The Folding Star: and Other Poems

by Jacek Gutorow, Piotr Florczyk (Translator)

Overview

The Folding Star and Other Poems is a triumphant collection of poetry that will help change our understanding of Polish poetry in the United States. The steady gaze, surgical precision, and syntactical richness of Gutorow’s poems speak to unhurried and lasting meditations, which, in their turn, beg to be revised time and again.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781934414880
Publisher:	BOA Editions, Ltd.
Publication date:	05/15/2012
Series:	Lannan Translations Series
Edition description:	Translatio
Pages:	92
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Jacek Gutorow (b. 1970) is a Polish poet, translator, and literary critic. He has published five books of poems, which have recently been collected and published by Biuro Literackie in Nad brzegiem rzeki. Wiersze z lat 1990-2010 (At the River’s Edge. Poems 1990-2010). His 1997 volume, Wiersze pod nieobecnosc (Poems in Absentia), was recognized as the most important debut book of the year, receiving the celebrated Kazimiera Ilakowiczówna Award, while his most recent individual collection, Inne tempo (A Different Tempo, 2008), also published by Biuro Literackie, was nominated for the three most significant literary awards in Poland: the Nike Award, the Cogito Award, and the Gdynia Award. His work has been translated into German, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Czech, and Slovak.

Gutorow is also an acclaimed literary critic and translator. He has published five collections of critical essays and won the 2004 Ludwik Fryde Award from the International Association of Literary Critics. His translations include books by Simon Armitage, Wallace Stevens, and Ron Padgett, as well as work by Henry James, John Ashbery, Jorie Graham, and Charles Tomlinson. He has also translated and commented upon such figures as Ludwig Wittgenstein, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Jacques Derrida. Jacek Gutorow teaches American and British literature at the University of Opole.

Piotr Florczyk is a poet and translator. With Been and Gone (Marick Press, 2009), he introduced the English-speaking audience to Julian Kornhauser (1946-), one of the foremost Polish poets of the Generation of '68. He is also the translator of a collection of poems by Anna Swir (1909-84), Building the Barricade and Other Poems (Calypso Editions, 2011). His individual poems, translations, and reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in Slate, Boston Review, Threepenny Review, Pleiades, The Southern Review, Notre Dame Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, America Magazine, New Orleans Review, West Branch, World Literature Today, Cimarron Review, Little Star, and Poetry International, among others. He holds an MFA from San Diego State University, and has taught at the University of Delaware, San Diego State University, and at University of California-Riverside. Piotr Florczyk lives in Los Angeles, California.

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS ii-iv
INTRODUCTION v
HEBRAJSZCZYZNA 8
HEBREW 9
PRELUDIUM 10
APOCRYPHAL 11
WIERSZ PRZECIW PODRÓZOM 12
AGAINST TRAVEL 13
BUG 14
BUG RIVER 16
NIEDOKONCZONY PRZEKLAD Z VERMEERA 18
UNFINISHED TRANSLATION OF VERMEER 19
MAKI 20
BONNARD’S POPPIES 21
ROZBIEG 22
CHILD 23
USYTUOWANIE DRZEW 24
ON SITUATING TREES 25
KOMPOZYCJA 26
THE YELLOW BICYCLE 27
MEDYTACJA 28
SLUR 29
ZIELSKO. WSPOMNIENIE 30
WEEDS. A RECOLLECTION 31
CZAS 32
TIME 33
DO BIEGU GOTOWI START! 34
READY, SET, GO! 35
MORALITET 36
MORALITY PLAY 37
NA ULICACH ZACHODU 38
ON THE STREETS OF THE WEST 39
SONET 40
THE FOOTNOTE MAN 41
NOTATKA Z PODRÓZY 42
NOTEBOOK ENTRY 43
JAK W ZWIERCIADLE 44
THROUGH A GLASS, DARKLY 45
SONET ALUZYJNY (2) 46
TWO GRAY SECONDS 47
PLAC TEATRALNY 48
THE THEATER SQUARE 49
LUBINY 50
MALLOWS 51
INNE TEMPO 52
A DIFFERENT TEMPO 53
[DWIE BIALE LÓDKI NA BIALYM TLE] 54
*** 55
ZIMOWA OPOWIESC 56
THE WINTER’S TALE 57
CZEGO NIE NAMALOWALI HOLENDRZY 58
WHAT THE DUTCH DIDN’T PAINT 59
DEDYKACJA 60
INSCRIPTION 61
POWIESC 62
FICTION 63
PROLEGOMENA DO PIERWSZEGO WIERSZA 64
NOTES TOWARD A FIRST POEM 65
BEZ TYTULU 66
POEM 67
ORIGAMI 68
ORIGAMI 69
THE FOLDING STAR 70
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 71
ABOUT THE AUTHOR 73
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR 74

Editorial Reviews

Gutorow is a lyrical poet who ponders the edges of what cannot be known…He writes of the inevitable with a tenderness that says that there are fewer threats to our lives if we will just listen and see.”—The Washington Independent Review of Books

“There is something paradoxical about the effects created by poetry in translation. The poets who are deeply immersed in their native language, who are capable of articulating complex meanings connected with innumerable modulations of colloquial speech, and who manage to sound out the unique frequencies of their languages by experimenting with etymology or phraseology, are usually poorly served by translators whose technical abilities may be splendid but who cannot write with the nerve of common speech.” —Stride Magazine

“[T]he ability of poetry to deal with nearly any topic and to especially tell little stories encapsulated in a few lines has long been a tradition of the Poles and an area of literature where they’ve displayed exceptional expertise. Gutorow has placed himself strongly within this tradition but in the most contemporary sense.” —Gently Read Literature

From the Publisher