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{{Short description|Polish writer, literary expert and translator (1955–2022)}}
[[File:Leszek_Engelking.jpg|thumb|right|Leszek Engelking - Warsaw (Poland), November 5, 2004]]
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2022}}
'''Leszek Engelking''' (b. [[February 2]] [[1955]] in [[Bytom]], [[Upper Silesia]], [[Poland]]) - [[Poles|Polish]] [[poet]], [[short-story]] writer, [[critic]], [[essay]]ist, [[scholar]], and [[translator]].
{{Expand Polish|topic=bio|Leszek Engelking|date=October 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Leszek Engelking
| image = Leszek_Engelking.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Engelking in 2004
| birth_date = {{birth date|1955|02|02|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Chorzów]], [[Polish People's Republic|Poland]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|2022|10|22|1955|02|02|df=y}}
| death_place =
| alma mater = [[Warsaw University]]
}}


'''Leszek Maria Engelking''' (2 February 1955<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2011-02-05 |title=Instytut Teorii Literatury, Teatru i Sztuk Audiowizualnych - dr Leszek Engelking |url=http://www.kulturoznawstwo.uni.lodz.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=47&Itemid=0 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110205123056/http://www.kulturoznawstwo.uni.lodz.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=47&Itemid=0 |archive-date=2011-02-05 |access-date=2022-10-25 }}</ref> – 22 October 2022) was a Polish poet, short story writer, novelist, translator, literary critic, essayist, Polish philologist, and literary academic, scholar, and lecturer.
He graduated from [[Warsaw University]] ([[1979]]). He received his doctorate in [[2002]]. 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]] - [[1998]], he was a lecturer at [[Warsaw University]] and a visiting professor at F. Palacký University in [[Olomouc]] ([[Czech Republic]]). He now teaches at [[Łódż University]] in [[Poland]].


Engelking translated a vast amount of literature into Polish, from [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[English language|English]], [[Russian language|Russian]], [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]], [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]], [[Slovak language|Slovak]] but in particular from [[Czech language|Czech]].<ref name="WprostLesz"/>
Member of [[Stowarzyszenie Pisarzy Polskich]] (Association of Polish Writers, from [[1989]]), [[International PEN|Polish PEN Club]] (from [[2000]]) and of the [[Societé Europeénne de Culture]] (from [[1994]]).


==Biography==
He lives in [[Brwinów]] ([[Poland]]).
===Education, editorial, and academic career===
Engelking was born in [[Chorzów]] in 1955 and spent his childhood in [[Upper Silesia]].<ref name=":0" /> 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]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kulturoznawstwo.uni.lodz.pl/pracownicy|title= Kulturoznastwo: Pracownicy|trans-title=Culture Studies: Staff|publisher=[[University of Łódź]]}}</ref>


===Literary Memberships===
== Honors ==
Engelking was a member of [[Stowarzyszenie Pisarzy Polskich|Association of Polish Writers]] since 1989,<ref name=":0" /> the [[International PEN|Polish PEN Club]] since 2000,<ref name=":0" /> and of the [[Société Europeénne de Culture]] since 1994.<ref name=":0" />
* The Award of "[[Literatura na Świecie]]" for translation ([[1989]], [[2003]], [[2009]]),
* The Award of Polish Translators’ and Interpreters’ Society ([[2000]])
* Premia Bohemica (The Czech prize; [[2003]]).
== Works ==
He has published four 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)


Engelking was also an associate of the American journal ''Paideuma'' (which is devoted to [[Ezra Pound]]), the Czech journal ''Slavia'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.slu.cas.cz/4-slav-char.html|title = Slovanský ústav AVČR - Slavia – bližší údaje}}</ref> and the Polish monthly ''Tygiel Kultury''.<ref name=":0" />
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 otlačky prstov na mojej koži'' – ''You have Left Finger-Marks on My Skin'', [[2005]]).
[[File:Engelking & Burian.JPG|thumb|left|Leszek Engelking with Czech writer and translator Vaclav Burian - [[Warsaw]], Łowicka Center, [[May 20]] [[2006]]]]
Two leaflets with his poems in [[English]] translation have appeared as well. These are: ''Your Train the Local'', Reading, Pa [[2001]]; and ''Paulina’s House'', Reading. Pa [[2002]], both translated by [[Craig Czury]].


===Poetic career===
A volume of his short stories ''Szczęście i inne prozy'' (''Happiness and Other Short Prose'') appeared in [[2007]].
[[File:Leszek Engelking Literatura na Swiecie Prize June 25 2009 Fot Mariusz Kubik 03.JPG|thumb|Engelking receives the "Literatura na Świecie" Award - Warsaw, June 25, 2009]]
He has published collections of poems:
* ''Autobus do hotelu Cytera'' (''A Bus to the Cythera Hotel'', 1979)<ref name=":0" />
* ''Haiku własne i cudze'' (''Haiku by Myself and Others'', 1991)<ref name=":0" />
* ''Mistrzyni kaligrafii i inne wiersze'' (''The Mistress of Calligraphy and Other Poems'', 1994) {{ISBN|83-7081-115-9}}
* ''Dom piąty'' (''The Fifth House'', 1997) {{ISBN|83-7081-377-1}}
* ''I inne wiersze'' (''And Other Poems'', 2000; new and selected poems) {{ISBN|83-7081-395-X}}
* ''Muzeum dzieciństwa'' (''Museum of Childhood'', 2011) {{ISBN|978-83-62717-13-2}}
* ''Komu kibicują umarli?'', (''For Which Team Do the Deceased Root?'', 2013) {{ISBN|978-83-62717-75-0}}


A selection of his poems have appeared in [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] translation (''Vid ciogho ne vmirayut’/''You Can't Die from This; 1997, {{ISBN|966-7255-08-5}}), as well as in [[Czech language|Czech]] (''Jiné básně a jiné básně''/''Other Poems and Other Poems''; 1998, {{ISBN|80-7198-336-5}}) and [[Slovak language|Slovak]] (''Zanechala si odtlačky prstov na mojej koži''/''You have Left Finger-Marks on My Skin''; 2005, {{ISBN|80-85508-62-1}}). A small collection of his poems was published in [[Spanish language|Spanish]] (''Museo de la infancia''/''Museum of Childhood''; 2010, {{ISBN|978-84-937657-4-3}}; depósito legal Z-42-2010).
He also published the monographs ''[[Vladimir Nabokov]]'' ([[1989]]) and ''Vladimir Nabokov - podivuhodný kouzelník'' ([[1997]], in [[Czech]]), as well as ''Surrealism, underground, postmodernism. Szkice o literaturze czeskiej'' ([[2001]]), and ''Codzienność i mit. Poetyka, programy i historia Grupy 42 w kontekstach dwudziestowiecznej awangardy i postawangardy'' ([[2005]]), devoted to Czech [[Group 42]], an [[anthology]] of [[British]] and [[American]] [[poetry]], ''Wyspy na jeziorze'' (''The Lake Isles'', [[1988]]), an [[anthology]] of [[Czech poetry]], ''Maść przeciw poezji'' (''Ointment against Poetry'', [[2008]]) and a translation of Vladimir Nabokov's novels ''Invitation to a Beheading'' ([[1990]]), ''Despair'' ([[1993]]), ''King, Queen, Knave'' ([[1994]]), and ''Ada'' ([[2009]]) and a collection of stories by the same author, Nabokov's ''Dozen'' ([[1995]]).
[[File:Engelking & Burian.JPG|thumb|Leszek Engelking with Czech writer and translator Vaclav Burian - [[Warsaw]], Łowicka Center, 20 May 2006]]


===Short story and monograph writer career===
He has also translated M. Ageev’s Novel with ''Cocaine'' ([[1996]]), [[Daniela Hodrova]]’s novel ''Podobojí'' (''Bread and Blood'', [[2001]]), [[Jáchym Topol]]’s novels ''Sestra'' (''Sister. City. Silver'', [[2002]]), ''Noční práce'' (''Night Work'', [[2004]]) and ''Kloktat dehet'' ([[2008]]), [[Ezra Pound]]’s book of essays ''Spirit of Romance'' ([[1999]]), [[Nickie Roberts]]' history of [[prostitution]] in Western societies ''Whores in History'' ([[1997]]), [[Miroslav Holub]]'s volume of essays ''Troubles on a Spaceship'' ([[1998]]), [[Charles Bukowski]]’s book of poems ''Love Is a Dog from Hell'' ([[2003]]), and [[Christopher Reid]]'s book of poems ''Katerina Brac'' ([[2001]], in collaboration with [[Jerzy Jarniewicz]]), as well as selections of poems by [[Ezra Pound]] (''Poezje wybrane'' [''Selected Poems''], [[1989]]), [[Nikolay Gumilyov]] (''Tramwaj zbłąkany i inne wiersze'' [''The Stray Tramway and Other Poems''], [[1990]]), [[Petr Mikeš]] (''Dom jest tam'' [''The House Is There''], [[1991]]), [[Ivan Wernisch]] (''Cmentarz objazdowy'' [''A Travelling Cemetery''], [[1991]]), and ''Pchli teatrzyk'' [''Flea Theater'']. Vol 1, [[2003]]; vol. 2, [[2007]]), [[Ivan Blatný]] (''Szkoła specjalna'' [''Special School''], [[1993]]), [[Agneta Pleijel]] (''Anioły ze snu'' [''Angels from a Dream''], [[1995]]), [[Oldřich Wenzl]] (''Słyszę kroki ementalera'' [''I Can Hear the Steps of Emmenthaler''], [[1996]]), [[Miroslav Holub]] (''Wiersze'' [''Poems''], [[1996]]), [[Richard Caddel]] (''Mały atlas klimatyczny duszy'' [''A Short Climate-Atlas of the Soul''], [[1996]]), [[Václav Burian]] (''Czas szuflad'' [''Time of Drawers''], [[1997]]), and [[Egon Bondy]] (''Dzisiaj wypiłem dużo piw'' [''I Have Drunk a Lot of Lagers Today''], [[1997]]).
Engelking's book of short stories ''Szczęście i inne prozy'' (''Good Fortune and Other Stories'') appeared in 2007, {{ISBN|978-83-7233-116-8}}.


Engelking published the following monographs: ''Vladimir Nabokov'' (1989, {{ISBN|83-07-01628-2}}), ''Vladimir Nabokov - podivuhodný kouzelník'' (1997, in [[Czech language|Czech]], {{ISBN|80-7198-258-X}}) and ''Chwyt metafizyczny. Vladimir Nabokov - estetyka z sankcją wyższej rzeczywistości'' (2011, ''The Metaphysical Device: Vladmir Nabokov – Aesthetics with the Sanction of Higher Reality''),<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/3745337|title = Motyl nad Szachownicą: Metafizyka a styl w rozprawie Leszka Engelkinga o Nabokovie|journal = Kronos |volume=3 |year=2013|last1 = Ksiezopolska|first1 = Irena}}</ref> ''Surrealism, underground, postmodernizm. Szkice o literaturze czeskiej'' (2001, {{ISBN|83-7171-458-0}}), ''Codzienność i mit. Poetyka, programy i historia Grupy 42 w kontekstach dwudziestowiecznej awangardy i postawangardy'' (2005, {{ISBN|83-7171-458-0}}), ''Nowe Mity. Twórczość Jáchyma Topola'' (2016, ''The New Myths. The Literary Oeuvre of Jáchym Topol'', {{ISBN|978-83-8088-038-2}}), and ''Bytom w literaturze'' (2018, ''Bytom in Literature'', {{ISBN|978-83-65786-17-3}}).
In addition, his selection of short stories by [[Ladislav Klíma]] appeared in [[2004]] (''Jak będzie po śmierci'' [''How It Will Be after Death'']) and 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. Old Monitor’s Return. Other City'').


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'' {{ISBN|83-86872-83-7}}), as well as the anthology of imagist poetry ''Obraz i wir'' (2016, ''Image and Vortex'', Andrzej Szuba was a joint editor of the book, {{ISBN|978-83-938702-2-6}}).
Engelking is also a co-translator of various books including, among others: [[Maximilian Voloshin]], ''Poezje'' (''Poems'', [[1981]]), [[Jaroslav Seifert]], ''Poezje wybrane'' (''Selected Poems'', [[1986]]), [[W. B. Yeats]], ''Poezje wybrane'' ([[1987]]), [[W.B. Yeats]], ''Wiersze wybrane'' (''Selected Poems'', [[1997]]), [[W.B. Yeats]], ''Dramaty'' (''Plays'', [[1994]]), [[Ezra Pound]], ''Pieśni'' (''The Cantos'' [selection], [[1996]]), [[Gerardo Beltrán]], ''Krótki pejzaż z cieniami'' (''The Short Landscape with Shadows'' [poems], [[1996]]), [[David A. Carrión]], ''Kłopoty urodzonego we wrześniu'' (''Troubles of a Man Born in September'' [poems], [[1996]]), and [[Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav]], ''Dzieci Prometeusza'' (''The Children of Prometheus'' [selected poems], [[1999]]).


===Literary translator career===
He is an associate of the American journal ''[[Paideuma]]'' devoted to [[Ezra Pound]], the Czech journal ''Slavia'' and the Polish monthly ''Tygiel Kultury''
He has translated works by Nabokov, [[Daniela Hodrova]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://w.bibliotece.pl/1335042/Pod+dwiema+postaciami|title = "Pod dwiema postaciami" Daniela Hodrová}}</ref> [[Jáchym Topol]], [[Ezra Pound]], [[Miroslav Holub]], [[Charles Bukowski]], [[Christopher Reid (writer)|Christopher Reid]], [[Nikolay Gumilyov]], [[Petr Mikeš]], [[Ivan Wernisch]], [[Ivan Blatný]], [[Agneta Pleijel]], [[Oldřich Wenzl]], [[Richard Caddel]], [[Jaroslav Seifert]], [[Václav Burian]], [[Egon Bondy]], [[Maximilian Voloshin]], [[David A. Carrión]], [[Gerardo Beltrán]], [[W. B. Yeats]], [[Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav]],<ref>{{Cite web |title="Dzieci Prometeusza" Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav |url=https://w.bibliotece.pl/212160/Dzieci+Prometeusza |access-date=2022-10-25 |website=w.bibliotece.pl |language=pl}}</ref> [[Jiří Kolář]], [[Karel Čapek]], [[Basil Bunting]], [[Amy Lowell]], [[H.D.]], [[William Carlos Williams]], [[Langston Hughes]], [[Kerry Shawn Keys]], sor [[Juana Ines de la Cruz]], [[Federico García Lorca]], [[Abel Murcia]], [[Sergey Zavyalov]], [[Iryna Zhylenko]], [[Lina Kostenko]], and [[Andrei Khadanovich]].{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}


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'').<ref name=":0" />
Engelking's poems, short stories, essays, papers, reviews, and translations from [[English]], [[Russian]], [[Czech]], [[Slovak]], [[Ukrainian]], [[Belorussian]] and [[Spanish]] appeared in various anthologies as well as in many Polish, American, Canadian, Czech, and Slovak [[periodicals]]. Translations of his poems have been published in [[English]], [[Czech]], [[German]], [[Lithuanian]], [[Russian]], and [[Serbian]]. [[Slovak]], [[Spanish]] and [[Ukrainian]], translations of his short stories have appeared in [[English]] and [[Czech]].


== Links ==
==Personal life and death==
Engelking's son, [[Wojciech Engelking]] is also a writer.<ref name="WprostLesz"/> Leszek privately was a fan of [[motorcycle speedway]],<ref name="WprostLesz"/> [[association football|football]] team [[Polonia Bytom]],<ref name="WprostLesz"/> liked [[lager beer]],<ref name="WprostLesz"/> and [[Armani]] perfumes.<ref name="WprostLesz"/>
* [http://www.kulturoznawstwo.uni.lodz.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=47&Itemid=0 Leszek Engelking - Łódź University, Poland]

Engelking died on 22 October 2022, at the age of 67.<ref name="WprostLesz">{{Cite web|url=https://www.wprost.pl/amp/10916509/leszek-engelking-nie-zyje-byl-autorem-min-przekladow-t-s-eliota-i-kundery.html|publisher=[[Wprost]]|website= [[wprost.pl]]|language = pl|date=23 October 2023|title=Leszek Engelking nie żyje. Był autorem m.in. przekładów T. S. Eliota i Kundery}}</ref>

==Honours==
* The Award of "[[Literatura na Świecie]]" for translation (1989, 2003, 2009, 2018),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.literaturanaswiecie.art.pl/nagrody.htm|title = Literatura na Świecie. Strona główna| date=10 April 2022 |language = pl|publisher=Literatura na świecie}}</ref>
* The Award of Polish Translators’ and Interpreters’ Society (2000)<ref name=":0" />
* Premia Bohemica (the Czech prize; 2003)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.wyborcza.pl/1,75410,1456571.html|title =Premia Bohemica dla Engelkinga|date= 1 May 2003|author=
djc|website=[[Wyborcza.pl]]|language = pl|publisher=[[Gazeta Wyborcza]]}}</ref>
* Polish PEN Club Award (2010)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.culture.pl/en/event/polish-pen-club-award-for-leszek-engelking |title=Polish PEN-club Award for Leszek Engelking &#124; Event &#124; Culture.pl |access-date=23 May 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160616171224/http://culture.pl/en/event/polish-pen-club-award-for-leszek-engelking |archive-date=16 June 2016 }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110205123056/http://www.kulturoznawstwo.uni.lodz.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=47&Itemid=0 Leszek Engelking - Łódź University, Poland]
* [http://www.rasyk.lt/index.php/fuseaction,writers.view;id,176 Leszek Engelking - www.rasyk.lt]
* [http://www.rasyk.lt/index.php/fuseaction,writers.view;id,176 Leszek Engelking - www.rasyk.lt]
* [http://www.listy.cz/archiv.php?cislo=045&clanek=050419 Leszek Engelking - "Fakta ze života Bohumila Hrabala", Listy (Olomouc) 5/2004]
* [http://www.listy.cz/archiv.php?cislo=045&clanek=050419 Leszek Engelking - "Fakta ze života Bohumila Hrabala", Listy (Olomouc) 5/2004]
* [http://free.art.pl/podkowa.magazyn/nr47/rozmowa_engelking.htm "About art of translation" - Interviev with Leszek Engelking]
* [https://archive.today/20070208193614/http://free.art.pl/podkowa.magazyn/nr47/rozmowa_engelking.htm "About art of translation" - Interviev with Leszek Engelking]
* [http://jacketmagazine.com/22/caddel.html|Two Engelking's poems in English translation]
* [http://jacketmagazine.com/22/caddel.html Two Engelking's poems in English translation]

==Sources==
* [[Barbara Tyszkiewicz]], ''Leszek Engelking''. [In:] ''Polscy pisarze i badacze literatury przełomu XX i XXI wieku'', vol. 2, ed. [[Alicja Szałagan]], Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw 2024. {{ISBN|978-83-64703-00-3}} (in Polish)

{{Authority control}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Engelking, Leszek}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Engelking, Leszek}}
[[Category:Polish writers]]
[[Category:Polish poets]]
[[Category:Polish short story writers]]
[[Category:Polish translators]]
[[Category:1955 births]]
[[Category:1955 births]]
[[Category:2022 deaths]]

[[Category:Polish male short story writers]]
[[pl: Leszek Engelking]]
[[Category:Polish translators]]
[[Category:English–Polish translators]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Decoration of Honor Meritorious for Polish Culture]]
[[Category:Translators from Czech]]
[[Category:Translators from Slovak]]
[[Category:Translators from Spanish]]
[[Category:Translators from Russian]]
[[Category:Translators from Belarusian]]
[[Category:Translators from English]]
[[Category:Translators from Ukrainian]]
[[Category:Translators from Polish]]
[[Category:Translators to Polish]]
[[Category:People from Chorzów]]
[[Category:University of Warsaw alumni]]
[[Category:Polish male poets]]

Latest revision as of 18:53, 1 June 2024

Leszek Engelking
Engelking in 2004
Born(1955-02-02)2 February 1955
Died22 October 2022(2022-10-22) (aged 67)
Alma materWarsaw University

Leszek Maria Engelking (2 February 1955[1] – 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, Slovak but in particular from Czech.[2]

Biography

[edit]

Education, editorial, and academic career

[edit]

Engelking was born in Chorzów in 1955 and spent his childhood in Upper Silesia.[1] 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.[3]

Literary Memberships

[edit]

Engelking was a member of Association of Polish Writers since 1989,[1] the Polish PEN Club since 2000,[1] and of the Société Europeénne de Culture since 1994.[1]

Engelking was also an associate of the American journal Paideuma (which is devoted to Ezra Pound), the Czech journal Slavia,[4] and the Polish monthly Tygiel Kultury.[1]

Poetic career

[edit]
Engelking receives the "Literatura na Świecie" Award - Warsaw, June 25, 2009

He has published collections of poems:

  • Autobus do hotelu Cytera (A Bus to the Cythera Hotel, 1979)[1]
  • Haiku własne i cudze (Haiku by Myself and Others, 1991)[1]
  • Mistrzyni kaligrafii i inne wiersze (The Mistress of Calligraphy and Other Poems, 1994) ISBN 83-7081-115-9
  • Dom piąty (The Fifth House, 1997) ISBN 83-7081-377-1
  • I inne wiersze (And Other Poems, 2000; new and selected poems) ISBN 83-7081-395-X
  • Muzeum dzieciństwa (Museum of Childhood, 2011) ISBN 978-83-62717-13-2
  • Komu kibicują umarli?, (For Which Team Do the Deceased Root?, 2013) ISBN 978-83-62717-75-0

A selection of his poems have appeared in Ukrainian translation (Vid ciogho ne vmirayut’/You Can't Die from This; 1997, ISBN 966-7255-08-5), as well as in Czech (Jiné básně a jiné básně/Other Poems and Other Poems; 1998, ISBN 80-7198-336-5) and Slovak (Zanechala si odtlačky prstov na mojej koži/You have Left Finger-Marks on My Skin; 2005, ISBN 80-85508-62-1). A small collection of his poems was published in Spanish (Museo de la infancia/Museum of Childhood; 2010, ISBN 978-84-937657-4-3; depósito legal Z-42-2010).

Leszek Engelking with Czech writer and translator Vaclav Burian - Warsaw, Łowicka Center, 20 May 2006

Short story and monograph writer career

[edit]

Engelking's book of short stories Szczęście i inne prozy (Good Fortune and Other Stories) appeared in 2007, ISBN 978-83-7233-116-8.

Engelking published the following monographs: Vladimir Nabokov (1989, ISBN 83-07-01628-2), Vladimir Nabokov - podivuhodný kouzelník (1997, in Czech, ISBN 80-7198-258-X) and Chwyt metafizyczny. Vladimir Nabokov - estetyka z sankcją wyższej rzeczywistości (2011, The Metaphysical Device: Vladmir Nabokov – Aesthetics with the Sanction of Higher Reality),[5] Surrealism, underground, postmodernizm. Szkice o literaturze czeskiej (2001, ISBN 83-7171-458-0), Codzienność i mit. Poetyka, programy i historia Grupy 42 w kontekstach dwudziestowiecznej awangardy i postawangardy (2005, ISBN 83-7171-458-0), Nowe Mity. Twórczość Jáchyma Topola (2016, The New Myths. The Literary Oeuvre of Jáchym Topol, ISBN 978-83-8088-038-2), and Bytom w literaturze (2018, Bytom in Literature, ISBN 978-83-65786-17-3).

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 ISBN 83-86872-83-7), as well as the anthology of imagist poetry Obraz i wir (2016, Image and Vortex, Andrzej Szuba was a joint editor of the book, ISBN 978-83-938702-2-6).

Literary translator career

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He has translated works by Nabokov, Daniela Hodrova,[6] Jáchym Topol, Ezra Pound, Miroslav Holub, Charles Bukowski, Christopher Reid, Nikolay Gumilyov, Petr Mikeš, Ivan Wernisch, Ivan Blatný, Agneta Pleijel, Oldřich Wenzl, Richard Caddel, Jaroslav Seifert, Václav Burian, Egon Bondy, Maximilian Voloshin, David A. Carrión, Gerardo Beltrán, W. B. Yeats, Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav,[7] Jiří Kolář, Karel Čapek, Basil Bunting, Amy Lowell, H.D., William Carlos Williams, Langston Hughes, Kerry Shawn Keys, sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Federico García Lorca, Abel Murcia, Sergey Zavyalov, Iryna Zhylenko, Lina Kostenko, and Andrei Khadanovich.[citation needed]

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).[1]

Personal life and death

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Engelking's son, Wojciech Engelking is also a writer.[2] Leszek privately was a fan of motorcycle speedway,[2] football team Polonia Bytom,[2] liked lager beer,[2] and Armani perfumes.[2]

Engelking died on 22 October 2022, at the age of 67.[2]

Honours

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  • The Award of "Literatura na Świecie" for translation (1989, 2003, 2009, 2018),[8]
  • The Award of Polish Translators’ and Interpreters’ Society (2000)[1]
  • Premia Bohemica (the Czech prize; 2003)[9]
  • Polish PEN Club Award (2010)[10]

References

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Sources

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