Born in 1958 in Cieszyn, a poet and translator of Czech and American poetry.
He studied religion and Polish philology at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. He has published seven collections of poetry, and is a winner of the Arka prize. He lives in Cieszyn and in Prague, where he works at the Polish Cultural Institute.
One of the "three most important debutants of the 1980s" (according to Marian Stala), he continues to confirm this high status. He made his debut as a fully-fledged poet, for whom the strong influence of surrealism (not French, but Czech) has not blunted a sharp view of the world or the precision of his intellectual approach. Machej is superb at taking advantage of the links between a joke and a metaphor, thanks to which even his most serious poems never fall into a bottomless pit of pathos, and nor do the funniest ones end up as nothing but light entertainment. With the exception of Boguslaw Kierc, no other contemporary Polish poet uses such a variety of metrical patterns with such elegant fluency (as well as, curiously, the short lyric form in prose). Machej is also a poet with lively reactions to current affairs and the events of public life (for example, he might be inspired to write a poem by interviews with Madonna, the murder of Versace, or a film about Basquiat). At the same time his biting irony and independent views often make him enemies (as in the case of his poem about the publishers of Czeslaw Milosz). Eroticism has an important place in his work; he serves it up in Baroque splendour, in all its metaphysical shades, while also making it highly suggestive and at times stunningly bold. Another poem worth mentioning is Notes from under the Tower of Babel, built upon the "linguistic inventions" of the poet's young son, Klaudiusz), and also three new long works, Prolegomena to the history of Polish poetry in the 1990s (the title speaks for itself; the poem involves a revindication of many of the fixed preconceptions about the history of the most recent literature), Four socio-economic litanies dated July 2002 (a nowadays rare example of poetry involving politics), and The Karpowicz Questionnaire (a tribute to one of Poland's greatest poets, which at the same time questions the value system that is de rigueur among Polish critics). Machej's work is so varied that it is hard to sum it up in a few general sentences. This poet does not write "typical" poems, but tries to surprise us in every single one - and as a rule he succeeds.
Bibliography:
- Smakosze, kochankowie i płatni mordercy [Gourmets, lovers and assassins], Warsaw, Czytelnik 1984
- Śpiąca muza [The Sleeping Muse], Krakow, Oficyna Literacka 1988
- Wiersze dla moich przyjaciół [Poems for My Friends], Kraków, Biblioteka Miesiecznika Malopolskiego 1988
- Trzeci brzeg [The Third Shore], Krakow, Oficyna Literacka 1992
- Legendy praskiego metra [Legends of the Prague Metro], Poznan, Obserwator 1996
- Kraina wiecznych zer [The Land of Eternal Zeros], Legnica, Biuro Literackie Port Legnica 2000
- Prolegomena, Legnica, Biuro Literackie Port Legnica 2000
Śpiąca muza and Wiersze dla moich przyjaciół also appeared together as "Dwa zbiory wierszy" ["Two Collections of Poetry"], London, Puls 1990.)
Source: www.polska2000.pl, copyright: Stowarzyszenie Willa Decjusza