Maria Cyranowicz : Three poems, translated by Malgorzata Myk

 

 

 

 

wendy’s martyrdom

there is nothing in the present tense
blue surfaces in the bathroom remember
better than the banana ceiling at my head’s opening

when my eyes see wendy
she takes off her childhood walks
under my skin like into the shower
there is no

martyrdom in the present tense
among props amnesia continues

 

 

sunset 

when I open my eyes the sun is still shining,
a small rusty orb nearing evening;
I am turning it in my thoughts like a hot potato,
it is setting too fast behind the thin line of eyelids.

the horizon fills with blood. I can’t not look.
I am touching it with my sight: it is pulsing. I smile a little.
with all my strength I’m trying to feel less sad.
I am rubbing eyelids with my fingers and I don’t have
reluctance in me, only astonishment.
there’s something behind this line. there’s something in this color.

 

 

 

 

Note on the poems:

The poem “Peiperettes”, whose original title “Peiperosy” references the name of Polish avant-garde poet Tadeusz Peiper, was first published in the literary magazine Meble 5 (2002) under the pseudonym Mera de Cyrano. Poems “wendy’s martyrdom” and “sunset” come from the poet’s 2006 collection psychodelicje.

 

 

 

 

Maria Cyranowicz (b. 1974)—Polish poet, literary critic, teacher, and editor. In 1999 she received the Ludwik Fryde Award for Young Critics. Member of the Warsaw-based group of poets whose work has been associated with language-oriented poetic practices known as "neolingwizm". Author of five books: neutralizacje (Biblioteka Frondy, 1997), i magii nacja (Zielona Sowa, 2001), piaty element to fiksja (Staromiejski Dom Kultury, 2004), psychodelicje (Staromiejski Dom Kultury, 2006), den.presja (Fundacja Mammal, 2009). Co-editor of two anthologies: Gada !Zabic? Pa(n)tologia neolingwizmu (Staromiejski Dom Kultury, 2005, with Pawel Koziol) and Solistki. Antologia poezji kobiet (1989-2009) (Staromiejski Dom Kultury, 2009, with Joanna Mueller and Justyna Radczynska). Co-editor and contributor to two literary journals Meble (now defunct) and Wakat/Notoria. Her new poems have recently appeared in Strefa wolna. Wiersze przeciwko nienawiści i homofobii (Outside the Box, 2019) and Queer. Dezorientacje. Antologia Polskiej Literatury Queer. Eds. Alessandro Amenta, Tomasz Kalisciak, Blazej Warkocki (Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej, 2021). Translations of her poems are forthcoming in Modern Poetry in Translation and AzonaL. Her new poetry collection machinacje is forthcoming this year. She lives in Warsaw.

Malgorzata Myk (b. 1975) teaches North American Literature and Culture at Lodz University, Poland. Author of the monograph Upping the Ante of the Real: Speculative Poetics of Leslie Scalapino (Peter Lang, 2019). Co-editor of the two volumes: Theory That Matters: What Practice After Theory and the Polish Journal for American Studies Special Issue on Innovation in Contemporary American Poetry. The Kosciuszko Foundation Fellow in the academic year 2017/18 (UCSD). Myk studied American literature and gender studies at the Department of English, University of Orono, Maine, where she also worked for the National Poetry Foundation (University of Orono, Maine) as an Editorial Assistant of the journal Paideuma: Studies in American and British Modernism. She currently serves as the Co-Editor-in-Chief and Content Editor of Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture, published by Lodz University Press. She has translated into Polish such North American authors as Leslie Scalapino, Lisa Robertson, and Kevin Davies. Her most recent translations include  E. Tracy Grinnell’s poetry, published in Odmiany Łapania Tchu: Pięć Amerykańskich Głosów (featuring translations of Don Mee Choi, Sarah Mangold, Tyrone Williams, and E. Tracy Grinnell’s work) (Dom Literatury 2022). She lives in Warsaw.