Leszek Maria Engelking (2 February 1955 â 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 Spanish, English, Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Slovak but in particular from Czech.
Engelking was born in Chorzów in 1955 and spent his childhood in Upper Silesia. In 1979, Engelking graduated from Warsaw University, 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 à Âwiecie" ("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 à Âódà º.
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), the Czech journal Slavia, and the Polish monthly Tygiel Kultury.
He has published collections of poems:
A selection of his poems have appeared in Ukrainian translation (Vid ciogho ne vmirayutâÂÂ/You Can't Die from This; 1997, ), as well as in Czech (Jiné básnàa jiné básnÃÂ/Other Poems and Other Poems; 1998, ) and Slovak (Zanechala si odtlaÃÂky prstov na mojej koà ¾i/You have Left Finger-Marks on My Skin; 2005, ). A small collection of his poems was published in Spanish (Museo de la infancia/Museum of Childhood; 2010, ; depósito legal Z-42-2010).
Engelking's book of short stories SzczÃÂÃ Âcie i inne prozy (Good Fortune and Other Stories) appeared in 2007, .
Engelking published the following monographs: Vladimir Nabokov (1989, ), Vladimir Nabokov - podivuhodný kouzelnÃÂk (1997, in Czech, ) and Chwyt metafizyczny. Vladimir Nabokov - estetyka z sankcjàwyà ¼szej rzeczywistoà Âci (2011, The Metaphysical Device: Vladmir Nabokov â Aesthetics with the Sanction of Higher Reality), Surrealism, underground, postmodernizm. Szkice o literaturze czeskiej (2001, ), Codziennoà Âài mit. Poetyka, programy i historia Grupy 42 w kontekstach dwudziestowiecznej awangardy i postawangardy (2005, ), Nowe Mity. Twórczoà ÂàJáchyma 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 Maà Âàprzeciw poezji (2008, Ointment against Poetry), the selection from the works of three contemporary Slovak poets, Oleg Pastier, Karol Chmel, and Ivan KoleniÃÂ, Oko za zàb (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, ).
He has translated works by Nabokov, Daniela Hodrova, Jáchym Topol, Ezra Pound, Miroslav Holub, Charles Bukowski, Christopher Reid, Nikolay Gumilyov, Petr Mikeà ¡, Ivan Wernisch, Ivan Blatný, Agneta Pleijel, Oldà Âich Wenzl, Richard Caddel, Jaroslav Seifert, Václav Burian, Egon Bondy, Maximilian Voloshin, David A. Carrión, Gerardo Beltrán, W. B. Yeats, Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav, Jià ÂàKoláà Â, Karel ÃÂapek, Basil Bunting, Amy Lowell, H.D., William Carlos Williams, Langston Hughes, Kerry Shawn Keys, sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Federico GarcÃÂa Lorca, Abel Murcia, Sergey Zavyalov, Iryna Zhylenko, Lina Kostenko, and Andrei Khadanovich.
Engelking's selection of short stories by Ladislav KlÃÂma appeared in 2004 (Jak bÃÂdzie po à Âmierci [How It Will Be after Death]), his translation of Michal AjvazâÂÂs 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 (PodrÃ³à ¼ na Poà Âudnie).
Engelking's son, Wojciech Engelking is also a writer. Leszek privately was a fan of motorcycle speedway, football team Polonia Bytom, liked lager beer, and Armani perfumes.
Engelking died on 22 October 2022, at the age of 67.