poetrymagazines.org.uk - Three polish Poets

New Series No. 18 - 2001

contents of this issue

Ludwika Amber

Three polish Poets

The Unlocking of Borders

we were returning through the continents
of tongues rituals altars colours
and the music of gestures
slowly we were opening doors
of new scents of the bush
we were learning
the fingers of our own hands
the Esperanto of lips
distances between bodies
faith in the feathers of parrots
hues of the earth the air
the trace of a stream

we were coming by water and landstretch
we outsped clouds
we crossed the river of childhood helplessness

Terra Australis – we shouted at the border
and set first foot
our imprint on the shore

   Ludwika Amber was born in Kowary, Poland, in 1948, and arrived in Australia in 1982. She has published many books of poetry, in both Polish and English, and edited Green Winter, an anthology of Polish poetry and prose from Australia. Recently, in Poland, she has published a collection of her poems, Delfiny, and an anthology of Australian poetry, Billabong.
   Marek Baterowicz, who was born in 1944 and migrated to Australia in 1987, holds a PhD in Romance Languages and has published work in Polish, French and English. He won the Italian Circe Sabadia Prize for Poetry in 1985. A selection of his poems written over two decades, Z tamtej Strony Drzewa, appeared in Melbourne in 1992, followed by Na Wydmach Czasu (Sydney, 1993) and Miejsce w Atlasie (Sydney, 1996). He has also published prose works, many books of poetry, and translations into Polish of Romance literature and of English poetry by Polish-born writers.
   Marius Rosiak was born in 1958 and graduated with an MA in Cultural Studies at Mickiewicz University, Poznan. His poems have appeared in many Polish literary journals, and he has published several books of poetry and numerous articles on literature and contemporary art. He has been Director of the Poznan City Art Gallery and currently runs his own gallery of contemporary
art, Gallery ‘R’.
   Ryszard Reisner, born in Lodz, Poland, in 1954, arrived in Australia with his parents in 1960. He has edited and translated the work of other Polish poets resident in Australia, and organised publications and readings with the support of the Australian Literature Board, some of which were featured on national Australian radio. He was on the Executive Committee of the Polish Studies Foundation at Monash University, and also on that of the Australian Literary Translators Association. He returned to Poland in 1997, and is lecturing at the School of Translation, Adam Mickiewicz Univeristy, Poznan. At present he is working on a number of translation projects embracing contemporary Polish prose and poetry.

Translated by Ryszard Reisner

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