THE SUN AND MAMMOTHS
The sun was shining three days ago.
Today it is raining and people in Copenhagen
are drinking Spanish wine.
A thousand years ago, the sun was shining
and mammoths lived on Earth.
I never ate mammoth meat, but I drank
Spanish wine often.
Cortes once conquered Mexico.
The sun is needed for corn to grow.
Just like rain. Mr. Jensen carefully
observes the sky and the stars.
Old Sputniks fall into the oceans.
(You need to sleep at least six hours…)
This is a beautiful poem, isn't it?
CARP
Roses and tulips are a favorite topic
of poets. Or mysterious cats.
And of course, love after the sunset.
Teleportation to Venus is also very
popular.
My uncle never wrote poetry.
He drank vodka every day
and told me about fights in dirty
restaurants. He was always
authentic.
They killed him once
at a pond.
There were carp in this pond,
which we ate
every Christmas.
WELLS
Life is (incredibly) interesting sometimes.
Potatoes can be eaten with mushroom
sauce.
Friends & lovers are smiling traitors.
That's why we have great literature.
In case of war, there are basements
and concrete shelters.
I've never seen an angel.
However, the devils hid in black wells.
Not bad.
It is shock-free, i.e. neutral.
Grzegorz Wróblewski was born in 1962 in Gdańsk and grew up in Warsaw. Since 1985 he has been living in Copenhagen. English translations of his work are available in Our Flying Objects (trans. Joel Leonard Katz, Rod Mengham, Malcolm Sinclair, Adam Zdrodowski, Equipage, 2007), A Marzipan Factory (trans. Adam Zdrodowski, Otoliths, 2010), Kopenhaga (trans. Piotr Gwiazda, Zephyr Press, 2013), Let's Go Back to the Mainland (trans. Agnieszka Pokojska, Červená Barva Press, 2014), Zero Visibility (trans. Piotr Gwiazda, Phoneme Media, 2017), Dear Beloved Humans (trans. Piotr Gwiazda, Lavender/Dialogos Books, 2023), I Really Like Lovers of Poetry (trans. Grzegorz Wróblewski & Marcus Silcock Slease, Červená Barva Press, 2024), Tatami in Kyoto (Literary Waves Publishing, 2024). Asemic writing book Shanty Town (Post-Asemic Press, 2022).
