Tideline

Exquisitely-crafted poems from Poland that explore how stories, and history, lie beneath the surface: of a neighbor’s face, city streets, ancient ruins, even language.

Krystyna Dąbrowska is an award-winning younger Polish poet whose poems convey a profound curiosity about the world, not only expressed by the lyric speaker but by those inside the poems — two owls guarding their nest, or a dog at the beach, or blind visitors in a museum. Her work and use of language so captivated the three translators that they decided to collaborate on this collection together. Many poems address daily life; others delve into the Holocaust, family relationships, and travels — to Cairo, Georgia, Jerusalem. Tideline is her first book in English, presented bilingually with the original Polish.