Killing Auntie. Andrzej Bursa

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       www.newvesselpress.com

      First published in Polish in 1969

      by Wydawnictwo Literackie Kraków as Zabicie ciotki

      Copyright © 2015 Estate of Andrzej Bursa

      Translation Copyright © 2015 Wiesiek Powaga

      All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in a newspaper, magazine, radio, television, or website review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Bursa, Andrzej

      [Zabicie ciotki. English]

      Killing Auntie / Andrzej Bursa; translation by Wiesiek Powaga.

      p. cm.

      ISBN 978-1-939931-21-4

      Library of Congress Control Number 2014947421

      I. Poland — Fiction.

      Contents

       Chapter 1

       Chapter 2

       Chapter 3

       Chapter 4

       Chapter 5

       Chapter 6

       Chapter 7

       Chapter 8

       Chapter 9

       Chapter 10

       Chapter 11

       Chapter 12

       Chapter 13

      REBEL LIT SERIES

      Rebel Lit is a new series by New Vessel Press showcasing works of literature that display a spirit of rebellion and challenge. More than merely transgressive, some of these manifest heroism and courage, others walk conspicuously on the wild side; all of the books in the Rebel Lit series are creative works of unusual caliber.

      Killing Auntie is the second title in this series. Andrzej Bursa was born in 1932 and died young, at 25, in 1957. Though legend saw fit to attribute his death to suicide, congenital heart disease was what actually brought this startlingly innovative writer to his early end. During his brief lifetime, Bursa wrote poetry and prose in a style that today is instantly recognizable for its bold confrontation with reality through the use of subversion and the absurd. Killing Auntie is just that sort of story. Bursa never expected he’d see it published in his lifetime. The senseless violence, the black humor, the collusion of others (though quite humorously recounted) – all these may be read allegorically, as a commentary on the political situation of 1950s Poland, though what comes first is the literary quality itself. Bursa’s name became a rallying point for young people all over Poland who wished to express themselves freely, innovatively and without political repercussions.

      THANKSGIVING PRAYER (WITH A GRUDGE)

      You didn’t make me blind

      Thank you O Lord

      You didn’t give me a hump

      Thank you O Lord

      You didn’t make my father an alkie

      Thank you O Lord

      You didn’t give me water on the brain

      Thank you O Lord

      You didn’t make me a stutterer a gimp a midget epileptic hermaphrodite a horse moss or something from the flora or fauna

      Thank you O Lord

      But why did you make me a Pole?

      Andrzej Bursa

      translated by Wiesiek Powaga