farewell to i.
for i.k.
we’re splitting up quickly and quietly
to give memory nothing to feed on.
she gives me the toothpaste, the tea cups,
the liquid soap. divided. take it.
night will come. take it away.
the night of our first christmas eve,
when she held me, when I was struck by the light
from jutting balconies and distant pines,
when I belonged to someone
who spoke the truth through snow
and through flame
now the ash is me, it’s mine
course. maggot
we were due to depart for Mauritius,
to cities the color of burnt drink,
where the sun weaves from nails
its black skeleton.
or else – I dreamt
that wanting to touch you, I held out my hand
and from it flew a maggot – brain of the prime mover –
our course went off track
so did our parting.
the past. that’s where we’ll meet.
there is nothing else
Roman Honet (b. 1974) has published nine volumes of poetry, most recently: pamięć niczyja, ciało moje [nobody’s memory, my body] (2024), as well as two selected editions: moja [mine] (2008) and rozmowa trwa dalej [the conversation continues] (2016). Editor of the anthology Poeci na nowy wiek [Poets for a New Century] (2010), co-editor of Antologia nowej poezji polskiej 1990-2000 [Anthology of New Polish Poetry 1990–2000] (2004). Winner of the Wisława Szymborska Award in 2015 for the volume świat był mój [the world was mine]. His poetry was translated into Czech, Spanish, Lithuanian, Latvian, German, Norwegian, Slovenian, and English. In recent years a selection of his poetry has appeared in Russian as Месса Лядзинского [The Mass of Ladziński] (trans. Sergei Moreino, Moscow, 2017), a volume in Ukrainian as Світ належав мені (trans. Yurii Zavadskyi, Ternopil, 2019), a Serbian edition as Svet je bio mój (trans. Biserka Rajčić, Belgrade, 2021), and a selection of poems in Latvian, Kauns un ķirši [shame and cherries] (trans. Sergei Moreino, Riga: Literatūras Kombains, 2026).
Antonia Lloyd-Jones has translated works by many of Poland’s leading contemporary novelists and reportage authors, as well as classics, biographies, essays, crime fiction, poetry and children’s books. Her translation of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by 2018 Nobel Prize laureate Olga Tokarczuk was shortlisted for the 2019 Man Booker International prize. Her recent publications include (as compiler and co-translator) The Penguin Book of Polish Short Stories.
