Zbigniew Machej: Cieszyn, Tranoscius, songs

Born in 1958, a poet, author of children verses, essayist and translator. He comes from Cieszyn, graduated in Polish and religious studies at Jagiellonian University in Cracow. In the 1980s, he cooperated with democratic underground and independent samizdat publishers. After 1989, he has worked as a journalist, cultural manager and diplomat (Polish Institutes in Prague and Bratislava, International Visegrad Fund). Author of 14 collections of poetry for adult readers, e.g. Smakosze, kochankowie i płatni mordercy (1984), Legendy praskiego metra (1996), Wiersze przeciwko opodatkowaniu poezji (2007), Zima w małym mieście na granicy (2008) and, among others, the poetry book for children, Przygody przyrody (2008). He translates poetry from Czech, Slovak and English into Polish (authors include: Jan Skácel, Ivan Blatný, Ivan Štrpka, Thomas Traherne or John Clare). In 2017, he published Pieśni duchowe (“Spiritual Songs”) by Georgius Tranoscius, a 17^th-century Lutheran pastor from Cieszyn serving in Bohemia and Slovakia. In recent years, he has been writing mainly essays.