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Ewa Lipska

エヴァ・リプスカ

Ewa Lipska

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1945-10-08 （Kraków）
Nationality
Poland
Languages
Polish
Residence History
Vienna → Kraków

Career

Occupations
poet, writer
Active Years
1967-

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Wiersze (Poems)

1967 Poetry collection

Early collection of poems exploring personal experience and reflections on language.

personal experiencelanguagememory

Dom spokojnej młodości (A Home for Youth)

1979 Collected poems / Selected poems

A selected collection from the 1970s where social context and individual voice intersect.

societyindividualidentity

Ja (I)

2003 Poetry collection

A recent collection focusing on the self, relations with others, and the limits of language.

selfcommunicationlimits of language

Pomarańcza Newtona (Newton's Orange)

2007 Poetry collection

A collection that addresses political and ethical issues through metaphor and everyday imagery.

politicsethicseveryday life
Translations
  • La astilla. La naranja de Newton (Spanish)

Bibliography

  • Wiersze (1967)
  • Drugi wybór wierszy (1970)
  • Trzeci wybór wierszy (1972)
  • Czwarty wybór wierszy (1974)
  • Piąty wybór wierszy (1978)
  • Dom spokojnej młodości (1979)
  • Żywa śmierć (Living Death) (1979)
  • Poezje wybrane (Selected Poems) (1981)
  • Nie o śmierć tutaj chodzi, lecz o biały kordonek (1982)
  • Przechowalnia ciemności (1985)
  • Utwory wybrane (Selected Work) (1986)
  • Strefa ograniczonego postoju (1990)
  • Wakacje mizantropa (Misanthrope Holidays) (1993)
  • Stypendyści czasu (1994)
  • Ludzie dla początkujących (1997)
  • Godziny poza godzinami (1998)
  • Życie zastępcze (1998)
  • 1999 (1999)
  • Sklepy zoologiczne (Pet Shops) (2001)
  • Uwaga: stopień (2002)
  • Ja (I) (2003)
  • Gdzie indziej (Somewhere else) (2004)
  • Drzazga (2006)
  • Pomarańcza Newtona (Newton's Orange) (2007)
  • Sefer (prose, 2009)
  • Boli tylko, gdy się śmieję... Letters and Conversations (2018)

Translations of Works

  • Poet? Criminal? Madman? (English translation, 1991)
  • Poèmes (French translation, 1996) - paired volume with Wisława Szymborska
  • Auf den Dächern der Mausoleen (German translation, 1983)
  • Meine Zeit. Mein lieb. Mein leben (German translation, 1990)
  • En misantrops ferie (Danish translation, 1990)
  • La astilla. La naranja de Newton (Spanish translation, 2010)
  • Beste mevrouw Schubert (Dutch translation, 2015)
  • Il lettore di impronte digitali (Italian translation, 2017)
  • The New Century (English, 2009)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Associated with the Polish New Wave: direct, often ironic voiceEveryday imagery and restrained observation
Recurring Motifs
language and its limitspersonal memoryeveryday detailsunmasking propaganda language

Legacy

Ewa Lipska is one of Poland's leading contemporary poets. Her work, which probes language and social issues through personal experience, has been internationally recognized through translations and positions her as a key figure of the Polish New Wave.

Quotes

  • While her verse may have some connections with politics, it always documents concrete personal experiences and unmasks the weaknesses of language.
    Source: Commentary by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute

Trivia

  • Born in Kraków; lives in Vienna and Kraków.
  • Considered part of the Polish New Wave generation of poets.
  • Collections have been translated into English, French, Italian, German and other languages.