Poet and Professor of Philosophy, born in Gołdapia in 1963.
When I think of poetry it is as if I stood face to face with that which is unnamed. For me poetry is an attempt at taming what seems to be ultimate. I try to name it - for myself.
-Marzanna Bogumiła Kielar
The poet, whom one critic has called the "Polish Sappho", entered the literary scene with her tour de force volume Sacra conversazione. This collection of twenty-six poems was published by a small provincial publisher. It was showered with enough rewards to assure its author of a place on the contemporary Polish Parnassus. Her poetry is marked by a distinctly female point of view. In interviews, the poet herself has stressed the differences inherent in the female method of writing. In Kielar's poetry we find an acceptance of existence and a tenderness towards the world, a readiness for a prayerful contemplation of its beauty, admiration of the miracle of dawn and evening, and finally a sweet and attentive love for what is worth loving.
The world of a pleasant garden in summertime is the scenery in which Kielar's poems take place. It would almost be a garden of paradise if not for the fact that the garden contains both love and death. Many of the poems are erotic in tone, yet the death that is present within them evokes neither terror nor discord - it is one more form of initiation and of the sense that fulfills existence. This is poetry of philosophical reflection, of erotic and morbid imagination, invariably marked by respect for what is real and can be described in the language of the five senses. The verse itself is full of suggestive metaphors that recall studied photographs in which everything seems to exist fully and distinctly, endowed with a purifying light, offering peace and calm.
In his review of Umbra, critic Jarosław Klejnocki writes in the Polityka weekly (07/09/2002) that "Kielar's poetry is permeable in its emotional delicacy, introverted and aesthetically refined. It grows out of careful observation of detail, contemplation of nature, and the author's own ability to clearly hear her own sensitivities speaking".
Kielar is a laureate of the Kościelski's Prize (1993), nominated for the Nike Literary Award in 2000. Her poems have been translated into several languages: English, German, French, Italian, Swedish, Russian and Hebrew.
Bibliography:
- Sacra conversazione. Suwałki: Suwalskie Towarzystwo Kultury, 1992
- Materia Prima. Poznań: Obserwator, 1999
- Umbra, Warszawa: Prószyński i s-ka, 2002
- Salt Monody, Brookline, USA: Zephyr Press, 2006
Source: www.polska2000.pl. Copyright: Stowarzyszenie Willa Decjusza.