AustLit
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Notes
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Contents indexed selectively.
Contents
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Kto zasłużył na gwiazdkęi"Tylko tego mogą znać",
single work
poetry
humour
(p. 7)
A humorous poem listing the good deeds that are a prerequisite for receiving Christmas presents, for example 'helping Mummy', 'shunning cigarettes' and 'reading the Kurier'. The poem is written in a style that mimics literature for children. The good deeds include ones that adults, rather than children, are meant to perform, such as 'smiling at children'.
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Andrzej Gawroński nie żyje,
single work
obituary
(p. 24-25)
Bogumiła Żongołłowicz gives an account of Polish Australian author Andrzej Gawroński's life. It ranges from his involvement in the Polish resistance to Nazi occupation in World War II, his subsequent arrest by the secret police in Communist Poland after the war, escape from Poland via the Baltic sea, and arrival in Australia in 1951, to his experiences and writings in Australia, including his period as a steelworker and factory worker and later official of the Victorian Road Traffic Authority, his involvement in the Polish Australian cabaret group 'Wesoła Kookaburra', his satirical columns for Polish Australian newspapers such as the Kurier Zachodni, and his years teaching Polish language and culture in Victorian schools and Polish literature at Monash University (1981-1982).
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Testament mój,
single work
poetry
(p. 25)
The poem offers a humorous description of the author's legacy, which will amount to a convivial atmosphere in a pub where his friends and his own future ghost will meet and drink each other under the table. Gawroński declares that he has left no successor to bore others with reading his poetry out loud. The poem ends with a rousing invitation to his friends to join him in heaven and to create a new 'Kookaburra' (i.e. the Polish Australian cabaret group 'Wesoła Kookaburra') there, to spite all the fools in heaven.
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My literary collaboration with Ludwika Amber,
single work
essay
(p. 45)
The essay discusses Richard Reisner's collaboration with Ludwika Amber, providing translations of her poetry in the dual-language (Polish and English) volume Our Territory. Reisner speaks of his aim to maintain a 'certain transparency' and 'simplicity' in his translations of Amber's work.
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Our Territory,
single work
— Review of Our Territory 1997 selected work poetry ;(p. 45)Rodriguez offers a brief, positive review of Ludwika Amber's bilingual volume of poetry Our Territory, commenting on Amber's 'patience of gaze and voice' and the 'elegant plainness' of Richard Reisner's translation.
