Charlotte Rice

Teoria próżni

Szkoda, że cię tu nie ma, jeszcze raz to powiem.

Lato już spakowane, jesień wyłysiała

i jej rysy tężeją, jakby przybierały

ostrość przedśmiertnej maski. I wszystko dokoła

jest tak ostre, że rani. Światło przez te chmury

przecina liście na ścieżce, przecina oddech,

tnie życie wpół, przy czym tamta część drży na końcu

chmurki z ust tylko chwilę. Nie sposób odróżnić

obu połówek: działa ekonomia straty.

I nawet teraz tracę pisząc, mówiąc tracę,

słowo po słowie, prawda? W tej sztuce tak łatwo

o postępy – zbyt łatwo zostać mistrzem powiatu.

Więc jest mnie coraz mniej, za to ciebie wciąż więcej?

Aż strata straci podmiot i przedmiot ją przejmie?

Jeśli czegoś zabraknie – zdarzy się to tobie,

po raz pierwszy od kiedy nie jesteś już bogiem.

–Tomasz Różycki

Theory of Her

Wistful you are not here, I will say it again

The sun melting, leaves in piles upon the ground

And her eyes tightened as if assuming

The cold is coming in. All around

The trees speak and the bushes move. She shines

Through the trees, lights the leaves,

Shortens my life, and the air cold where 

I once took a breath. No difference 

between the loss of time: it constantly takes.

even now in this moment, I am losing by writing, I am losing 

by speaking, every word I use, right? If the

progress of the poem is the art - it must be easy to become a master.

I become me less and less, but you constantly obtain more and more?

Until the loss is not worth the pain and want becomes what you take?

If something goes missing, this will happen to you,

for the first time, but no, for you are already god.

-Translated from Polish by Charlotte Rice 

The Art of Letting Go

I repeat, sad you aren’t here

Summer done, fall begins

She assumes, her features tightening

Her acceptance of death before she dies

Everything around me is harsh, harsh enough to hurt

Light from the sun over the path, 

Silence where the sun passes.

No way to know how much I have lost

I lose when writing this, and when speaking,

Every word is harsh. Writing a poem is 

progress - one that is hard to be good at.

I give less and less and you take more and more,

Until I have nothing less to give,

When I have nothing less to give, what will happen to you

When this first happens, will it happen? No, you are god.

-Translated from Polish by Charlotte Rice

Translator’s statement

Tomasz Różycki, a poet, essayist, and translator, was born in 1970 in Opole, Poland. He has written seven collections of poems including a long epic poem called “Dwanaście stacji”, for which he was awarded the Kościelski Prize, which is the most famous literary prize for Polish writers under forty. Różycki’s work has been translated into numerous languages. His poems are very recognizable due to their very specific diction in the poems. Różycki often creates very rhythmic poems which are often grouped into songs, which seems to be a reference to the tradition of old Polish lyric poetry. He also has elements of baroque stylization that can be found - in numerous poems based on calculations, and lastly, he has a trend to use specific references to the fear of emptiness. 

The poem “Teoria próżni” by Tomasz Różycki was published in 2016 by Wydawnictwo Literackie, a publishing house in Poland. The poem consists of 4 stanzas each containing 4 lines. The last stanza of the poem also rhymes. This is most likely a choice made by the author to contribute to the main idea of the poem. 

To translate this poem I first (before meeting with my translation mentor) learned a little about the poet I was translating from, from this I learned that my poet had a tendency to rhyme. Learning that my poet had a tendency to rhyme I went into my meeting with my translation mentor prepared to look for certain poetic choices. When meeting with my mentor, she created a “literal” translation of the poem and we went through each line and talked about how each line was translated. We talked about how in Poland words don’t use articles before them and are instead gendered, so the way the poet uses gender is important to the meaning of the poem. After I had a literal translation I picked two things that I wanted to specifically focus on in the poem and create a translation with. For my first translation, I wanted to focus on the personification that happened throughout the poem and create a story surrounding that idea. This came with certain challenges because I knew that there were so many ways to describe the meaning of the poem. Prior to translating, I had read from another translator that, “As a poet, I know that words always have the potential to exceed what we intend for them, even when we’re all speaking the same language. It’s impossible to account for every possible meaning in a poem” (Carina del Valle Schorske) which really made me change my perspective on how to translate the meaning of the poem. 

In the second translation, I focused on the idea of acceptance and loss throughout the poem. This had its own challenges because I needed to find a way to translate the emotions of acceptance without bluntly stating it (it had to flow through the poem). To accomplish this task I finished the last line in a place of acceptance almost as if the poem is coming to an end in an acceptance-like way. 

To create my blackout poem I first collected all of the responses and texts I had written down from interviewing my grandmother. I then found an article that talked about the Polish War with Russia, which is something that my grandmother had brought up when I interviewed her. Once all the text was compiled on one sheet I created a poem that I thought represented the emotions my grandmother had brought up as well as a more central idea about what people from Poland went through when they were at war with Russia. When interviewing my grandmother this was a big part of what she talked about and how her mom came to the United States and had to learn English for her family. She talked about how her mom eventually lost her ability to speak Polish but still passed down certain words. ​​

Bibliography

Del Valle Schorske, Carina. “Letter of Recommendation: Translation.” The New York Times, 26 October 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/26/magazine/letter-of-recommendation-translation.html. Accessed 25 May 2023.

"Tomasz Różycki." Words Without Borders, 2021, https://wordswithoutborders.org/contributors/view/tomasz-rozycki/. Accessed 24 Apr. 2023.

"Wydawnictwo Literackie." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Apr. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wydawnictwo_Literackie. Accessed 24 Apr. 2023.

Różycki, Tomasz. "A Theory of Empty Space." Translated by Mira Rosenthal, Contra Mundum Press, 2011, https://www.catranslation.org/journal-post/a-theory-of-empty-space/. Accessed 24 Apr. 2023.

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Charlotte is 14 years old and lives in Boston, MA. She loves to bake cakes, row on the Charles River, and go to concerts with friends! She has two siblings and 1 dog that loves to bark at squirrels.