Poetry

A Bilingual Polish-English Poem

by  Anna Frajlich
translated by Piotr Florczyk

The cover to Thomas Mann's book Death in Venice

Prawdziwe książki 

A jednak jeszcze czytają  
prawdziwe książki  
obracając stronę po stronie  
w autobusie 
w metrze 
w pociągu 
„Death in Venice” 
czyta młody człowiek  
siedzący tuż obok na ławce 

znam też innego który 
tak się małym Tadziem przejął  
że własne imię odrzucił 
i podpisuje się „Tadzio”. 

Umarł już mały Tadzio  
i wielki Tomasz Mann 

„Śmierć w Wenecji”  
wciąż żyje. 

30 listopada 2014 

 

Real Books

And yet they still read
real books
turning page after page
on the bus
on the subway
on the train
sitting next to me on the bench
a young man is reading
Death in Venice.

I also know another one
he was so taken with little Tadzio
that he rejected his own name
and now goes by “Tadzio.”

Little Tadzio has died
and so has the great Thomas Mann.

Death in Venice
lives on.

Translation from the Polish


Anna Frajlich is an award-winning Polish poet and writer. Her work includes eighteen books of poetry, some of which have been translated into English, French, Italian, Ukrainian, and Spanish. For over thirty years she taught Polish language and literature at Columbia University.


Piotr Florczyk is a multilingual poet, translator, and critic. His recent books include Granice, a collection of poems, and a co-edited volume of scholarly articles, Polish Literature as World Literature.

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