Jarosław Mikołajewski (born 20 March 1960 in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

) is a Polish

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

, writer and

translator Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

of the

Italian language Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about 85 m ...

. He is also the author of children's books,

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

ist and

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

Life and career

Between 1983-1998, he worked at the Faculty of Italian Studies of the

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...

. Since 1998, he has been working for the '' Gazeta Wyborcza'' daily newspaper. Between 2006-2012, he served as head of the Polish Institute in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. His books were published in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, Italy, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, United States, Hungary, United Kingdom. His work is also translated to following languages: Albanian, German, Spanish, Croatian, Bulgarian, Czech, Ukrainian, Greek. He translated among others:

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...

Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...

Leopardi Count Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi (, ; 29 June 1798 – 14 June 1837) was an Italian philosopher, poet, essayist, and philologist. He is considered the greatest Italian poet of the nineteenth century and one of ...

, Montale,

Ungaretti Giuseppe Ungaretti (; 8 February 1888 – 2 June 1970) was an Italian modernist poet, journalist, essayist, critic, academic, and recipient of the inaugural 1970 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. A leading representative of the experim ...

Luzi Luzi is an Italian surname derived from the Latin noun ''Lux'' (''Lutius'' = Lucius), meaning "light". Notable people with the surname include: People * Bruno Luzi, French football player and manager *Enrico Luzi, Italian actor * Giulia Luzi, Ital ...

Penna Penna may refer to: * 7mm Penna, a handgun cartridge * Monte Penna, a mountain in northern Italy * Penna (surname) * Penna, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia * Penna in Teverina, a comune in Terni, Umbria, Italy * Penna River, a ri ...

, Pavese, Pasolini. He also translated children's classic to Polish - among others: Carlo Collodi's '' Pinocchio'' (Polish title ''Pinokio: historia pajacyka'', 2011) and some works of Gianni Rodari. In several volumes, and especially in ''Którzy mnie znają / Those Who Know Me'' (2003), he reaches for the eternal subjects of poetry: love and death. His ''Froth: Poems (Zbite szklanki: wybór wierszy, 2010)'' translated into English was named among the 75 best of the year 2013 by

World Literature Today ''World Literature Today'' is an American magazine of international literature and culture, published at the University of Oklahoma. The stated goal of the magazine is to publish international essays, poetry, fiction, interviews, and book review ...

(WLT). He is the recipient of the

Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna (6 August 1892 – 16 February 1983) was a Polish poet, prose writer, playwright and translator. She was one of the most acclaimed and celebrated poets during Poland's interwar period. Life and work She was born o ...

Poetry Award (1991), Literary Award of the Capital city of Warsaw (2011, 2012), Silver

Medal for Merit to Culture - Gloria Artis A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be int ...

(2014)

Beata Pawlak Award The Beata Pawlak Memorial Award (Polish: ''Nagroda im. Beaty Pawlak'') is an annual Polish literary prize founded in 2003 and awarded to authors publishing their works in the Polish language whose subject-matter concerns the themes of religion, cu ...

(2016), and the

Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński (23 January 1905 – 6 December 1953), alias ''Karakuliambro'', was a Polish poet. He is well known for the "paradramatic" absurd humorous sketches of the ''Green Goose Theatre''. Biography Born to a lower-mid ...

Award (2019). He is also a juror for the

Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award The Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award (Polish: ''Międzynarodowa Nagroda Literacka im. Zbigniewa Herberta'') is a Polish international literature prize established in 2013 in Warsaw and named after a Polish poet, essayist, and morali ...

. In 2019, he published a book ''Cień w cień. Za cieniem Zuzanny Ginczanki'' which deals with the life and literary legacy of

Zuzanna Ginczanka Zuzanna Ginczanka, ''pen name'' of Zuzanna Polina Gincburg (March 22, 1917 – January 1945) was a Polish-Jewish poet of the interwar period. Although she published only a single collection of poetry in her lifetime, the book ''O centaurach'' (''O ...

, one of the greatest poets of the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...

in Poland.

Selected works

Poetry

* ''A świadkiem śnieg'' (1991) * ''Kołysanka dla ojca'' (1994) * ''Zabójstwo z miłości'' (1997) * ''Mój dom przestały nawiedzać duchy. Wiersze z lat 1988-1998'' (1998) * ''Nie dochodząc Pięknej'' (2000) - (Not Reaching Piękna) * ''Którzy mnie znają'' (2003) - (Those Who Know Me) * ''Któraś rano'' (2005) * ''Coś mnie zmartwiło ale zapomniałem'' (2008) * ''Zbite szklanki'' (2010) - (Froth: Poems) * ''Na wdechu'' (2012)

Prose

* ''Herbata dla wielbłąda czyli Sprawy i sprawki detektywa McCoya'' (2004) –

Crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

* ''Męski zmysł'' (2005) * ''Rzymska komedia'' (2011) - (Roman Comedy) * ''Największe szczęście, największy ból'' (2014, a5) – conversations with

Julia Hartwig Julia Hartwig-Międzyrzecka (14 August 1921 – 14 July 2017) was a Polish writer, poet and translator, considered to be one of Poland's most important poets. Life and career She was born and raised in Lublin. She studied Polish and French lite ...

* ''Uśmiech Bambola'' (2015, Media Rodzina) – children's detective story * ''Szklane oczy'' (2015, Media Rodzina) – children's detective story * ''Zwycięski koń'' (2015, Media Rodzina) – children's detective story * ''Wielki przypływ'' (2015, Dowody na istnienie) – reportage * ''Syreni śpiew'' (2016, Media Rodzina) – children's detective story * ''Kot w worku'' (2016, Media Rodzina) – children's detective story * ''Wędrówka Nabu'' (2016, Austeria) – children's short story * ''Terremoto'' (2017, Dowody na Istnienie) – reportage nominated to the Nike Award in 2018 * ''Szpitalne'' (2018, Austeria) - essay * ''Syrakuzańskie'' (2019, Austeria) - a reportage * ''Cień w cień. Za cieniem Zuzanny Ginczanki'' (2019, Dowody na Istnienie) - a biographic essay

References

External links

''Froth'' by Jarosław Mikołajewski
World Literature Today {{DEFAULTSORT:Mikolajewski, Jaroslaw Polish translators Academic staff of the University of Warsaw Polish opinion journalists 1960 births Living people Polish male poets