The Lyricism of Silence

(“Liryka ciszy”)

From the dust of hopelessness, it’s a rising beyond one’s state.

It’s a gift of fate: a seal cast upon human hearts.

When the world falls silent, the heart, in the depths of stillness,

hearkens to the burden of premonitions

and the unwanted word.

That hospitality continues to bear fruit; love stay awake,

as a sleeplessly tide.

Eyelids will never droop

until the nights of doubt sting with pride.

Refracted Mirrors

(“Załamane lustra”)

I know not into what shadows these voices are woven;

the mind celebrates the secret of this otherness.

I stir my imagination to know the truth;

refreshed scenes gleam within this mosaic.

Specks of memory suddenly settle upon my lips;

lapping waves drown out the flow of thought.

Refracted mirrors upon shifting waters’ flow – 

in the web of memory, the purest image takes form.

My Self drifts against the backdrop of infinity low.

Lilacs

(“Bzy”)

Memory stirred

by the fragrance of lilac blooms.

White and lilac-hued blossoms they are a springtime lure.

A hidden flame within the chalices,

a wound upon body and soul.

In their tonalities, they recall both. 

The white ona – a parallel to the first – could, like a stream, 

bring her a state of bliss.

The lilac-hued one – the second – was a murky,

overgrown river bearing the whisper

of sweet flag, the song of clenched hands.

It pulled her down like a whirlpool

and could have pulled her under down again and again.

Or perhaps nothing was quite

as it seemed…

Translated by Olga Smolnytska

Bionote about the translator:

Olga Smolnytska – PhD in Philosophy, Ukrainian scientific and culture activist, scholar, translator, writer, literature critic, artist.

Aleksandra Sołtysiak (Poland), graduate of the Catholic University of Lublin and Jagiellonian University in Kraków. She has served as coeditor of the poetry anthology Dotyk nadzie (The Touch of Hope), which was translated into Ukrainian and German, as well as of the international anthology in support of world peace The tree of peace turns green / European poetry for universal harmony, which has been translated into Polish and English. She’s also the author of Hope blossoms longer and the published poetry volume „Spilled from the cases”. Finalist in the fourth International Poetry Contest, „Voices in the Wilderness” held in Rome (2022). She publishes nationally and internationally. She has also been awarded the Gold Cross of Merit by Polish president Andrzej Duda. In 2023 distinguished with a medal for Merit to Polish Culture.