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May 2001
Interview with Maciej Zembaty - Jestem Twój (I'm Your Man) by Brett Grainger

Polish musician Maciej Zembaty holds the record for Leonard Cohen covers, translating and recording at least 60 songs over 10 albums, one of which went gold. With a live album release, Zembaty spoke to us from Warsaw about Solidarity, Leonard's Eastern appeal and his own life as a ladies' man.

ELM STREET: How did you first get the idea to record Cohen's songs in Polish?

MACIEJ ZEMBATY: In 1972, I was working for the Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski on a screenplay, and among the records in his apartment, I found Leonard Cohen's first album, Songs. And, you know, I was really shocked. It was like an illumination. And I thought that I should try to give the songs to the Polish people. I started to work on translating them, and it was a very, very difficult task, because Polish and English are absolutely different. So it took nearly six months until I was ready.

ES: It took you six months to translate the first album?

MZ: The first song!

ES: You work almost as slowly as Cohen.

MZ: Yes, Leonard told me that it took him almost as long to write "Suzanne."

ES: So you've met?

MZ: I met him at the airport in Warsaw. After 1981, things changed in Poland, and Leonard Cohen's Polish tour in 1985 was a very important factor. Leonard was the first well-known artist who came to Poland. It helped us very much. We had lunch together, and I asked him to accept an invitation to a party for the Polish democratic opposition. He accepted, and we had a wonderful meeting at the Canadian embassy. [Solidarity movement leader] Lech Walesa himself couldn't come, because the authorities wouldn't let him.

ES: Did he sing any songs in Polish?

MZ: No, he didn't. He was so surprised. The audience knew all his lyrics by heart - in my Polish translation, of course. It was like coming home. And he didn't know he was a poet of Solidarity. You know his song "The Partisan"? It was one of the informal anthems of Solidarity. It was sung in prisons, in detention camps, everywhere. You know, my first album of Leonard Cohen songs was not that easy. I had my own radio program, and I had serious problems with censorship. I still remember, because they didn't like the middle part about Jesus [in "Suzanne"]. They thought it was very dangerous. I had to fight really hard. I told them that if they wouldn't let me do it, I'd stop working for Polish radio. And you know, I won. They let me record it.

ES: What song is most requested by your audiences?

MZ: "Dance Me to the End of Love." You know, the audience is the audience, and that song is definitely Leonard's biggest hit. But people take it very simply. In my opinion, it's a song about death.

ES: Well, that brings up another point. Some people find his music depressing. What do you say to them?

MZ: Yes, but, you know, in eastern Europe we are so depressed, Leonard Cohen doesn't bother us. And you know, he has a great sense of humour. In Warsaw, he sang in the Palace of Culture. It's a Russian skyscraper. It was Joseph Stalin's gift to Warsaw. And Leonard went to the stage and said, "I'm very grateful that the Russians built this building for me. My mother came from Russia, and she always spoke very highly of these people."

ES: Leonard Cohen is well known as a ladies' man. What about you?

MZ: Of course. Otherwise I couldn't translate his songs. But seriously, the translation of somebody's poetry is the art of identification. One must find in his life similar experiences. Otherwise, it's impossible.

Elm Street Magazine, Toronto, Canada (May 2001)

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