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.

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/)

• ContentsTranslator’s Introduction1 A Razor-Sharp GlanceBrzytwa okamgnieniaA Razor-Sharp GlanceMiłe złego porządkiSmall Efforts at OrderMacewyMatzevotCzerwiec.LipiecJune.July.Saint-MaloSaint-MaloBiedny chrześcijanin patrzy na gabinet Peggy SageA Poor Christian Looks at the Peggy Sage SalonAlbert Watson, Golden Boy (New York, 1990)Albert Watson, Golden Boy (New York, 1990)Odkopanie posągu Antinousa w Delfach, 1894Unearthing a Statue of Antinous in Delphi, 18942 ApertureWizjerApertureMuzeum anatomii: sarnaMuseum of Anatomy: DeerRys. 370. Garb wskutek gruźlicy kręgosłupaFig. 370. Hunchback due to tuberculosis of the spineBażantPheasantBajka o hurtowniku pietruszkiFable of the Parsley Dealer Czereśnie CherriesNiewdzięczność Ungratefulness 8.5 x 13, ’844 x 6, ’84Hör ich das Liedchen klingen Hör ich das Liedchen klingen Stary człowiek w oknie pałacu Old Man in a Palace Window 3 PosterityPosterityPosteritySebastiano del Piombo, Wskrzeszenia ŁazarzaSebastiano del Piombo, The Raising of LazarusŻółty dom Yellow HouseUrartu UrartuPleśń (Warszawa Centralna) Mold (Warsaw Central Station) Big Splash Big Splash Przebicie Flashover Space OdditySpace Oddity4 SymmetrySymetriaSymmetryApetyt 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