Znudzone sobą małżeństwo aktorów
przy pełnej sali odbębniało kwestie
Oblubienicy i Oblubieńca
z Pieśni nad Pieśniami.
Pamiętasz ich? Ja tak nie chcę.
Już wolę w wierszu uciąć ci głowę
jak Judyta Holofernesowi
i z nieco teatralną mieszaniną
strachu i gniewu i rozżalenia patrzeć
na miecz w jaskrawych strugach krwi,
który jakoś nie potrafi
opuścić twojego ciała.

…read Mira Rosenthal’s English translation

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Krystyna Dąbrowska is a poet, translator, and essayist. The author of four poetry books, the most recent of which is Ścieżki dźwiękowe (“Soundtracks,” 2018). She won the prestigious Polish literary prizes, the Wisława Szymborska Award and the Kościelski Award, both in 2013. In 2019, she won the Literary Award of the Capital City of Warsaw. Her poems have been translated into sixteen languages and appear regularly in literary magazines in Poland and abroad, including Harper’s Magazine, Ploughshares, The Threepenny Review, The Southern Review, and Modern Poetry in Translation, among others. Her translations include the poetry of  W. C. Williams, W. B. Yeats, Thomas Hardy, Thom Gunn, Charles Simic, and Kim Moore, as well as selected letters of Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell. She lives and works in Warsaw.