Expelled from Paradise

translated and edited by Jacek Gutorow

Seven years – that's how long Jacek Gutorow dedicated to translating the poetry of David Jones (1895-1974), Geoffrey Hill (1932-2016), and Charles Tomlinson (1929-2015). The book "Expelled from Paradise," published by the Tymoteusz Karpowicz Foundation, presents a selection of the poetic works of these three important British authors, practically unknown in Poland.

The translator writes: “What connects these poets? It would be easier to point out the differences. And those are significant. Different worldviews, different languages, different ways of perceiving the world, others, and themselves. Different temperaments: from the somewhat depressive and elegiac melancholy of David Jones, through the nostalgic conservatism of Geoffrey Hill, to the sensual vigilance of Charles Tomlinson. Three incomparable aesthetic positions, three distinct visions of the artist's place and role in the contemporary world. (...) Jones, Hill, and Tomlinson constantly (and each in their own way) grapple with the specters of the past that refuse to be forgotten and haunt them in the form of nostalgia, trauma, historical fiction, or mythology. The perpetual interplay of memory and amnesia, the clash of the feeling of the old world's decay with the uncertainty of the future – perhaps it is precisely these kinds of tensions that make the poetic works of the authors presented here so fascinating.”

Jacek Gutorow's meticulous translation work is complemented by his exhaustive critical essays, which introduce the work of each of the Polonized authors. Thanks to this, "Expelled from Paradise" offers an opportunity to engage with canonical British poetry and provides a solid introduction to the works of three extraordinary classic-outsiders.