Dariusz Tomasz Lebioda was born in 1958 in Bydgoszcz. He has been researching Polish literature of XIX and XX century, but before he had worked as a lifeguard, farm-hand, tradesman and gas pressure deliverer. He trained martial arts and was a prisoner of totalitarian system. In 1994 he received Ph. D. in Polish literature at Gdansk (Danzing) University. Lebioda received many Polish literary prizes: Andrzej Bursa’s Award, Stanisław Wyspiański’s Award, Klemens Janicki’s Award and Buno’s Award. He is the most famous poet of the New Generation – authors born beetween 1950 and 1960. He was published almost 40 books – poetry, biographies, historical studies to essays and scientific monograph. 12 out of his publications are poetic volumes. His poems can be found in all the most important Polish anthologies. His works has been translated into many languages – English, German, Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew and many more. He published his poems and articles on poetry in Greece, Arabic countries, Croatia, Switzerland, Lithuania and Japan. His research mostly covers Polish authors but he also devoted some essays and articles to Anglo-American writers – among them Faulkner, Singer, Caldwell, Malamud, Murdoch, Golding.

SKULL OF DESCARTES

here is the skull of a man

cold casket of empty

eyesockets

it outlasted the duration

of the thirty years war

dreamt in it were storms

in the town of ulm

heard in it were the words of god

quid vitae sectobar iter

contained in it was an image

of the one who thought

and a deaf universe

and black grease in the mouth

then it lay under the earth

in an icy tomb

shrouded in satins of darkness

more precious than gold

now it is an exhibit

in a museum of man

anybody can take it into their hands

anybody can weigh it

it doesn’t think so it doesn’t

exist

a man’s skull

an empty cascet

Translated by Adam Szyper