I entered so many churches
in vain, plaster statuettes laughed at me…
Left alone children cried,
the remains of God had to be peeled
from their muddy jackets,
the father bar hopped, visited whores,
the world drifted away like a wobbly rail car
without a conductor or engine driver;
later I met the same children in schools,
I taught them how to write
their names correctly, they stared at me
as if I were an engine driver, I would select
the best among them for football
with other poor children. When they threw mud
at each other on the field behind the slag heap,
I had tears in my eyes.
I know, it was supposed to be about God.
Translated by
Ewa Chrusciel
Karol Maliszewski was born in 1960 in Nowa Ruda, Poland where he lives today. He teaches in the Journalism and Social Media Department at the University of Wroclaw [Breslau] in Poland. He has eight book of poems in Polish and seven books of prose.
He also published five books of criticism in Polish. He is the co-author of a textbook: “How to become a writer.”
Ewa Chrusciel is a poet, translator, and educator. She has four books of poems in English with Omnidawn Press: Yours, Purple Gallinule (2022), Strata, Of Annunciations, Contraband of Hoopoe, as well as three books in Polish: Tobołek, Sopiłki, and Furkot. Her book Contraband of Hoopoe was translated into Italian by Anna Aresi and came out in Italy with Edizioni Ensemble in May 2019. Her poems have been included in curricula at institutions such as Harvard University, University of Wisconsin, Dartmouth College, Salem State University.
She also translated various authors into Polish, including books by Jack London, Joseph Conrad, and I.B. Singer, as well as book of selected poems by Jorie Graham (2013), and aforthcoming book of selected poems by Vievee Francis (2027), and selected poems of Kazim Ali, Lyn Hejinian, Cole Swensen, Mathew Olzmann and other American poets.
She is a Professor of Creative and Professional Writing and M. Roy London Endowed Chair at Colby-Sawyer College.
