Leszek Engelking (2 February 1955 – 22 October 2022) was a Polish poet, short story writer, novelist, translator, literary critic, essayist, Polish philologist, and literary academic, scholar, and lecturer. Engelking translated a vast amount of literature into Polish, from Spanish, English, Russian, Ukrainian,

Belarusian Belarusian may refer to: * Something of, or related to Belarus * Belarusians, people from Belarus, or of Belarusian descent * A citizen of Belarus, see Demographics of Belarus * Belarusian language * Belarusian culture * Belarusian cuisine * Byelor ...

, Slovak but in particular from Czech.

Biography

Education, editorial, and academic career

Engelking was born in

Bytom Bytom (Polish pronunciation: ; Silesian: ''Bytōm, Bytōń'', german: Beuthen O.S.) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. Located in the Silesian Voivodeship of Poland, the city is 7 km northwest of Katowice, the regional capital ...

in 1955 and spent his childhood in Upper Silesia. In 1979, Engelking graduated from Warsaw University, he received his doctorate in 2002 and postdoctoral degree in 2013. From 1984 to 1995, he was a member of an editorial staff of " Literatura na Świecie" ("Literature in the World"), a Polish monthly devoted to foreign literature. From 1997 to 1998, he was a lecturer at Warsaw University and a visiting professor at Palacký University, Olomouc (Czech Republic). He taught at the University of Łódź.

Literary Memberships

Engelking was a member of Association of Polish Writers since 1989, the Polish PEN Club since 2000, and of the Société Europeénne de Culture since 1994. Engelking was also an associate of the American journal ''Paideuma'' (which is devoted to

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

), the Czech journal ''Slavia'', and the Polish monthly ''Tygiel Kultury''.

Poetic career

Leszek Engelking Literatura na Swiecie Prize June 25 2009 Fot Mariusz Kubik 03

He has published collections of poems: * ''Autobus do hotelu Cytera'' (''A Bus to the Cythera Hotel'', 1979) * ''Haiku własne i cudze'' (''Haiku by Myself and Others'', 1991) * ''Mistrzyni kaligrafii i inne wiersze'' (''The Mistress of Calligraphy and Other Poems'', 1994) * ''Dom piąty'' (''The Fifth House'', 1997) * ''I inne wiersze'' (''And Other Poems'', 2000; new and selected poems) * ''Muzeum dzieciństwa'' (''Museum of Childhood'', 2011) * ''Komu kibicują umarli?'', (''For Which Team Do the Deceased Root?'', 2013) A selection of his poems have appeared in Ukrainian translation (''Vid ciogho ne vmirayut’/''You Can't Die from This; 1997, ), as well as in Czech (''Jiné básně a jiné básně''/''Other Poems and Other Poems''; 1998, ) and Slovak (''Zanechala si odtlačky prstov na mojej koži''/''You have Left Finger-Marks on My Skin''; 2005, ). A small collection of his poems was published in Spanish (''Museo de la infancia''/''Museum of Childhood''; 2010, ; depósito legal Z-42-2010). Engelking & Burian

Short story and monograph writer career

Engelking's book of short stories ''Szczęście i inne prozy'' (''Good Fortune and Other Stories'') appeared in 2007, . Engelking published the following monographs: ''Vladimir Nabokov'' (1989, ), ''Vladimir Nabokov - podivuhodný kouzelník'' (1997, in Czech, ) and ''Chwyt metafizyczny. Vladimir Nabokov - estetyka z sankcją wyższej rzeczywistości'' (2011, ''The Metaphysical Device: Vladmir Nabokov – Aesthetics with the Sanction of Higher Reality''), ''Surrealism, underground, postmodernizm. Szkice o literaturze czeskiej'' (2001, ), ''Codzienność i mit. Poetyka, programy i historia Grupy 42 w kontekstach dwudziestowiecznej awangardy i postawangardy'' (2005, ), ''Nowe Mity. Twórczość Jáchyma Topola'' (2016, ''The New Myths. The Literary Oeuvre of Jáchym Topol'', ), and ''Bytom w literaturze'' (2018, ''Bytom in Literature'', ). Engelking edited the anthology of British and American poetry ''Wyspy na jeziorze'' (1988, ''The Lake Isles''), the anthology of Czech poetry ''Maść przeciw poezji'' (2008, ''Ointment against Poetry''), the selection from the works of three contemporary Slovak poets, Oleg Pastier, Karol Chmel, and Ivan Kolenič, ''Oko za ząb'' (2006, ''An Eye for a Tooth'' ), as well as the anthology of imagist poetry ''Obraz i wir'' (2016, ''Image and Vortex'', Andrzej Szuba was a joint editor of the book, ).

Literary translator career

He has translated works by Nabokov, Daniela Hodrova, Jáchym Topol,

, Miroslav Holub, Charles Bukowski,

Christopher Reid Chris Reid (born 1971) is a Scottish football goalkeeper. Chris or Christopher Reid may also refer to: People *Christopher Reid (rapper) (born 1964), American actor, comedian, and former rapper *Christopher Reid (writer) (born 1949), Hong Kong-bor ...

, Nikolay Gumilyov, Petr Mikeš,

Ivan Wernisch Ivan Wernisch (born 18 June 1942) is a Czech poet, editor and a collage artist. He studied Ceramics Secondary school in Carlsbad (he left in 1959) and has since done many jobs, mostly manual. In 1961, after publishing his debut poetry book, he ...

, Ivan Blatný, Agneta Pleijel, Oldřich Wenzl,

Richard Caddel Richard Caddel (13 July 1949 – 1 April 2003) was a poet, publisher and editor who was a key figure in the British Poetry Revival. Biography Caddel was born in Bedford and grew up in Gillingham, Kent. He studied music at the University of Newca ...

, Jaroslav Seifert, Václav Burian, Egon Bondy, Maximilian Voloshin,

David A. Carrión David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

, Gerardo Beltrán,

W.B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

, Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav,

Jiří Kolář Jiří Kolář (24 September 1914, Protivín – 11 August 2002, Prague) was a Czech poet, writer, painter and translator. His work included both literary and visual art. Life Kolář was born in Protivín on September 29, 1914, in a work ...

, Karel Čapek, Basil Bunting, Amy Lowell,

Hilda Doolittle Hilda Doolittle (September 10, 1886 – September 27, 1961) was an American modernist poet, novelist, and memoirist who wrote under the name H.D. throughout her life. Her career began in 1911 after she moved to London and co-founded the ...

, William Carlos Williams,

Langston Hughes James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hug ...

, Kerry Shawn Keys, sor

Juana Ines de la Cruz Juana is a Spanish language, Spanish female first name. It is the feminine form of Juan (English John (given name), John), and thus corresponds to the English names Jane (given name), Jane, Janet (given name), Janet, Jean (female given name), Je ...

, Federico García Lorca,

Abel Murcia Abel ''Hábel''; ar, هابيل, Hābīl is a Biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within Abrahamic religions. He was the younger brother of Cain, and the younger son of Adam and Eve, the first couple in Biblical history. He was a shepherd ...

, Sergey Zavyalov, Iryna Zhylenko, Lina Kostenko, and

Andrei Khadanovich Andrei, Andrey or Andrej (in Cyrillic script: Андрэй , Андрей or Андреј) is a form of Andreas/ Ἀνδρέας in Slavic languages and Romanian. People with the name include: * Andrei of Polotsk (–1399), Lithuanian nobleman ...

. Engelking's selection of short stories by Ladislav Klíma appeared in 2004 (''Jak będzie po śmierci'' 'How It Will Be after Death'', his translation of Michal Ajvaz’s book of poems, short stories and a novel was published in 2005 (''Morderstwo w hotelu Intercontinental. Powrót starego warana. Inne miasto'' ''The Murder in the Intercontinental Hotel. The Return of the Old Comodo Dragon. Other City''). Ajvaz's novel ''Voyage to the South'' in his translation appeared in 2016 (''Podróż na Południe'').

Personal life and death

Engelking's son, Wojciech Engelking is also a writer. Leszek privately was a fan of

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that use only ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team Polonia Bytom, liked lager beer, and Armani perfumes. Engelking died on 22 October 2022, at the age of 67.

Honours

* The Award of " Literatura na Świecie" for translation (1989, 2003, 2009, 2018), * The Award of Polish Translators’ and Interpreters’ Society (2000) * Premia Bohemica (the Czech prize; 2003) * Polish PEN Club Award (2010)

References

External links

Leszek Engelking - Łódź University, Poland

Leszek Engelking - www.rasyk.lt

Leszek Engelking - "Fakta ze života Bohumila Hrabala", Listy (Olomouc) 5/2004

* ttp://jacketmagazine.com/22/caddel.html Two Engelking's poems in English translation

Sources

* Barbara Tyszkiewicz, ''Leszek Engelking''. n:''Polscy pisarze i badacze literatury przełomu XX i XXI wieku'', vol. 2, ed.

Alicja Szałagan Alicja is a Polish language given name that is equivalent to Alice in English. Notable people with the name include: * Alicja Bachleda-Curuś (born 1983), Polish actress and singer * Alicja Boratyn (born 1992), Polish singer * Alicja Dorabialska ...

, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw 2024. (in Polish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Engelking, Leszek 1955 births 2022 deaths Polish poets Polish male short story writers Polish short story writers Polish translators English–Polish translators Recipients of the Decoration of Honor Meritorious for Polish Culture Translators from Czech Translators from Slovak Translators from Spanish Translators from Russian Translators from Belarusian Translators from English Translators from Ukrainian Translators from Polish Translators to Polish People from Bytom University of Warsaw alumni Polish male poets