The poems are translated with the same loving gaze: Kovacik has entered so successfully into the world of the poet that much of this work honestly seems poetry of a very high order in English. — Sasha Dugdale, EuroLitNetwork (http://www.eurolitnetwork.com/rivetingreviews-sasha-dugdale-reviews-aperture-by-jacek-dehnel/)

Jacek Dehnel is a poet, writer, translator and painter who was born in Gdansk, Poland in 1980. The winner of the 2005 Koscielski Foundation Award and the 2006 Polityka Passport Award, he has written seven volumes of poetry and a dozen books of novels and short stories. His first volume of poetry received an enthusiastic endorsement by Czeslaw Milosz. Dehnel is also a painter, and the translator of works by Philip Larkin, W. H. Auden, George Szirtes, Osip Mandelstam and others into Polish.

Contents Translator’s Introduction 1 A Razor-Sharp Glance Brzytwa okamgnienia A Razor-Sharp Glance Miłe złego porządki Small Efforts at Order Macewy Matzevot Czerwiec.Lipiec June.July. Saint-Malo Saint-Malo Biedny chrześcijanin patrzy na gabinet Peggy Sage A Poor Christian Looks at the Peggy Sage Salon Albert Watson, Golden Boy (New York, 1990) Albert Watson, Golden Boy (New York, 1990) Odkopanie posągu Antinousa w Delfach, 1894 Unearthing a Statue of Antinous in Delphi, 1894 2 Aperture Wizjer Aperture Muzeum anatomii: sarna Museum of Anatomy: Deer Rys. 370. Garb wskutek gruźlicy kręgosłupa Fig. 370. Hunchback due to tuberculosis of the spine Bażant Pheasant Bajka o hurtowniku pietruszki Fable of the Parsley Dealer Czereśnie Cherries Niewdzięczność Ungratefulness 8.5 x 13, ’84 4 x 6, ’84 Hör ich das Liedchen klingen Hör ich das Liedchen klingen Stary człowiek w oknie pałacu Old Man in a Palace Window 3 Posterity Posterity Posterity Sebastiano del Piombo, Wskrzeszenia Łazarza Sebastiano del Piombo, The Raising of Lazarus Żółty dom Yellow House Urartu Urartu Pleśń (Warszawa Centralna) Mold (Warsaw Central Station) Big Splash Big Splash Przebicie Flashover Space Oddity Space Oddity 4 Symmetry Symetria Symmetry Apetyt Appetite Korytarz, późna jesień Train Corridor, Late Fall Odwilż Thaw www.gaydar.pl www.gaydar.pl Szczęście Happiness Nurt Current “Jeśli nieszczęśliwa miłość kończy się…” “If unhappy love ends…” Notes on the poems Acknowledgments