’s verse so distinctive. His poems pay close attention to their surroundings, yet they are often ambiguous, enigmatic, weird; their very lucidity produces a sense of mystery. Even a relatively straightforward poem like “Home” seems full of existential meaning. As Wróblewski himself explains, “It’s about the unknown, about how we circle around something we think important, perhaps, but always inaccessible. We constantly face the same problems and dilemmas. We get close to solving them, but never get the full answer. This stimulates or destroys us.” “A Red Bow” is an example of Wróblewski’s tendency to imbue inanimate objects with consciousness. The author again: “Unusual details, accidental situations, occasionally produce an emotional response or at least a reflection in me. I feel bad, for example, when I see someone kicking a piece of furniture or throwing a bottle – all those stray remnants of thoughtless consumerism. Perhaps this is due to the fact that I’m also a visual artist. Different forms and colors, while they may be of little importance to others, can have a big impact on me.” The last two poems in this series reveal Wróblewski’s fascination with Japan. “Ryōgen-in” was inspired by the famous Buddhist temple in Kyoto, while “The Spider from Hakone” was composed during a few days he spent in that town at the foot of Mount Fuji in 2001. As Wróblewski states in reference to these poems: “Clarity is hard to capture. Harder than even the most advanced metaphysical divagations.”

Piotr Gwiazda

In the Classroom