For this week’s Translation Tuesday, we bring you a nostalgic and impressionistic poem from Polish-Norwegian poet ariel rosé, translated from the Polish by Frank L. Vigoda. In “My Shadow Will Comfort You,” the speaker reaches across time to address a loved one, now lost to the past. Wandering through the valley of memory, they search for a connection that once defined their world. The ever-present fog impedes their vision, solidifying the elusiveness of what has slipped away. This lost bond transcends the individual, rooted in shared family history, language, and identity—a private world of meaning that bridged two souls. But the speaker remains suspended between past and present, longing to inhabit both at once, looking for a space between remembrance and the irrevocable passage of time.
After Beckett
You see, I’m a dream
collector, you’re a water
carrier and the fog is dense
in the valley I hear someone
knocking
knock
knock
no
it is just a memory
I want to be in many nows at once
I heard the unspoken words
I looked for the dear face
in the valley where we were
once so long alone together
in the fog I heard your
steps retracing the past
we spoke our mother tongues
—so amazing
and frightening
in a dense fog our
grandfathers met.
Translated from the Polish by Frank L. Vigoda
ariel rosé is a Polish-Norwegian transgender poet, essayist, and illustrator of the books morze nocą jest mięśniem serca (the sea at night is a muscle of the heart, PIW, 2022) nominated for the Orfeusz Award, and Północ Przypowieści (North: Parables, Znak, 2019), which was nominated for the Polish-German Josepha Award (both published under the name Alicja Rosé). ariel received the Warsaw Literary Award and was named to the IBBY Honor List for their illustrations for Magdalena Tulli’s book Ten i Tamten Las (This and The Other Forest) (Oficyna Wydawnicza Wilk & Król, 2017). As a resident of Norway, ariel was invited to attend the Norway Guest of Honor program of the Warsaw Book Fair in 2022. They are a member of Literary Union and Literary Translators Association in Poland, PEN Berlin in Germany, Litteratur på Blå in Oslo, Norway and Circolo Scandinavo in Rome, Italy. Twice a year, they invite poets from underrepresented countries to Oslo, they lead the conversation and translate the poems to Norwegian together with Aina Villanger. In 2023, ariel collaboratively launched Both Sides of the Border Face East, an international arts initiative focused on Eastern/Central Europe. The project is under the patronage of Marci Shore and supported by the Fondation Jan Michalski and the Renaissance Institute. Its inaugural iteration was dedicated to the war in Ukraine. ariel has two forthcoming books of essays: Ukraine–A Polyphony, and Ways of Swimming. rosé is also the co-editor for Both Sides Face East/Durable Words (Academic Studies Press, 2025).
Frank L. Vigoda is the pen name for the translation partnership of Ann Frenkel and Gwido Zlatkes. Ann Frenkel and Gwido Zlatkes’s translations from the Polish include the autobiography Riding History to Death by Karol Modzelewski, Against the Devil in History: Poems, Short Stories, Essays, Fragments by Aleksander Wat, and Apotheosis of Music, the first English translation of poems by Wirpsza, which were published in April 2025.
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