Ewa Tomaszewska

Ewa Tomaszewska (born January 4, 1957, Warsaw, Poland; died December 4, 2013, Warsaw), Polish poet, translator, and essayist. She was especially known for promotion of classical-style haiku in her homeland, the landmark publication of her Anthology of Polish Haiku (2021), translations of haiku from English, and her own introspective and often spiritual poetry. She last resided in Warsaw.

Ewa Tomaszewska was a poet, translator, and essayist who amassed an impressive list of achievements over a relatively short lifetime. Her greatest inspirations were Polish romantic poetry and the Catholic faith, but beginning around the turn of the twentieth century her passions turned mainly to haiku.

Tomaszewska was born and reared in Warsaw. She never married and lived a very plain life with her mother, often, as she said, not having enough money for even a tram ticket. A devout Roman Catholic, she maintained cordial relations with the religious in the Dominican Order, which has a large presence in Warsaw, including two churches and a monastery, all a short distance from Tomaszewska’s residence in the Wola district. She often participated in pilgrimages led by the Dominican Father Mariusz Woźniak, especially to the shrines at Jasna Góra. In his online “Epitaph,” a friend shared some observations of Tomaszewska and her pilgrimages by a certain Sister Jasia:

She first appeared on a pilgrimage in 1991, when we were walking from [the Basilica of the Visitation in] Wambierzyce, about 400 people strong. She was 34 years old at the time. She had been with us for 12 years. She last went on our pilgrimage from Warsaw in 2003. She was lonely but she was never alone. She was drawn to people and people were drawn to her, especially the lost and hurting. She took part in bonfires, mysteries of peace, where she presented her poetic works. In a white, impeccable outfit, she ran with others to Jasna Góra [site of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Częstochowa].¹

Further, some of Tomaszewska’s essays and poems, including her 2005 collection of spiritual haiku, Podzielona róża (Divided Rose), were published in the Dominican magazine W drodze (On the Way) and by the press of the Polish Dominican Province.

Ewa Tomaszewska and Haiku

Before she discovered haiku, Ewa Tomaszewska wrote longer poetry. In the period 1988–1990 she published three chapbooks of verse: Woda, życie i owoc (1988; Water, Life, and Fruit); Pocałunek księcia nocy (1988; Kiss of the Prince of Night), which won an award for best debut collection of the year in the Gdańsk Red Rose Competition; and Lato w mieście (1990; Summer in the City). These were followed in 2005 with her full-length collection of spiritual verse, Podzielona róża (2005; The Divided Rose).

Dutch poet and editor Max Verhart quotes Tomaszewska answering the question “What is haiku?” “For me it is a path of three steps. The first step is release from all anxieties, the second is a meditative disillusion, and the third is return to one’s own identity. The aim is to leave behind the emptiness.”²

The work of Ewa Tomaszewska rarely appeared in North American or Western European publications, but from 2002 through 2005 translations of thirteen of her verses were published in the American journal Modern Haiku. These included:

zapada wieczór nietoperz skrzydlem traca kwiaty opuncji	twilight: with its wing a bat touches a cactus flower³
oczekiwanie w kręgu kuchennej lampy tnę awokado	waiting in the circle of the kitchen light I cut an avocado⁴

In its Summer 2004 issue Modern Haiku also published “Wstęga Möbiusa / Möbius Strip,” her haibun in verse with four haiku embedded.⁵ In fact, haibun became a great interest of Tomaszewska’s, and near the end of her life she published a haibun collection, Zwoje podróżne (2012; Travel Scrolls).

In 1993 Tomaszewska published her first book of translations, Antologia kanadyjskiego haiku (Anthology of Canadian Haiku), bringing to the Polish audience the haikai, in English and Polish translation, of twelve top Canadian poets: Eric Amann, Dawnold Brackett, Chuck Brickley, C. Buckaway, Betty Drevniok, George Swede (about half the verses included), Christopher Faiers, Marco Fraticelli, Michael Dudley, C. K. Harris, Marshall Hryciuk, and Mildred Claire Pratt.

Tomaszewska’s major contribution to Polish haiku came next, in 2001. Poet and historian Rafał Zabratyński wrote:

The first national anthology of Polish haiku “Anthologia polskiego haiku” (Anthology of Polish Haiku) appeared at the beginning of this century edited by Ewa Tomaszewska. Ewa writes about the arduous, but beautiful path traversed by contemporary haiku in Poland. Alongside haiku poets, she discusses the stanzas of Tadeusz Ross as well as the entire Silesian poetry school: Felix Szuta, Maria Krystyna, Grażyna Maziuk, Danuta Flauder-Konarska, and Janusz Kamiński-Seredniuk. The book is an invaluable source of information on the history of haiku in Poland, showcasing over 600 haiku and haiku-like poems by nearly 80 Polish authors, spanning the period of 1905 to 2001.⁶

Anthologia polskiego haiku features as an introduction Tomaszewska’s essay “Inspiracje japonskie w kulturze i sztuce europejskiej” (Japanese Influences in European Culture and Art), a landmark in Polish haiku scholarship.

In 2005, together with poet, teacher, and translator Piotr Wiktor Lorkowski, Tomaszewska coedited Gwiazda za gwiazdą: Antologia haiku europejskiego (Star by Star: An Anthology of European Haiku). Max Verhart wrote the introduction, and the book featured the work of sixty poets living in fourteen European countries, from England to Russia. Remarkable was that many of the poets represented were relatively unknown, at least outside their homelands.

Here are samples of Ewa Tomaszewska’s haiku translations from the Canadian and European anthologies:

Distant thunder … overflowing with moonlight the rain-filled pail Betty Drevniok⁷	Daleki grzmot … nadmiar światła księżyca deszcz — napełniony ceber
In one corner of the mental patient’s eye I exist George Swede⁸	W kąnciku oka psychicznie chorego pacjenta istnieję
Nog voor het riet zich weer heeft opgericht buigt het opnieuw Max Verhart (Dutch)⁹	zanim trzcina wzmocni się znów się kłoni	Even before the reed has straightened itself it bends again.

Lokvica krvi Ubijene bombama—djevojčica i njezina lutka. Vladimir Devidé (Croatian)¹⁰	Kałużka krwi— zginęły w nalocie: Dziewczynka i jej lalka.	a small pool of blood— killed in an air-raid: a little girl and her huge blond doll

The year 1990 saw the publication of Chamber Music / Muzyka kameralna, a book of thirty-eight poems of James Joyce’s in Tomaszewska’s translation. A second print and ebook edition came out in 2016.

Rather than translate the haiku of the classical masters directly from the Japanese, Tomaszewska opted to render into Polish the selection in Yuzuru Miura’s Classic Haiku: A Master’s Selection (1991). Her book, titled 100 klasycznych haiku, was published in Kraków in 2010. She also published a book of classical poetry inspired by Chinese ink painting titled Studnia zakryta kamieniem (2000; The Well Covered With Stone).

Tomaszewska’s haiku are often quite personal and introspective. The following examples are all from her first haiku collection, the bilingual (Polish and English) Jeszcze dzień blyszczy / The Day Still Shining: Haiku (2005):

przejście w pamięci skał wrota mchem pokryte droga do siebie	passage of the mind rock gates with moss bedecked the path inside me
widma przeszłości płyną przedwiośnia deszcze rzeka ta sama	phantoms of the past: early spring rains fall the river unchanged

Not surprisingly, she often favored biblical and Christian imagery. These haiku are also from Jeszcze dzień blyszczy:

wigilijna noc w lustrze talerza płomień puste nakrycie	Christmas Eve mirrored in the plate the empty place-setting
przyjście Pana w cichym trzasku opłatka dzielona radość	coming of the Lord: in the quiet crack of the wafer sharing the joy
wkładanie siana pod krochmalony obrus wspomnienie żłóbka	placing the hay straw under the starched tablecloth to remember the manger
ku drzwiom kościola pod wierzbowymi liścmi droga do Emaus	toward the church door beneath the willow leaves the road to Emmaus
znów chryzantemy i tlące się ogniki pamiętam ojcze	chrysanthemums again and dying flames I remember, father
deszczowe dni deszczowe noce ostatni owoc	rainy days rainy nights the last fruit
po dwudziestu latach polerowania lustra pękanie lodu	after twenty years of polishing the mirror the ice breaking

Many of Tomaszewska’s haiku reveal her enjoyment in traveling and participating in group pilgrimages to religious and historical sites in Poland and abroad, such as the Taizé monastic community in Burgundy and ancient destinations in Crete:

na wzgórzu Taize motylek szuka cienia cisza zakwita	on Taize hill the butterfly seeks shade the stillness blooming
nad Agia Triada pachnące dzikie zioła i krzyk pustułki	Hagia Triada: the fragrance of wild herbs and a kestrel’s cry
z wejścia do krypty jaskółka wylatuje ruiny Knossos	A swallow flies out from the entrance to a crypt— ruins of Knossos
puste pitosy i drogi procesyjne kamienny ogród	the empty pithoi and processional paths the stone garden
skały Matali grobowce rzymskie w grotach i woń paczuli	Matala rocks: grottoes with Roman stone graves scent of patchouli
na Spinalondze przejmujący śpiew cykad ucicha nagle	on Spinalonga cicadas’ insistent song suddenly still

Tomaszewska was a member of the Warsaw Chapter of the Polish Writers Association (Stowarzyszenie Pisarzy Polskich, Oddzial Warszawa). Among her other activities besides composition, translation, and publishing, Tomaszewska judged a haiku contest for the popular Polish radio station BIS in 1995. She delivered an address, “Japanese Inspiration in European Culture and Art,” an early version of her introduction to the Polish Haiku Anthology, at the Haiku Seminar in Chojnów , Poland, in October 1998 and In October 2003 she attended the 1st International Haiku Conference, Kraków, where she presented her paper “History of Haiku in Poland” (Historia Haiku w Polsce).

After struggling with cancer for fifteen months, undergoing a regimen of chemotherapy, and under the care of her eighty-one-year-old mother to the end, Ewa Tomaszewska succumbed on December 12, 2013. She was fifty-six years old. A funeral Mass was held in the Church of St. Gregory the Great, and she was interred in the Wola Cemetery, Warsaw.¹ Max Verhart observed “the world of haiku lost an unforgettable poet and a very passionate writer who did a great deal to promote haiku both nationally and internationally.”¹¹

In her keynote address to the 2nd International Haiku Conference in Kraków in 2015, Agnieszka Żuławska-Umeda included a remembrance of her dear friend and colleague. In 2018 the Polish Haiku Association established the Ewa Tomaszewska Poetry Awards for the Best Haiku (Nagroda Poetycka im. Ewy Tomaszewskiej za najlepsze haiku) with separate prizes for haiku in Polish and English.

Sources / Further Reading

Original and edited works

Joyce, James. Muzyka kameralna / Chamber Music. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Miniatura, 2nd ed., 2016. Translations into Polish by Ewa Tomaszewska of 38 poems by James Joyce.
Lorkowski, Piotr Wiktor, and Ewa Tomaszewska, eds. Gwiazda za gwiazdą: Antologia haiku europejskiego. Introduction by Max Verhart. Kraków: Miniatura, 2005.
Tomaszewska, Ewa, trans. Antologia haiku kanadyjskiego (Anthology of Canadian Haiku). Kraków: Wydawnictswo Krytyki Artystycznej Miniatura. 1st edition 1990; 2nd edition, 2003.
Tomaszewska, Ewa, comp. Antologia polskiego haiku (Anthology of Polish Haiku). Warsaw: Nozomi, 2001. Includes “Inspiracje japonskie w kulturze i sztuce europejskiej, wprowadzenie do Polskiej antologii haiku” (Japanese influences in European Culture and Art—Introduction to the Polish Haiku Anthology).
Tomaszewska, Ewa, ed. and trans. Jedwabna Nić: poezja chińska (Silk Thread: Chinese Poetry). Illustrations by Iona Sawicka. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Miniatura, 2012.
Tomaszewska, Ewa. Jeszcze dzień błyszczy / The Day Still Shining. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Miniatura, 2005. Haiku; in Polish and English.
Tomaszewska, Ewa. Lato w mieście (Summer in the City). Kraków: Wydawnictwo Miniatura, 1990.
Tomaszewska, Ewa, ed. Metafora haiku (Haiku Metaphor). Kraków & Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Miniatura, 1994. Special expanded edition of the periodical Metafor.
Tomaszewska, Ewa. Pocałunek księcia nocy (Kiss of the Prince of Night). Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Młodzieżowa Agencja Wydawnicza, 1988. Poetry.
Tomaszewska, Ewa. Podzielona róża (The Divided Rose). Poznań: Wydawnictwo Polskiej Prowincji Dominikanów “W drodze,” 2005. Spiritual poetry.
Tomaszewska, Ewa, trans. 100 klasycznych haiku (100 Classic Haiku). Kraków: Wydawnictwo Miniatura, 2010. Translation of Yuzuru Miura’s Classic Haiku: A Master’s Selection (1991).
Tomaszewska, Ewa. Studnia zakryta kamieniem (A Well Covered with a Stone). Kraków: Wydawnictwo Miniatura, 2000. Poetry inspired by Chinese art.
Tomaszewska, Ewa. Woda, życie i owoc (Water, Life, and Fruit). Warsaw: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1988. Poetry.
Tomaszewska, Ewa. Zwoje podróżne (haibun) (Travel Scrolls (Haibun)). Illustrations by Ilona Sawicka. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Miniatura, 2012.

Work in anthologies

Cobb, David, ed. Euro-haiku: A Bi-lingual Anthology. North Shields, Eng.: Iron Press, 2007. 1 haiku in French and English.
“Ewa Tomaszewska (1957–2013).” Living Legacies. Living Haiku Anthology website: https://livinghaikuanthology.com/index-of-poets/livinglegacies/6391-tomaszewska,-ewa.html. Biographical sketch and 7 haiku from Tomaszewska’s Jeszcze dzień blyszczy / The Day Still Shining.
Rozmus, Lidia, and Charles Trumbull, eds. and trans. Wnosząc światło księżyca: Antologia haiku / Carrying Moonlight: Haiku Anthology. Kraków, Poland: Wydawnictstwo Krytyki Artystucznej Miniatura, 2003. Conference anthology of the Międzynarodowa Konferencja Haiku / International Haiku Conference, October 3–4, 2003, Manggha Center of Japanese Arts and Techniques, Kraków. 9 haiku in Polish and English and biographical sketch.

Books and articles by others

Mesotten, Bart. Duizend kolibries, haikoe van hier en elders. Merendree, Belgium: Drukkerij Sintjoris, 1993. In Flemish.
Swede, George, ed. Canadian Haiku Anthology. Toronto: Three Trees Press, 1979.
Verhart, Max “The Essence of Haiku as Perceived by Dutch and Flemish Haiku Poets,” Haiku in Vadstena: Summary of the International Haiku Conference in Sweden 8–10 June 2007 conference (2007); and Modern Haiku 38:2 (Summer 2007).
Verhart, Max “Ewa Tomaszewska.” Whirligig 5:2 (November 2014), 10 haiku in Polish, English, and Dutch, and a biographical note.
Zabratyński, Rafał. “A Brief History of Polish Haiku.” Shamrock Haiku Journal 9 (2009): https://shamrockhaiku.com/Shamrock9to12.pdf; and World of Haiku, The Haiku Foundation website (2009): https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/2d1f2e211eebc8663224b0edc07f4886.pdf.
Zabratyński, Rafał, Agnieszka Żuławska-Umeda, and Marta Chociłowska. “Focus on Haiku in Poland.” Blithe Spirit 28:1 (February 2018).

Biographical information and reviews

“Ewa Tomaszewska (1957–2013),” Living Haiku Anthology: https://livinghaikuanthology.com/index-of-poets/livinglegacies/6391-tomaszewska,-ewa.html. Biographical sketch, publications list, 7 haiku, and list of sources.
Szpak, A. “Do domu Ojca odeszła śp. Ewa Tomaszewska—Epitafium” (Ewa Tomaszewska Has Passed to the House of Our Father). Do Ziemi Obiecanej website, January 1, 2014: http://www.doziemiobiecanej.pl/notka/632/do-domu-ojca-odeszla-sp-ewa-tomaszewska/. Excerpts translated by C. Trumbull.
“Ewa Tomaszewska—wspomnienie” (Ewa Tomaszewska—A Memory). Do Ziemi Obiecanej website, December 29, 2013: http://www.doziemiobiecanej.pl/notka/632/do-domu-ojca-odeszla-sp-ewa-tomaszewska/
Trumbull, Charles. “Antologia polskiego haiku (Anthology of Polish Haiku) edited by Ewa Tomaszewska” Modern Haiku 33:2 (Summer 2002).
Trumbull, Charles. “Gwiazda za gwiazdą: Antologia haiku europejskiego, edited by Piotr Wiktor Lorkowski and Ewa Tomaszewska”; and “Jeszcze dzień blyszczy / The Day Still Shining” [reviews]. Modern Haiku 37:3 (Autumn 2006).
Verhart, Max. “The Essence of Haiku as Perceived by Western Haijin.” Modern Haiku 38:2 (Summer 2007), 41–61. Available online at http://www.modernhaiku.org/essays/VerhartEssentialHaiku.html.

Compiled by Charles Trumbull

Notes

Szpak. [↩] [↩]
Verhart, in Modern Haiku. [↩]
Modern Haiku 33:3 (Autumn 2002. [↩]
Modern Haiku 36:3 (Autumn 2005). [↩]
Modern Haiku 35:2 (Summer 2004). [↩]
Zabratyński et al., “Focus on Haiku in Poland.” [↩]
English by Betty Drevniok from Swede, ed., Canadian Haiku Anthology; Polish by Ewa Tomaszewska from Antologia haiku kanadyjskiego. [↩]
English by George Swede, originally published in Cicada 2:1 (1978); Polish by Ewa Tomaszewska from Antologia haiku kanadyjskiego. [↩]
Dutch and English by Max Verhart in Vuursteen 8:4 (Winter 1988); Polish by Ewa Tomaszewska from Lorkowski and Tomaszewska, Gwiazda za gwiazdą. [↩]
English version was an Honorable Mention in the 3rd ITO EN Oi Ocha New Haiku Contest (1992); Croatian version from Mesotten, ed., Duizend Kolibries (1993); Polish by Ewa Tomaszewska from Lorkowski and Tomaszewska, Gwiazda za gwiazdą. [↩]
Verhart. [↩]

Updated on November 11, 2025