From ELZBIETA WOJCIK-LEESE, translator, University of Copenhagen, Centre of Internationalisation and Parallel Language Use
As a university lecturer, Fulbright scholar, translator of Polish poetry into English, reader, writer and intellectual, I would like to express my appreciation for the inspiring work of Arc Publications.
Arc's international publication programme has made the work of many authors available to an English speaking audience for the first time. Indeed, their books render poets visible, not only because of the series under the name ‘Visible Poets’, but also because their share in the 3 per cent of the world literature translated into English is invaluable and irreplaceable. Their series of anthologies (to which I have contributed as a translator) take English-speaking readers around Europe and beyond – such a creative exploration is precious not only to those who live in the UK, but also to those (like me) who live outside Great Britain and who are interested not only in big names and big languages, but also in new names and minority languages. It is obvious that nowadays English is a bridge language and a publication in that language means to authors who are on the Arc list (and who hope to be on it in the future) a sometimes once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reach wider audiences , also beyond the borders of their native countries and languages. One such poet is Krystyna Milobedzka, whose first volume appeared in 1960 and who is now 79. She is among the best poets writing in Poland at the moment, and her book in my translation is scheduled for publication in 2012 (after waiting for this chance for quite a while).