I d been waiting years
Until the Prophet came
He held forth all night
Smoked all my cigarettes
I didn t understand a thing
(from Prophet ) I began to consider the ways of disposing of the corpse. It seemed child s play. I ll chop the body up, flush some parts down the loo, burn some, take others away in parcels and throw them in the river or bury them. Bury where? Ah, it s a trifle . . . I felt light-headed and carefree. I decided to carry out the plan without further ado. I went into the kitchen with an open penknife.
(from Killing Auntie )
We kill auntie who is kind, who looks after us to free ourselves. But how do we dispose of the body? And then, after the blunt saw and the mincer and the choking stove, what to do with the freedom?
Translated from the Polish and introduced by Wiesiek Powaga, this volume includes, in addition to the first English translation of the short novel Killing Auntie, poems, parables, short stories, lyrics and dramatic scenarios, showing the full range of Bursa s work.
About the Author
Andrzej Bursa was born in Krakow, Poland, in 1932, grew up amid war and terror, and died aged twenty-five. He first published in 1954, the year following Stalin s death, and in the span of just two years he wrote a body of work remarkable for both its fierce originality and its precocious maturity. His early death established him as a cult figure the voice of his generation, and of later generations of restless, ambitious, disenchanted youth.
Wiesiek Powaga s translations from the Polish include White Raven by Andrzej Stasiuk (Serpent s Tail, 2001) and In Sarah s House by Stefan Grabinski (CBe, 2007); he edited and translated The Dedalus Book of Polish Fantasy (Dedalus, 1997). He lives in London and a village in Hungary
