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Syndic Literary Journal

Stones from Central Park

Written by Dariusz Lebioda

Translated from the Polish by Stanley H. Barkan & Adam Szyper

Narrated by Bill Wolak

 

i brought a handful of stones from central park 

they lay in america for millions of years 

waiting for my hand 

 

i picked them up from the ground and put them 

into my pocket 

 

they flew with me over 

the atlantic 

 

now they are lying on a shelf 

and will stay there 

 

i touch them 

and think– 

 

how much had happened in my life 

how many times beaten by a club 

spat on and cheated 

trembling and going insane 

i could not touch them 

 

i think about my childhood friends 

and enemies on the same street 

about my passions and the birth of children 

moments of hunger 

and appeasement 

 

stones from central park 

so warm and 

so cold 

 

like people–so alive 

and later so dead 

 

 

Dariusz Tomasz Lebioda is a Polish poet, writer, literature professor, translator, and editor who was born in Bydgoszcz, Poland in 1958. In 1994 he received Ph. D. in Polish literature at Gdansk University and then taught in Kazimierz Wielki University. He was Visiting Professor of The State University of New York at Buffalo – SUNY (2002) and longtime researcher at Polish universities and colleges. He is the author of almost a hundred books of poetry, novels, short stories, diaries, essays, scientific monographs, and translations. He is the leading poet of the New Generations in Poland–poets born between 1950 and 1960. His works has been translated into many languages and he has been a featured poet at many world literary festivals. 
Stanley H. Barkan is a poet, translator, editor, publisher. Since 1971, his Cross-Cultural Communications has published 500 titles in 59 different languages. His latest books include: Pumpernickel, translated into Persian by Sepideh Zamani, As Yet Unborn translated into Dutch by Germain Droogenbroodt, and From Rhythm to Form, with paintings by Marsha Solomon. 
Adam Szyper was born Dec. 6, 1939, in Lodz, Poland. He came to U.S. in 1962. He was a poet and a translator. His books in English include: Did You Hear the President’s Speech Tonight?, 1984; And Suddenly Sp

 

 

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