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

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Biography

Education, editorial, and academic career

Engelking was born in Bytom in 1955 and spent his childhood in

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, locate ...

. In 1979, Engelking graduated from

Warsaw University 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 ...

, 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 ''Literatura na Świecie'' (''World Literature'') was, during the times of the Polish People's Republic, one of the most widely read and sought after periodicals in Poland. The magazine was started in 1971. Its headquarters is in Warsaw. In the 197 ...

" ("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 The University of Łódź ( Polish: ''Uniwersytet Łódzki'', Latin: ''Universitas Lodziensis'') is a public research university founded in 1945 in Łódź, Poland, as a continuation of three higher education institutions functioning in Łódź i ...

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), 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

translation (''Vid ciogho ne vmirayut’/''You Can't Die from This; 1997, ), as well as in

(''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

(''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

, ) 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 Jáchym Topol (born 4 August 1962) is a Czech poet, novelist, musician and journalist who became a laureate of the Czech State Award for Literature in October 2017 for his novel ''Sensitive Man''. Life Jáchym Topol was born in Prague, Czech ...

, Ezra Pound, Miroslav Holub,

Charles Bukowski Henry Charles Bukowski ( ; born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, ; August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his adopted ...

, Christopher Reid,

Nikolay Gumilyov Nikolay Stepanovich Gumilyov ( rus, Никола́й Степа́нович Гумилёв, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj sʲtʲɪˈpanəvʲɪtɕ ɡʊmʲɪˈlʲɵf, a=Nikolay Styepanovich Gumilyov.ru.vorb.oga; April 15 NS 1886 – August 26, 1921) was a poe ...

, 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 Ivan Blatný (; 21 December 1919 in Brno, Czechoslovakia – 5 August 1990 in Colchester, United Kingdom) was a Czech poet and a member of '' Skupina 42 (Group 42). Life Blatný, the son of the writer Lev Blatný, was a member of the ''Skupina 42' ...

Agneta Pleijel Agneta Pleijel (born 1940) is a Swedish novelist, poet, playwright, journalist and literary critic. Among her plays are ''Ordning härskar i Berlin'' from 1979. Among her novels are ''Vindspejare'' from 1987 and ''Drottningens chirurg'' from 200 ...

, Oldřich Wenzl, Richard Caddel,

Jaroslav Seifert Jaroslav Seifert (; 23 September 1901 – 10 January 1986) was a Czech writer, poet and journalist. Seifert was awarded the 1984 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his poetry which endowed with freshness, sensuality and rich inventiveness provides ...

, Václav Burian,

Egon Bondy Egon Bondy, born Zbyněk Fišer (20 January 1930 in Prague – 9 April 2007 in Bratislava), was a Czech philosopher, writer, and poet, one of the leading personalities of the Prague underground. In the late 1940s, Bondy was active in a surreal ...

Maximilian Voloshin Maximilian Alexandrovich Kirienko-Voloshin (russian: Максимилиа́н Алекса́ндрович Кирие́нко-Воло́шин; May 28, Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S._May_16.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ...

, David A. Carrión, Gerardo Beltrán, W.B. Yeats,

Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav (2 February 1849 - 8 November 1921) was a Slovak poet, dramatist, translator, and for a short time, member of the Czechoslovak parliament. Originally, he wrote in a traditional style, but later became influenced by pa ...

, Jiří Kolář,

Karel Čapek Karel Čapek (; 9 January 1890 – 25 December 1938) was a Czech writer, playwright and critic. He has become best known for his science fiction, including his novel '' War with the Newts'' (1936) and play '' R.U.R.'' (''Rossum's Universal ...

Basil Bunting Basil Cheesman Bunting (1 March 1900 – 17 April 1985) was a British modernist poet whose reputation was established with the publication of '' Briggflatts'' in 1966, generally regarded as one of the major achievements of the modernist traditio ...

Amy Lowell Amy Lawrence Lowell (February 9, 1874 – May 12, 1925) was an American poet of the imagist school, which promoted a return to classical values. She posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926. Life Amy Lowell was born on Febru ...

, Hilda Doolittle,

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...

, Langston Hughes, Kerry Shawn Keys, sor Juana Ines de la Cruz,

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...

, Abel Murcia, Sergey Zavyalov,

Iryna Zhylenko Irina (Iraida) Volodymyrivna Zhylenko (28 April 1941 – 3 August 2013), a Ukraine, Ukrainian poet, was the a wife of Volodymyr Drozd. She was born in Kyiv and died in August 2013 at the age of 72. Biography In 1964, she graduated from the Tar ...

Lina Kostenko Lina Vasylivna Kostenko ( uk, Ліна Василівна Костенко; born 19 March 1930) is a Ukrainian poet, journalist, writer, publisher, and former Soviet dissident. A founder and leading representative of the Sixtiers poetry movem ...

, and Andrei Khadanovich. Engelking's selection of short stories by

Ladislav Klíma Ladislav Klíma (22 August 1878 – 19 April 1928), was a Czech philosopher and novelist influenced by George Berkeley, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. His philosophy is referred to varyingly as existentialism and subjective idealism. Life Ladis ...

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, football team

Polonia Bytom Polonia Bytom () is a Polish football club based in Bytom, founded in 1920, two times Polish Champions. The team currently plays in the III liga (as of 2022–23). History Beginnings Polonia was founded on 4 January 1920 in the Upper Silesia ...

, liked

lager beer Lager () is beer which has been brewed and conditioned at low temperature. Lagers can be pale, amber, or dark. Pale lager is the most widely consumed and commercially available style of beer. The term "lager" comes from the German for "storage ...

, and

Armani Giorgio Armani S.p.A. (), commonly known as Armani, is an Italian luxury fashion house founded in Milan by Giorgio Armani which designs, manufactures, distributes and retails haute couture, ready-to-wear, leather goods, shoes, accessories, and ...

perfumes. Engelking died on 22 October 2022, at the age of 67.

Honours

* The Award of "

" 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, 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