dwutygodnik - strona kultury

33 2012

POETRY:
Dandyism Counterattacks

BY Andrzej Kotański

Poem by Andrzej Kotański and its audio interpretation by Ola Bilińska

He is a poet and prose writer, graduate of romance philology at Warsaw University. Andrzej Kotański debuted with a collection of short stories Czterdzieści siedem tysięcy bankietów (Fourty seven thousand banquets), and then two poetry books followed: Elegia o płaszczu skórzanym (Leather Coat Elegy) and Jutro będzie wiosna (It Will be Spring Tomorrow).
His new book was published in November 2011 – Wiersze o moim psychiatrze (Poems About My Psychiatrist). We publish a poem from that volume in translation and audio interpretation by Ola Bilińska.

Dandyism Counterattacks

I’m still not sure how I should interpret
this new and daring image of yours

I dress in colours so defying
so that none can see
that I’m dying

well you know
life usually tends to lead
towards death
it’s a fact even the most brightly-coloured trousers
won’t change

of course I know
a man after forty
is as good as a corpse
my point is
to be a living corpse

Ola Bilińska, born 1986, singer, songwriter and translator, student at the English Literature Department of Warsaw University. She is currently writing her MA thesis on the influence of music, sound and performance on the poetry of G.M. Hopkins, T.S. Eliot and Dylan Thomas. In an attempt to put theory into practice, she writes song lyrics and translates for other bands, most recently for Pustki. Ola sings in Płyny and Muzyka Końca Lata. Her own stage project involving poetry, music and image goes under the name Babadag.