Leszek Maria Engelking (2 February 1955 – 22 October 2022) was a Polish poet, short story writer, novelist, translator, literary critic, essayist, Polish philologist, and literary academic, scholar, and lecturer. Engelking translated a vast amount of literature into Polish, from

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, Ukrainian,

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, Slovak but in particular from

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Biography

Education, editorial, and academic career

Engelking was born in

Chorzów Chorzów ( ; ; ) is a city in the Silesia region of southern Poland, near Katowice. Chorzów is one of the central cities of the Metropolis GZM – a metropolis with a population of 2 million. It is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Rawa ...

in 1955 and spent his childhood in

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( ; ; ; ; Silesian German: ; ) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located today mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic. The area is predominantly known for its heav ...

. In 1979, Engelking graduated from

Warsaw University The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well as 100 specializat ...

, he received his doctorate in 2002 and postdoctoral degree in 2013. From 1984 to 1995, he was a member of an editorial staff of "

Literatura na Świecie ''Literatura na Świecie'' (''World Literature'') was, during the times of the Polish People's Republic, one of the most widely read and sought after periodicals in Poland. The magazine was started in 1971. Its headquarters is in Warsaw. In the 19 ...

" ("Literature in the World"), a Polish monthly devoted to foreign literature. From 1997 to 1998, he was a lecturer at Warsaw University and a visiting professor at Palacký University, Olomouc (Czech Republic). He taught at the

University of Łódź The University of Łódź (, ) is a public research university founded in 1945 in Łódź, Poland, as a continuation of three higher education institutions functioning in Łódź in the interwar period — the Teacher Training Institute (192 ...

Literary Memberships

Engelking was a member of Association of Polish Writers since 1989, the Polish PEN Club since 2000, and of the Société Europeénne de Culture since 1994. Engelking was also an associate of the American journal ''Paideuma'' (which is devoted to

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

), the Czech journal ''Slavia'', and the Polish monthly ''Tygiel Kultury''.

Poetic career

Leszek Engelking Literatura na Swiecie Prize June 25 2009 Fot Mariusz Kubik 03

He has published collections of poems: * ''Autobus do hotelu Cytera'' (''A Bus to the Cythera Hotel'', 1979) * ''Haiku własne i cudze'' (''Haiku by Myself and Others'', 1991) * ''Mistrzyni kaligrafii i inne wiersze'' (''The Mistress of Calligraphy and Other Poems'', 1994) * ''Dom piąty'' (''The Fifth House'', 1997) * ''I inne wiersze'' (''And Other Poems'', 2000; new and selected poems) * ''Muzeum dzieciństwa'' (''Museum of Childhood'', 2011) * ''Komu kibicują umarli?'', (''For Which Team Do the Deceased Root?'', 2013) A selection of his poems have appeared in Ukrainian translation (''Vid ciogho ne vmirayut’/''You Can't Die from This; 1997, ), as well as in

(''Jiné básně a jiné básně''/''Other Poems and Other Poems''; 1998, ) and Slovak (''Zanechala si odtlačky prstov na mojej koži''/''You have Left Finger-Marks on My Skin''; 2005, ). A small collection of his poems was published in

(''Museo de la infancia''/''Museum of Childhood''; 2010, ; depósito legal Z-42-2010).

Short story and monograph writer career

Engelking's book of short stories ''Szczęście i inne prozy'' (''Good Fortune and Other Stories'') appeared in 2007, . Engelking published the following monographs: ''Vladimir Nabokov'' (1989, ), ''Vladimir Nabokov - podivuhodný kouzelník'' (1997, in

, ) and ''Chwyt metafizyczny. Vladimir Nabokov - estetyka z sankcją wyższej rzeczywistości'' (2011, ''The Metaphysical Device: Vladmir Nabokov – Aesthetics with the Sanction of Higher Reality''), ''Surrealism, underground, postmodernizm. Szkice o literaturze czeskiej'' (2001, ), ''Codzienność i mit. Poetyka, programy i historia Grupy 42 w kontekstach dwudziestowiecznej awangardy i postawangardy'' (2005, ), ''Nowe Mity. Twórczość Jáchyma Topola'' (2016, ''The New Myths. The Literary Oeuvre of Jáchym Topol'', ), and ''Bytom w literaturze'' (2018, ''Bytom in Literature'', ). Engelking edited the anthology of British and American poetry ''Wyspy na jeziorze'' (1988, ''The Lake Isles''), the anthology of Czech poetry ''Maść przeciw poezji'' (2008, ''Ointment against Poetry''), the selection from the works of three contemporary Slovak poets, Oleg Pastier, Karol Chmel, and Ivan Kolenič, ''Oko za ząb'' (2006, ''An Eye for a Tooth'' ), as well as the anthology of imagist poetry ''Obraz i wir'' (2016, ''Image and Vortex'', Andrzej Szuba was a joint editor of the book, ).

Literary translator career

He has translated works by Nabokov, Daniela Hodrova,

Jáchym Topol Jáchym Topol (born 4 August 1962) is a Czech Republic, Czech poet, novelist, musician and journalist who became a laureate of the Czech State Award for Literature in October 2017 for his novel ''A Sensitive Person'' and his life work to date. ...

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, Christopher Reid,

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, David A. Carrión,

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, Kerry Shawn Keys, sor Juana Ines de la Cruz,

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, Abel Murcia, Sergey Zavyalov, Iryna Zhylenko,

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, and Andrei Khadanovich. Engelking's selection of short stories by

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’s book of poems, short stories and a novel was published in 2005 (''Morderstwo w hotelu Intercontinental. Powrót starego warana. Inne miasto'' ''The Murder in the Intercontinental Hotel. The Return of the Old Comodo Dragon. Other City''). Ajvaz's novel ''Voyage to the South'' in his translation appeared in 2016 (''Podróż na Południe'').

Personal life and death

Engelking's son, Wojciech Engelking is also a writer. Leszek privately was a fan of

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football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

team

Polonia Bytom Polonia Bytom () is a Polish football club based in Bytom. Founded in 1920, the team won two List of Polish football champions, championships, in 1954 Ekstraklasa, 1954 and 1962 Ekstraklasa, 1962. As of the 2025–26 I liga, 2025–26 season, th ...

, liked

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, and

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perfumes. Engelking died on 22 October 2022, at the age of 67.

Honours

* The Award of "

" for translation (1989, 2003, 2009, 2018), * The Award of Polish Translators’ and Interpreters’ Society (2000) * Premia Bohemica (the Czech prize; 2003) * Polish PEN Club Award (2010)

References

External links

Leszek Engelking - Łódź University, Poland

Leszek Engelking - www.rasyk.lt

Leszek Engelking - "Fakta ze života Bohumila Hrabala", Listy (Olomouc) 5/2004

* ttp://jacketmagazine.com/22/caddel.html Two Engelking's poems in English translation

Sources

* Barbara Tyszkiewicz, ''Leszek Engelking''. n:''Polscy pisarze i badacze literatury przełomu XX i XXI wieku'', vol. 2, ed. Alicja Szałagan, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw 2024. (in Polish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Engelking, Leszek 1955 births 2022 deaths Polish male short story writers Polish translators English–Polish translators Recipients of the Decoration of Honor Meritorious for Polish Culture Translators from Czech Translators from Slovak Translators from Spanish Translators from Russian Translators from Belarusian Translators from English Translators from Ukrainian Translators from Polish Translators to Polish People from Chorzów University of Warsaw alumni Polish male poets