Bio
Born in Gdańsk in 1953, Tadeusz Dziewanowski was involved in Polish street theater during the 1970s,
and was a co-founder of the Gdańsk-area creative group, Tawerna Psychonautów (The Tavern of the Psychonauts)
in the 1980s. His first book of poetry, Siedemnaście tysięcy małpich ogonów (Seventeen Thousand Monkey Tales),
appeared in 2009, and his poetry, reviews and translations from English appear regularly in the Polish literary journal Topos.
In the U.S., Daniel Bourne's translations of his poetry have appeared in Plume (including their bilingual
collaborative poetry project "A Journey Between the Lands"), in International Poetry Review, in The Sow's
Ear Poetry Review, and Able Muse.
Daniel Bourne's books include The Household Gods, Where No One Spoke the Language, and Talking Back to the Exterminator,
forthcoming from Regal House as the 2022 recipient of its Terry J. Cox Poetry Award. His poems have also appeared in
Guernica, Conduit, APR, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. Since 1980, he has also lived in Poland several times, including
1985-87 on a Fulbright for the translation of younger Polish poets and, most recently, in 2018 and 2019.
His translations appear in many literary journals, and a book of his translations of Polish Poet Bronis?aw Maj,
The Extinction of the Holy City, is forthcoming from Free Verse Editions/Parlor Press.
Tadeusz Dziewanowski
Tadeusz Dziewanowski, translated by Daniel Bourne
Whitewashing the Trees
Once they coated tree trunks white
And fumigated the entire orchard
Now they just spray everything
A single solution for each disease
Applying napalm
Only as a last result
The fingers sticking together from the jelly
The eyes sticking together from sleep
Bielenie drzew
Kiedyś bielono pnie i
Okadzano drzewa w sadach
Teraz wykonuje się opryski
Jeden środek na jedną chorobę
Napalm stosuje się
Tylko w ostateczności
Lepią się palce od dżemu
Lepią się oczy od snu