XVI.
I feed all the imaginary
dogs and set myself free
once on the loose I continue walking
and feeding all unfamiliar
and familiar fleabag curs which no one wanted
yet I do not give them a home (apart from
a poem) present and absent which no one
doubted (then surely I will not
flee from them) and so I feed
all the imaginary dogs
yet I do not let anyone approach me
except for one little gummy-eyed mutt
translated by Ola Bilińska
Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-DyckiEugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki – (born 1962) – poet. His 2009 Nike Prize win – Poland's most prestigious award for literature – came as a shock to the more conservative members of the literary elite as the poet’s subject matter, style and lexicon sets him apart from all of his contemporaries. And yet Tkaczyszyn-Dycki secured the prize and a great deal of support from a number of scholars and critics who have named called him the Różewicz of his generation. Read more about the author in the WHO’S WHO AND WHY section.
Ola Bilińska, photo Magdalena KmiecikOla Bilińska – born 1986, singer, songwriter and translator, student at the English Literature Department of Warsaw University. She is currently writing her MA thesis on the influence of music, sound and performance on the poetry of G.M. Hopkins, T.S. Eliot and Dylan Thomas. In an attempt to put theory into practice, she writes song lyrics and translates for other bands, most recently for Pustki. Ola sings in Płyny, an urban-folk band from Warsaw, and Muzyka Końca Lata, a group of nostalgic neo-bigbeaters. Her own stage project involving poetry, music and image has started off recently under the name Babadag.