to the Carnival
Don’t Worry, It Won’t Get Lost
Receding Planets of the Rowan Tree
A Small Treatise on Non-Contradiction
From A Subsequent World / Kolejny Świat (1983)
From What We’re Remembered By / Pamiątki po nas (1980)
Forefathers, our representatives
Untranslatability of squirrels
List of poems, prose pieces, and translators
Acknowledgments
Most of these poems were first published in the Polish collections listed in the table of contents. “Prospects in Prose,” “Communication Department,” “Sometimes, Yes,” and “Great, Now What” first appeared in Nowe stosunki wyrazów (New relations of words, 1997). “Little Graves,” “Confirmation,” and “Other Half” appeared in Kresy 4 (1999) and Res Publica Nowa 12 (2002). The poems listed under the headings “From elsewhere” are arranged chronologically.
Sections of this book were published as Things to Translate and Other Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 1991). Grateful acknowledgments are also due to the editors of Agni, Aufbau, Chicago Review, The Honest Ulsterman, The New Yorker, Orient Express, Poetry, Poetry Review, The Threepenny Review, and The Times Literary Supplement in which other poems have since appeared.
Some of the translators — John Ashbery, Edward Carey, Douglas Dunn, D. J. Enright, Michael Kasper, W. Martin, and Mark Slobin — looked through other parts of the manuscript as well, and their suggestions substantially improved it. For other friendly comments, special thanks to Tamara Duvall, August Kleinzahler, Madeline Levine, Nancy Pick, Christopher Reid, Fiona Sampson, Henry Shukman, Greta Slobin, Łukasz Sommer, and Stephanie Steiker.