Lidia Kosk is the author of six books of poems and short stories. In Poland, where she resides, her poems have been published in journals and anthologies, and broadcast in a weekly program of Polish Radio. In the USA, English translations of her poems have appeared in several publications, including International Poetry Review, Passager, September Eleven: Maryland Voices Anthology, and Contemporary Writers of Poland. Her first bilingual book of poems, niedosytłreshapings, was published in 2003; the second is in preparation. She is a lawyer, humanitarian, and world traveler; she has visited the USA several times.
Danuta E. Kosk-Kosicka writes and translates poems in English and Polish. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Between Here and There and On the Verge of Light and Shadow. Her poems have been published in literary journals, anthologies, and magazines in both the U.S. and Poland. Her translations of poems by Lucille Clifton, Josephine Jacobsen, and Linda Pastan have appeared in Poland. In addition to being the translator for the bilingual book of poems by Lidia Kosk, niedosytłreshapings, she has translated into English numerous poems by Ernest Bryll as well as single pieces by Julia Hartwig and Wislawa Szymborska. She has resided in Baltimore, Maryland, since 1981.
Summer 2008
Table of Contents - Vol. IV, No. 2
Poetry Translations Non-Fiction Fiction Essays
Lidia Kosk
the surface of the Baltic seems smooth
the time and space wedged between us
do not stop me from looking for you
you fought for this town
you fought for this coast
I can't see weapons in your hands
I can't see your hands at all
I see the deep of your eyes
you wore no glasses then
just your twenty years
on the front line
a breaking wave
brings back bits of that time
your eyes full of young hope
I must recover your knapsack
memories.
thrown
from the airplane--
like innocence
from cliffs--
claimed by Gibraltar's
deep night waters
over fifty years passed--
water-blinded eyes
tarnished mirror of truth
throat choking
muddy silence--
Sphinx-like
Gibraltar guards
the young woman
who is still asking about her father
still
asking
Translated from the Polish by Danuta E. Kosk-Kosicka
© Danuta E. Kosk-Kosicka
