One of the principal authors of the "brulion" generation, which has been
influenced largely by American poets such as Frank O'Hara, Allen
Ginsberg, and John Ashbery, MLB (Milosz Biedrzycki) has published six
volumes of poetry and received numerous prestigious literary prizes.
English translations of his work have appeared in, among others, Traf
ka, Chicago Review, Fence, Zoland Poetry, and the Zephyr Press
anthology Carnivorous Boy Carnivorous Bird.
MLB's writing represents a continuation in the development of
contemporary Polish poetry, which tends to be less narrative and more
intellectual and language-oriented than its American counterpart. His
extraordinary linguistic awareness and amused wonderment with language
as a rather curious means of communication lurks beneath all his poetry.
The work included here is from MLB's 2006 volume in Poland, 69, which
encompasses his poetic output from the fall of Communism to the present,
allowing the reader to trace the process of personal and artistic
development during the rapidly changing post-Communist years.
"Mitteleuropa"
the dog already swallowed half the moon, someone
installed a Soviet-era radio instead of a speedometer.
the car speeds through the night winding the black
pasta of the road onto its wheels. the Soviet radio
plays speeches by Schönberg, the air,
the border past Mikulov barely noticed--
except the lines on the road are now infinitely
more visible. villages are equally quiet.
the rain, a light one, still managed to break free
from the sky.
Frank L. Vigoda is a literary translator based in Riverside,
California.
