Philip Boehm
Photo courtesy of Philip Boehm
Bio
To support the translation from the Polish of the creative nonfiction book I'll Be Back before Dark by Jerzy Szperkowicz. In I'll Be Back before Dark, Szperkowicz, a longtime journalist, tells a personal narrative set against a historical backdrop, returning to villages of his childhood—now western Belarus—to discover what happened to his parents in 1943, when the area was still under German occupation. Both parents disappeared, and both were murdered, as it turned out, by neighbors. Details of their murders remained elusive, as Szperkowicz encountered contradictory testimonies, fading recollections, and intentional silence from locals. The poignancy of the account is magnified by his own looming mortality, as he attempts to outrace his recently diagnosed myeloma to finish writing the book, which he included in the narration. He passed away on February 20, 2022, at the age of 89.
By promoting literary translation, the National Endowment for the Arts is not only fostering individual artists, it is also investing in our infrastructure, by helping translators build bridges that cross cultures, and pave roads that lead to new and previously unknown destinations. These fellowships also boost recognition of translation as an art, and thereby serve as a corrective to the history of underappreciation in the United States. And in an era when publishers are responding to new challenges with strategies that reduce rather than expand translated titles, the imprimatur of the NEA can help a given translation find its way into print.
This particular book is a case in point. Whereas I generally cannot embark on a project without a contract from a publisher, this award allows me to take the time to translate a work I consider important but is not necessarily on the radar of literary scouts. The world—or rather worlds—it describes is/are enormously complex, and the layered perspectives it presents offer an antidote to oversimplified readings of history, while also providing a window to view the present tensions around the borderlands of Poland and Belarus.
Finally, I’d like to add a word of gratitude to the staff at the NEA, whose exemplary professionalism is enhanced by a very forthcoming, human touch. Their dedication ensures that the words of the agency’s impact statement are put into very real practice, which in the case of translation reminds us that there is beauty and joy in language, that others have insights worth paying attention to, that in our struggles we are not alone.
About Jerzy Szperkowicz
Born in Wilno (now Vilnius) in 1933 (or 1934), Jerzy Szperkowicz was best known as a journalist for leading Polish newspapers (he was a co-creator of the independent Gazeta Wyborcza). He also published a novel (Island of War) and a collection of feuilletons (Polish Solitaire). With I’ll be Back before Dark, he turned his journalist’s eye on his own past, on the tragedy that shaped his life, and on the collective catastrophe whose effects we are still experiencing, as war again threatens the region. In some ways he was writing this book his entire life: it is certainly his masterpiece.