- Maciej Zembaty
Maciej Zembaty (born
1944 inTarnów ) is a Polish artist, writer, journalist, singer, poet and comic. Despite being considered one of the classics of Polishgrim humour , he is perhaps best known as a translator of songs and poems byLeonard Cohen .Biographical note
Maciej Zembaty was born
May 16 ,1944 inWadowice in southern Poland. He graduated from a musicallyceum (piano class) and attended an artistic lyceum (which he never graduated from). Afterwards he graduated from theWarsaw University 's faculty of Polish language and literature. His thesis was one of the first studies of "grypsera ", a distinctpidgin language used by the criminals and inmates of prisons in Poland.His stage debut was a brief appearance at the
Opole Song Festival in1965 , where he was awarded with a prize for the best featuring song author. In1972 , together withJacek Janczarski , he created the story ofPoszepszyński Family, one of the best-known and longest-running comic series ever aired in thePolish Radio . It has been aired for 25 consecutive years and became one of the icons of the Polish popular culture of the epoch. Zembaty himself also appeared in the series giving his voice to the iconic personality of "Maurycy".Later that year he also received a number of records of
Leonard Cohen , whose songs he started to translate. In several months he created a dozen or so translations, most of which became hits in Poland even before the original songs by Cohen became available and known to wider audience. Since then Zembaty became known primarily as Leonard Cohen's translator. He holds the record for Leonard Cohen covers, translating and recording at least 60 songs over 10 albums. One of the albums (1985 "Alleluja") was sold in over 400,000 copies in Poland and became agolden record . In addition, Zembaty published a number of books with translations of Cohen's poetry, some of them in official printing houses, while other unofficially in thesamizdat . Zembaty's translation of "The Partisan " became one of the informal anthems ofSolidarity during theMartial Law in Poland .Apart from his career as a translator of poems by Cohen, Zembaty continued his career as a journalist, comic and writer. He co-authored the screenplays to a number of films, as well as being the author of many songs. He also translated a number of Russian folk songs, most of them related to
Blat , a Russian version of the Polishgrypsera .Bibliography
# cite book | author = | coauthors =Maciej Zembaty and
Jacek Janczarski | title =Rodzina Poszepszyńskich Story | year =1997 | editor = | pages =192 | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =Da Capo | location =Warsaw | id =ISBN 83-7157-242-5
# cite book | author =Maciej Zembaty | coauthors = | title =Maciej Zembaty | year =2002 | editor = | pages =113 | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =Twój Styl | location =Warsaw | id =ISBN 83-7163-314-9 | url = | format = | accessdate =
# cite book | author =Maciej Zembaty | coauthors = | title =Mój Cohen | year =2003 | editor = | pages =232 | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =MTJ Agencja Artystyczna | location =Warsaw | id =ISBN 83-911888-9-2 | url = | format = | accessdate =
# cite book | author =Maciej Zembaty | coauthors =Edward Stachura ,Vladimir Vysotski | title =Piosenki | year =1992 | editor = | pages =176 | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =Anagram | location =Warsaw | id =ISBN 8386086920 | url = | format = | accessdate =
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