JOANNA KALINOWSKA

JOANNA KALINOWSKA

ANDROMEDA*

She is a girl

with sunny hair, braided with a comet

and tied with the ribbon of the Milky Way.

she radiates the light of one billion suns

her Perseus with his diamond sword

and shielf of Athens defends her

against the greediness of every day life’s black holes

their love is so beautiful

that the gods give them eternity

turning them both into constellations

lovers are always together in an infinite sky

*

In Greek mythology, Andromeda is the daughter of the Aethiopian king Cepheus and his wife Cassiopeia. When Cassiopeia's hubris leads her to boast that Andromeda is more beautiful than the Nereids, Poseidon sends the sea monster Cetus to ravage Andromeda as divine punishment. Andromeda is stripped and chained naked to a rock as a sacrifice to sate the monster, but is saved from death by Perseus.

OPHELIA*

the darkness of the river speaks and tempts

promising cool relief

the heart craves it

gone mad from pain

who suffers, innocent of his feelings

the sea is too big

the mountains are too high

on the vast plains

I find no place for me that

in those events of the past

I was without sin

this pain as a black veil

it covered my eyes

towards dark water, it pushes me

announcing such a longed-for respite

- "Go to the monastery" -

he said

*Ophelia is a character in William Shakespeare's drama Hamlet. Ofelia is the victim of the events: disappointed by a love for Hamlet who believes not pure, truthful and disinterested and has become mad for the murder of his father by Hamlet himself, he will end his life drowning in a watercourse.

DESDEMONA*

"Cleaner than tears and whiter than snow"

a dove with sweet wings,

innocent of unjust slanders.

In an intricate network of lies

my innocence was entangled.

And he was blind and deaf to the voice of the heart.

On the other side of the river

I can not believe it

that has deprived me of this life

who I loved most.

For my salvation

I have to forgive my killer,

but what will the pain of a disappointed heart calm down?

A crime bigger than murder

there was a sin of forgetfulness jealous for nothing.

I cannot forget injustice,

although I renounce revenge

and I'm asking for salvation for you.

*Desdemona is a character in William Shakespeare's play Othello (c. 1601–1604). Shakespeare's Desdemona is a Venetian beauty who enrages and disappoints her father, a Venetian senator, when she elopes with Othello, a Moorish man several years her senior. When her husband is deployed to Cyprus in the service of the Republic of Venice, Desdemona accompanies him. There, her husband is manipulated by his ensign Iago into believing she is an adulteress, and, in the last act, she is murdered by her estranged spouse.

JOANNA KALINOWSKA

JOANNA KALINOWSKA:, She was born under a wandering star. She, as a child (a daughter of an officer), often moved from one place to another. These constant changes taught her the openness and the willingness to meet new people and places. She spent many years in Poland. Seventeen years ago she moved to Italy. She has always been writing but she publishes now. Her book “Ascoltando Azzurro –Wsłuchana w błękit” was written so that people who speak different languages can express the same feelings. Three volumes of her poetry were edited and her poems were printed in various anthologies and magazines. She writes and publishes in two languages, both Polish and Italian. She loves these two countries. They are her homelands. She arranged “The Amici Italia-Polonia Association”. Its headquarters there is in Taranto — the city where she lives and works. She is a teacher, but she actually works as a translator and an activist of the Polish community. She is a member of the Warsaw Association of Literature’s Translators. Joanna works for the Italian literary-cultural group “La Vallisa”, too. She also cooperates with magazine of this group. She is the initiator and organizer of many cultural and social events.