René Koelblen

Graduate of École centrale de Paris, where he studied applied mathematics. From 1983 to 1985 he taught French at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. Since 1986, he has been active in the IT sector.

Author of some 150 translations of songs by Serge Gainsbourg, Georges Brassens, Elena Kazantseva (into Polish) and Kabaret Starszych Panów (into French). He also translated Jolanta Kurska's interview with Adam Michnik and Bernard Kouchner Conversations in Avignon from French. He has been working with Stanisław Waszak, with whom he hosted song translation workshops at the Institute of Romance Studies of the University of Warsaw.

He also plays in the band Piąty Dzień with Dominika Świątek, Katarzyna Kucharzewska and Stanisław Waszak, performing songs translate by themselves. The year 2022 saw the release of Zniknięcia, their translation of Georges Perec's novel La Disparition, for which they received the Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński Award and a nomination for the Gdynia Literary Award. The release of another of their translations of Perec’s books – Cóż to za motorowerek z chromowaną kierownicą tam w głębi podwórza? – is slated for October 2023.