Milosz Escuela Polaca PDF
Milosz Escuela Polaca PDF
Milosz Escuela Polaca PDF
Zdzisaw apiski
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Clare Cavanagh
The Limits of Lyric: Western Theory and Postwar Polish Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Arent van Nieukerken
Czesaw Miosz and the Tradition of European Romanticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Jan Boski
Stubborn Persistence of Baroque. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Ryszard Nycz
Four Poetics: Miosz and Literary Movements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
Marek Zaleski
Instead. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Jacek ukasiewicz
Poet on Poets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Bogdana Carpenter
Ethical and Metaphysical Testimony in the Poetry of Zbigniew Herbert .
and Czesaw Miosz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Anna Nasiowska
Female Identity in the 20th Century Polish Poetry: Between Androgyny .
and Essentialism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Marek Zaleski
Biaoszewski: Idyllic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Cezary Zalewski
The One Moment. Photographing in Polish Poetry of the Twentieth Century. . . . . 138
Tomasz ysak
Miron Biaoszewski as Interpreted by Czesaw Miosz Four Translations. . . . . . . . 149
Janusz Sawiski
Unassigned (XV). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Jerzy Kandziora
That which is slipping away On Exposing the Idiom in Stanisaw Baraczaks .
Surgical Precision. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Magorzata Czermiska
Ekphrases in the Poetry of Wisawa Szymborska . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Hanna Marciniak
Our monuments are ambiguous. On Rewiczs Epitaphs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Introduction
That Czesaw Miosz was apoet is awell known fact. But throughout his whole life
he also remained aman of letters who practiced multiple forms of writing: novels, essays,
reviews, press articles, amongst others. Already in the early thirties, his first steps in poetry
were accompanied by editorial activities performed as aco-founder of the agary literary group and contributor to its periodicals. Kultura was the most prominent magazine
Miosz wrote for beginning in 1951. It was aPolish monthly published abroad, acentre of
independent thought, and astrong influence on the intellectuals of Poland and several states
of the Soviet camp before the system change in Central Europe. Until the very end, Miosz
continued torespond toevents through his writing. He published much, in literary journals
and daily papers.
In his literary journalism, he aimed to set a new direction for the poetry of his day.
Naturally, the tone and content of his utterance could not have remained unaltered over
eight decades of his attempts: from youthful appeals toagitational poems and brutal stylistics
of the manifestos in the 30s, through the mild reproof directed in the 80s at the young poets
who, in their struggle against the falling Communist regime, forgot about the independent
rules of art, todidactic examples of haiku and other forms of objectivist poetry offered
tothe succeeding generations of writers (and their readers) in the 90s. As it is often the case
of poets writing prose about poetry, Mioszs assessments and directions for his fellows derived
from the dilemmas, explorations and decisions that paved the way for the developments in
his own writing.
While his journalistic activities directed at the Polish audiences were meant toinfluence
the course of Polish literature, Miosz had adifferent goal when he addressed the English
reader, whom he wanted topresent with what he believed tobe most valuable in the work
of contemporary Polish poets and most distinctively Polish. On afew occasions he spoke of
Polish school of poetry, by which he meant amodel of poetics as well as acertain type of
sensitivity and attitude tothe world expressed through it the reference field of Mioszs
term is most clearly delineated in his Harvard lectures (Czesaw Miosz, The Witness of
Poetry, Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press, 1983). He believed that
the importance of Polish poetry laid in the fact that our writers drew conclusions from the
experience of WWII and the post-war years: In it [Polish poetry] apeculiar fusion of the
individual and historical took place, which means that events burdening awhole community
are perceived by apoet as touching him in amost personal manner. Then poetry is no longer
alienated (94-95). He concludes: The poetic act changes with the amount of background
reality embraced by the poets consciousness. In our century that background is, in my opinion,
related tothe fragility of those things we call civilization or culture. What surrounds us, here
and now, is not guaranteed. It could just as well not exist and so man constructs poetry out
of the remnants found in ruins (97).
Miosz himself is amajor figure among the poets of the Polish school and afew years
ago, beginning with the poets scattered remarks on the subject, Dutch Slavicist, Arent van
Nieukerken, put forth aremarkably astute outline of ahistorical literary synthesis of this
particular development in the Polish poetry (Ironiczny konceptyzm. Nowoczesna polska
poezja metafizyczna wkontekcie anglosaskiego modernizmu, Krakw: "Universitas",
1998). Van Nieukerken presents the history of the movement on the example of its several
prominent representatives, from the 19th century precursor of the school, Cyprian Norwid
(1821 1983) toStanisaw Baraczak (b. 1946). Van Nieukerken calls them ironic moralizers, aterm borrowed from Baraczak, and believes the Polish school tobe adistinctive
modification of modernism, parallel toits Western counterpart.
The present volume offers aselection of articles published in Teksty Drugie and concerning Miosz, as well as those 20th century Polish poets that he focused on in his commentaries
and translations. One should bear in mind that although presented texts were published
between 2001-2007, they describe much older literary phenomena. Today, the Polish school
of poetry, as Miosz saw it, is ahistorical term and the authors that he translated and commented on, such as Stanisaw Baraczak, Miron Biaoszewski, Zbigniew Herbert, Wisawa
Szymborska, Anna wirszczyska (Anna Swir), Tadeusz Rewicz or Aleksander Wat are
part of the Polish canon.
The 20th century was one of the darker periods in the history of Europe, especially in
those of its parts that Timothy D. Snyder referred toas the bloodlands. At the same time,
it was, in its own way, agood period for those poets who managed tofulfill their public mission without sacrificing the requirements formulated for art by the European modernism.
The thematic range and the wealth of expression encountered by Miosz scholars in his
work is intimidating, and perhaps this is why the title of Jan Boskis book Miosz jak wiat
[Miosz as the World] (Krakw: Znak, 1998) often resurfaces in their analyses. At the same
time, despite its extravagant richness, Mioszs oeuvre is very distinctive. Ryszard Nycz,
editor in chief of Teksty Drugie and one of the leading Polish literary theorists, believes that
acontinuous quest beyond the [available] word determines the general direction and the
dominant idea of Mioszs work. In his essay, however, Nycz focuses on something else on
the transformations of Mioszs poetry. He distinguishes four phases of its development: poetic
of visionary commonality (an attempt atrevealing the muted or marginalised aspects
of everyday life and existential experience); poetic of public discourse (which crosses the
boundaries of the traditional lyrical language, opening its domain toall types and genres
of modern writingand tothe entire cultural universe of discourse); poetic of parabolic
autobiography (that Miosz discovered in his private experience of the past, open tothe
future by its very (human) nature, areality whose permanence, order and meaning lie in
aconstant process or representing, telling and interpreting.); and finally, poetic of inhuman
indication. Mioszs last poetic is aradical departure in his work, undermining the very
foundations of the Polish school. Because, as Nycz believes, toindicate the existence of
the inhuman is toindicate aworld which cannot be framed by human categories, aworld
that is without apast and future and can do without the human experience of time which
cannot be represented, told or interpreted.
Arent van Nieukerken does not attempt tocapture the full range of Mioszs poetry but
discusses one of its major motifs: the striving toovercome empirical time and topresent in
asingle synthetic attempt several different chronological moments, believed togive asense of
the divine perspective on human reality, as at the end of the road that has been designated by
Mioszs poetics of epiphany stands atheological postulate. Nieukerken traces the evolution
of Mioszs existential autobiography (that he defines differently than Nycz) and places
it against the comparative background of the work by, among others, William Wordsworth,
a representative of the Romantic movement who proposed an integral interpretation of
mans being-in-the-world by creating an existential autobiography that went far beyond the
somnambulist, lunar aspects of existence.
The Romantic tradition has remained the tradition of Polish poetry from the early decades
of the 19th century tothe present day and the reason for it is simple: it was also the period
when our most prominent literary masterpieces were composed. One can reject Romantic
ideology, as several generations of thinkers, politicians, and men of letters did and continue
todo, but todismiss the work of Malczewski, Mickiewicz, Sowacki, and Norwid amounts
toas much as dismissing the role of Shakespeare, Milton, and Wordsworth in English literature would. This, however, is not the case of the Baroque, an epoch shaping the material
culture and the mentality of Poles before Romanticism. Jan Boski (1931-2009), one of
the most renowned participants of Polish intellectual life and an astute commentator of 20th
century literature, believes that the presence of the Baroque in Poland is so obviousthat
it is almost invisible. In The Stubborn Persistence of the Baroque, Boski sketches this
presence with afew light strokes and concludes:
The baroque in Poland was strongly influenced by the Counter-Reformation (or Catholic
Reformation, especially in its Jesuit form). It retained, especially at the very beginning, close
connections toRome: the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Cracow was built only afew
years after the Church of the Ges in Rome. It was this cultural proximity that sensitized
apiski Introduction
it tothe growing complication of forms inherited from the Renaissance and embedded in
the memory and imagination of artists and poets. But Polish baroque also relied on the not
so distant medieval tradition, as well as the local ones, especially in eastern Poland where
it slowly acquired its increasingly Sarmatian features.
The concept of aPolish school of poetry was embraced by American Slavicist, Clare Cavanagh,
the author of Lyric Poetry and Modern Politics: Russia, Poland, and the West (New
Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2009), inspired by Mioszs ideas. In The Limits
of Lyric: Western Theory and Postwar Polish Practice Cavanagh returns tothe kernel of
his thought: the complex relation of poetry and history. With the example of several poets
(Milosz, Herbert, Szymborska, and Zagajewski) she reveals how those authors, heavily
influenced by ahistory of oppression and the experience of mega-history promoted by the
power apparatus, managed nonetheless todevelop adisillusioned but non-nihilistic attitude
toart as ahistorical phenomenon. The heaviness of reality is always present in their poems
but at the same time there is also awill toovercome it: All efforts tostep outside time, the
lyric reminds us, are doomed tofail in advance, which is why the lyric poet must struggle time
and again toachieve the revenge of amortal hand [Szymborska], the temporary reprieve
from mortality that is all we can hope for at best.
Among the most important characteristics of the Polish school is the imperative togive
testimony which refers primarily tothe communal fate and express the sense of being rooted
in history. Miosz believed Zbigniew Herbert togive the fullest expression tothis postulate.
Contrasting both poets, Bogdana Carpenter points tothe creative differences in their work,
both in their understanding of the idea of testimony and its poetic incarnations (Ethical
and metaphysical testimony in the poetry of Zbigniew Herbert and Czesaw Miosz.) Most
importantly, she emphasises, Herbert never moves away from his postulates while Miosz
breaks the paradigm that he co-created in the 40s, demarcating, not for the first time, new
tracks and grounds for the Polish poetry. The interest in metaphysical poetry noticeable in the
last few years among young poets and critics is aproof that the author of Theological Treatise
remains afaithful and an unmatched witness not only tohis own time.
Among the eminent poets of the second half of the 20th century there were several who
rivalled Miosz, each of them adopting adifferent attitude tothe world and formulating
aseparate poetic. Some of them followed the example Miosz set through his own work (for instance, Zbigniew Herbert), others consciously reached for different means (Tadeusz Rewicz).
There were also those who wrote as if the Miosz phenomenon was non-existent, even
though both their readers and authors themselves could not have possibly ignore the shadow
cast by Miosz on the entirety of Polish poetry (such as in the case of Miosz Biaoszewski).
Biaoszewski deserves closer attention as he inhabits very distant peripheries of the Polish
school. He differed from Miosz in all aspects, from the choice themes tothe formal side of his
work. They had adifferent attitude tolanguage as well. Miosz attempted totouch directly
Those three characteristics of the baroque in Poland continue toreturn today, subversively
echoed and in a distorted manner: Gombrowicz winks at the reader, pretending to be
aSarmatian, Mioszs work reaches back toits religious heritage, while other writers and
poets reestablish their connection tothe baroque through affinity for conceit and linguistic
sophistication.
10
apiski Introduction
both in Poland and abroad, is one of his great achievements. wirszczyska strongly emphasised her womanhood (or, perhaps, even her baba-hood). In one of her essays, Anna
Nasiowska offered atypology of women appearing in Mioszs work. The present volume
includes another essay by Nasiowska, one devoted tothe worldview and poetic of selected
20th century female poets. Nasikowska places them between two poles: that of androgyny
seen as an idea of identity in which the speaker of the poem neutralizes the compulsion
todefine themselves in each situation with regards togender that is present in normal social
life. The other pole posits womanhood as astrong, basic and irreducible part of identity.
Nasiowska concludes:
Those two patterns of identity do not exhaust the issue of poetic creations concerning
womanhood, they only outline one of the tension lines. The difficulty in capturing phenomena has several causes. The feminist revolution took place in the Polish poetry without
the feminist debate; todays categories do not fully correspond tothe historical situation.
Sometimes one cannot even describe the internal convictions contained in the text with the
categories proposed by the Western feminism which continues toemphasize the constraint
(and oppressiveness) of heterosexuality whereas Polish poets willingly mythologize the
heterosexual act of sex seeing in the process the value of rebellion, of crossing the cultural
norm that in fact imposes silence.
Her last sentence refers tothe state of Polish poetry in the 1960s. Androgyny was at an earlier
stage of its development but its elements survived, and sometimes finds an original expression,
for instance, in the poetry of Wisawa Szymborska, Nasikowska notes.
Szymborskas poetry is discussed in Magorzata Czermiskas Ekphrases in the poetry
of Wisawa Szymborska. Czermiska is the author of amonumental work on the literary
motif of the cathedral (Gotyk ipisarze. Topika opisu katedry, Gdask : Sowo/obraz
terytoria, 2005). Her essay presented in this volume focuses on ekphrasis in Szymborskas
work and concludes:
11
The descriptive element in ekphrases is always dependent on the interpretative idea which
allows us tosay something interesting about the problems which interest the poet also in
her other works, thematically unrelated tothe aesthetic qualities of any painting. These
problems are mainly time, the creative power of an artist, human cruelty throughout history and different ways of understanding femininity. Ultimately, these ekphrases say more
about the imagination of the poet than about the works of art they depict. However, they
say it differently than in poems where the space between the poet and her readers is not
occupied by any painting, sculpture of photograph serving as an intermediary.
12
apiski Introduction
previously dispersed sense of alienation from the political system imposed after WWII, the
latter either reaches for the historico-philosophical stereotypes of the Polish Romanticism,
or in form of commemorative poetry documents events from the perspective of democratic
activists, usually interned at that time. Sawiskis concise remarks provide abackground
for abetter understanding of the fragile balance achieved by the prominent poets discussed
earlier in the volume, balance between social activism and the innate rules of art. They may
also serve as an epitaph for the Polish school of poetry.
Zdzisaw apiski
13
14
Clare CAVANAGH
The Limits of Lyric: Western Theory .
and Postwar Polish Practice
Ihave felt that the problem of my time
should be defined as Poetry and History.
Czeslaw Milosz,
APoet Between East and West (1977)
15
Poetry and history, poetry and society, poetry and politics: according tomany
recent Anglo-American critics, these phrases pair virtual antonyms. In the ideological criticism that has dominated the American academy in recent years, the lyric
has come toserve as aconvenient stand-in for aesthetic isolationism generally,
that is, for arts apparent refusal of life actually conducted in actual society, which
in fact amounts toacomplicity with class-interested strategies of smoothing over
historical conflict and contradictions with claims of natural and innate organization
(Lentricchia 94-5; Wolfson 191-2). With the advent of Romanticism, Terry Eagleton
explains, all art was ostensibly rescued from the material practices, social relations
and ideological meanings in which it is always caught up, and raised tothe status
of asolitary fetish (21). And Romanticisms favored form, the lyric, is invariably
the worst offender in such asocially irresponsible sleight-of-hand.1
16
For recent accounts of the lyric under siege, see inter alia: Paul Breslin, Shabine
among the Fishmongers: Derek Walcott and the Suspicion of Essences (unpublished
essay); Mark Edmundson, Literature against Philosophy, Plato toDerrida: ADefense of
Poetry (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995); Eileen Gregory,
H. D. and Hellenism: Classical Lines (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997),
esp. 129-139; Mark Jeffreys, Ideologies of Lyric: AProblem of Genre
in Contemporary Anglophone Poetics, PMLA, vol. 110, no. 2 (March, 1995),
196-205; Susan J. Wolfson, Romantic Ideology and the Values of Aesthetic Form,
in Aesthetics and Ideology, ed. George Levine (New Brunswick: Rutgers University
Press, 1994), 188-218; Sarah Zimmerman, Romanticism, Lyricism and History (Albany:
State University of New York Press, 1999).
Gary Saul Morson and Caryl Emerson, Mikhail Bakhtin: Creation of aProsaics
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990), 322-323. Mikhail Bakhtin, Discourse
in the Novel, in Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination, ed. Michael Holquist, tr. Caryl
Emerson and Mikhail Holquist (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981), 287,
296-298.
17
he writes in his poem Dark Light (11).4 But why should the lyric poets who, according tocurrent doctrine, complacently uphold the bourgeois status quo prove
tobe so troublesome toleft-wing dictators? How do the self-absorbed reactionaries
of recent theory become Eastern Europes subversives?
In Central and Eastern Europe, Czeslaw Miosz observes, the word poet
has asomewhat different meaning from what it has in the West. There apoet does
not merely arrange words in beautiful order. Tradition demands that he be abard,
that his songs linger on many lips, that he speak in his poems of subjects of interest
toall the citizens (175).5 In Poland and Russia alike, poets have been called upon
for nearly two centuries toserve as their nations second government, in Solzhenitsyns phrase. The heavy load of social and civic responsibility that Polands writers
were expected toshoulder was, if anything, still greater than that of their Russian
counterparts. The partitions that erased their nation from the map of Europe in the
late eighteenth century meant that Polands great Romantics Mickiewicz, Norwid,
Slowacki and their literary offspring felt compelled toreplace their vanished state
itself through their own poetry and prose. And, as Miloszs remarks suggest, both
the poets and their oppressed compatriots took such obligations very seriously.
The political aspirations of Englands and Americas romantics remained unrealized: hence Shelleys famous unacknowledged legislators, who stand unfailingly
on the side of great and free developments of the national will, but are spurned
by the very nations whose interests they seek toserve. Perhaps for this reason the
Anglo-American critical tradition has tended tohighlight lyric poetrys impracticable utopianism over its complex engagement with human history and society. It
is not just the ideological critics who see the lyric chiefly as the creation of literary
isolationists in search of an aesthetic Shangri-La that lies beyond the reach of human
history. This tradition has afar deeper pedigree. The Anglo-American New Critics
famously placed aframe around the lyrics iconic text with their well-wrought urns
and verbal icons, as they sought tomove it beyond the reach of erring adherents
to various biographical heresies and intentional fallacies. And indeed each lyric
poem appears tocome complete with its own built-in margin of safety in the shape
of the white page that seemingly serves topreserve it against unwanted incursions
from the outside world. Of all literary genres, the lyric poem would seem tocome
closest tothe ideally self-enclosed objets dart, be they Grecian urns or calligrammes,
that modern poets from Keats toYeats, from Baudelaire toApollinaire, have been
celebrated in their verse.
This is precisely the vision of lyric poetry espoused in Sharon Camerons influential Lyric Time (1979), togive just one example. In lyric poetry, Cameron explains, experience is arrested, framed, and taken out of the flux of history: [Lyric
poems] insist that meaning depends upon the severing of incident from context,
18
Sharon Cameron, Lyric Time: Dickinson and the Limits of Genre (Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1979), 71.
Hans Robert Jauss, Literary History as aChallenge toLiterary Theory, in Jauss,
Toward an Aesthetic of Reception, tr.Timothy Bahti (Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 1982), 44.
Idontwish toidealize the lot of acknowledged legislators. Szymborska, Herbert,
Zagajewski, Baranczak: all have followed Miloszs lead in their attempts torevise or
even reject outright the politically engaged stance that the Polish tradition demands
from its national bards, astance that often operates at cross-purposes, so these poets
have argued, with the very lyricism that animates their verse.
10
11
Adam Zagajewski, Mysticism for Beginners, tr. Clare Cavanagh (New York: Farrar
Straus Giroux, 1997), 38. Wislawa Szymborska, Poems New and Collected 1957-1997,
tr. Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1998), 128.
Mikhail Bakhtin, 320.
Emily Dickinson, Final Harvest, ed. Thomas Johnson (Boston: Little, Brown, 1961),
55, 103. Stanislaw Baranczak, Wybor wierszy iprzekladow (Warsaw: Panstwowy Instytut
Wydawniczy, 1997), 69. Mill is quoted in Christopher Benfey, Emily Dickinson and
the Problem of Others (Amherst: Univ. of Massachusetts Press, 1984), 53. Mandelstam,
Sobranie sochinenii, v. 1, 196-197. T. S. Eliot, The Three Voices of Poetry, On Poetry
and Poets (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1961), 96. Szymborska, Poems New and
Collected, 205.
19
The Soul selects her own Society-/ Then shuts the Door: in their study of
Mikhail Bakhtin, Gary Saul Morson and Caryl Emerson take Dickinsons defense
of lyric privacy tospeak for the innately solipsistic nature of the genre generally.
But the picture looks rather different in Eastern Europe. The subversive potentials
of lyric poetry are perhaps clearest in asociety committed tothe eradication of the
individual both in theory and, not infrequently, in practice. What Mandelstam calls
the accidental, personal voice of lyric poetry acquires asingular power under such
circumstances (Bakhtin 320).10
Indeed, one of Dickinsons greatest Polish admirers, Stanislaw Baranczak, hints
at the threat that the lyric poses in atotalitarian state in his poem Fill Out Legibly,
which suggests how Eastern Europes purveyors of Orwellian Newspeak might have
perceived Dickinsons letter tothe World/That never wrote toMe. Does he write
letters tohimself? (yes, no), the unnamed framers of an ominous questionnaire
demand and its all too clear what the right answer should be (Baranczak 69).
Poetry is not heard, but overheard, John Stuart Mill remarks in one well-known
definition of the lyrics audience (qtd. in Benfey 53). But lyric eavesdropping takes
on new meaning in cultures where the walls have not just ears, but microphones:
in Moscows evil living space, the walls are damn thin, Mandelstam complains,
just in case state-monitored poets should take anotion todeviate from their assigned
task of teaching the hangmen towarble (196-7). In the lyric, T. S. Eliot insists, the
poet speaks tohimself or tonobody (96). But just such soliloquys come under
scrutiny in Wislawa Szymborskas Writing aResume: Write as if youd never
talked toyourself/and always kept yourself at arms length, the solicitous speaker
advises (205).11
Even the seemingly harmless confession that William Carlos Williams tapes
tohis refrigerator in This is Just toSay Ihave eaten/ the plums/ that were in
the icebox// and which / you were probably saving for breakfast could be given
20
The accidental and personal take on unexpected weight in astate designed toeliminate any accident or personality that might impede historys unencumbered progress
towards aradiant collective future. It is not surprising that Mandelstam should add
afinal, foreboding adjective tohis thumbnail definition of the lyric. Poetry in the
modern age is not just accidental and personal, he warns; it is also catastrophic.
Certainly Polish poets have met with more than their share of catastrophes in the
century just past. War, invasion, disease, privation, censorship, persecution, Nazi
atrocities, totalitarian terror: this litany of horrors took its toll upon writer after
writer (tosay nothing of the legions of more prosaic victims for whom these poets
struggled tospeak). Notions of the poem as awell-wrought urn, as an impermeable
verbal icon, could hardly withstand the battering towhich modern history submitted
12
William Carlos Williams, Selected Poems (New York: New Directions, 1968), 55.
Baranczak, Wybor wierszy, 212-213.
The jar, an emblem of artistic form, [takes] dominion everywhere, Stevens writes.
But similar objects suffer avery different fate in Miloszs exquisite Song on Porcelain (1947), as translated by the author and Robert Pinsky:
Rose-colored cup and saucer,
Flowery demitasses:
You lie beside the river
Where an armored column passes.
Winds from across the meadow
Sprinkle the banks with down;
Atorn apple trees show
Falls on the muddy path;
The ground everywhere is strewn
With bits of brittle froth
Of all things broken and lost
Porcelain troubles me most.
21
Stevens jar subdues the surrounding wilderness only after it is exempted from more
mundane, utilitarian purposes. By setting the jar on his mythical Tennessee hilltop,
Stevens strategically removes it from the less exotic contexts in which we typically
encounter such objects, on kitchen counters or grocery store shelves. But Miloszs
shattered crockery operates differently. It is moving precisely because it mediates
between daily existence and the realm of art, as it demonstrates how easily both
worlds fall prey tothe forces of history: You lie beside the river/ Where an armored
column passes. The broken cups exemplify both the fragile forms of avanished
quotidian and the no less fragile human beings that once inhabited it: Spattered
in dirty waves/ Flecking the fresh black loam/ In the mounds of these new graves.
But they also embody the precious dreams of master craftsmen (sny majstrow
drogocenne), as the frozen swan from Mallarmes famous sonnet Le vierge, le
vivace et le bel aujourdhui abandons the realm of pure art in order toadorn the
rims of now-shattered saucers. (In the Polish text, the craftsmens dreams take the
shape of the feathers of frozen swans (pira zamarych abdzi) that presumably
adorn the porcelain). The English translation makes the originals hints of avanished pastoral more explicit by adding rosesmowers raking,/ And shepherds on
the lawn tothe poems litany of lost objects. It might almost be arebuke toKeats
unravished bride of quietness, whose pastoral scenes are preserved in perpetuity
from the ravages of mere mortality.13
Like Rembrandt, martyr of chiaroscuro,/ Ive entered into numbing time
(Mandelstam 249). So runs the opening of one of Mandelstams cryptic late lyrics,
which date from his years in internal exile in Voronezh, not long before his final arrest
and death in aStalinist camp. In Mandelstams elliptical apostrophe tothe Dutch
painter, is noble brother and master, father of the black-green dark becomes an
unexpected fellow sufferer, subject, like the Russian poet himself, tothe onslaughts
of numbing history. Mandelstam anticipates ways in which the poets of post-war
Poland conceive of visual artworks and by extension, the verbal icons of their
own verses in their writing. Neither paintings nor poems, they imply, are immune
tothe forces of history. Far from seeking solace in some airtight aesthetic refuge
from reality, the poet looks rather tonegotiate the shifting, permeable boundaries
that divide the work of art from the larger world that both informs and, all too of
22
13
Wallace Stevens, Collected Poems (New York: Vintage, 1982), 76. Piosenka
oporcelanie, in Milosz, Poezje wybrane: Selected Poems (Krakow: Wydawnictwo
literackie, 1996), 100-103. Stephane Mallarme, Collected Poems, tr. Henry Weinfeld
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994).
Only atraveler from Eastern, so-called Central Europe, where concealment was
until recently an unavoidable way of life, would be so quick toregister the implications of this wide-open Dutch domestic space, where in art, as in reality, apartments
are put on display, illuminated in such away that every passerby can check whats
going on inside. And perhaps only such an observer, privy tothe darkest spots in
Europes recent past, would be so attentive toall that this luminous art omits. Tell
us, Dutch painters, Zagajewski asks
what will happen
when the apple is peeled, when the silk dims,
when all the colors grow cold.
Tell us what darkness is. (133)15
14
15
16
23
This speaker knows the powers that oppose the ordering of art and life too well
to exempt even the seemingly imperturbable Dutch tableaux he loves from the
onslaughts of history.
There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time adocument of
barbarism, Walter Benjamin remarks (256).16 The poets of post-war Poland did not
have togo far afield totest the truth of his observation. They were eyewitness tothe
devastation wrought on European civilization by cultured Germany and progressive
Russia alike; and they saw in both the invaders and their fellow countrymen how
easily the trappings of cultivation fall away from even the most seemingly civilized
members of our species. Their recent past has taught them tosuspect any worldview
that rests upon unflagging faith in progress and acommitment tothe final perfect-
Superlatives abound in the poems first six stanzas, which recreate the unnamed
medieval miniature of the title. But amore sinister reality emerges in the poems
final stanzas, as Szymborska turns her attention towhat has been omitted from the
aristocratic paradise evoked by this feudalest of realisms.
Whereas whosoever is downcast and weary,
cross-eyed and out at elbows,
is most manifestly left out of the scene.
24
17
Barbarian in the Garden, 141. Szymborska, Poems New and Collected, 202. Postwar Polish
Poetry, selected and edited by Czeslaw Milosz (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1983), xi-xii.
18
25
As in Zagajewskis Dutch Painters, Szymborska begins by sympathetically recreating life as seen from within agiven worldview and aesthetic only toundermine its
claims tocomprehensiveness by stepping outside its seemingly sacrosanct borders.
Szymborska lost her faith in the class-free utopia promised by Polish Communism
early on. But in Medieval Miniature she apparently finds apartial truth in the
Marxist vision of ahistory shaped by governing classes whose task is tosuppress all
traces of the labor that makes their dominion possible. For Szymborska, the pleasures
of medieval art cannot be divorced from the price they exact. It is not only the least
pressing of burgherish or peasantish questions that may not survive beneath
this most azure of skies. The burgherish or peasantish types who persist in
asking such questions may find themselves dangling from the little gallows that the
picture keeps carefully out of sight or so the poem implies.
For Szymborska, though, Marxist ideology is hardly the universal master key
that its twentieth-century adherents have claimed it tobe. It can no more explain
the miracles achieved by medieval art than the feudalist of realisms can do justice
tothe peasants and burghers who violate its aristocratic code. Feudal realism may
be aproduct of agiven historical moment, with all its limitations but then of course
so is its latter-day Soviet variant, socialist realism, or so Szymborskas poem hints.
(And of course the Soviet state was at least as assiduous in purging class enemies as
any feudal prince might be.) But the heights scaled by medieval realismeach
[tower] by far the tallesttacitly underscore the aesthetic poverty and formulaic
monotony of its distant, less imaginative, descendant. Not all realisms are created
equal, the poem implies.
For Szymborska and Zagajewski, the truths of art are partial in adouble sense:
they are both incomplete and partisan. And this is precisely what makes art human partial truths are the only kind towhich we humans are privy, these poets
suggestand what engages it in history. For only those who claim to have access
tothe full picture, the final point of view, can imagine themselves tobe free of any
merely human limits, and thus exempt themselves from history. But the lyric poet,
first-person singular by definition, cannot pretend to comprehensiveness in the
way that anovelist, philosopher or epic poet might. Through its commitment tothe
individual vision in all its particularity and partiality the lyric works toundermine
precisely those versions of human history that negate the weight of individual experience by subordinating it toone Hegelian grand scheme or another. This is what
Itake Zagajewski tomean when he remarks that once one divides the world into
This pilgrim makes his way through this Eastern European waste land tothe sanctus
sanctorum of Western culture, tothe Louvre and Leonardos famous painting. And,
as the last line suggests, the speakers attitude towards the painting he approaches
is radically different from what we find in Dutch Painters or AMedieval Miniature. He does not strive toenter into an artwork of another era on its own terms;
nor does he wish toengage it from his distinctive, present point of view. Instead he
looks for Jerusalem in aframe, for spiritual redemption through apure art set
apart from arecent past too terrible tocontemplate. He seeks, in other works, precisely that kind of transcendent release from history that so many critics have seen
as the final aim of lyric poems generally. But the painting he views from the dense
nettlepatch/ of acooks tour/ on ashore of crimson rope/ and eyes fails tomeet his
expectations. The lady he finds is not enigmatic, but mechanical, even monstrous.
The landscape he passes through, with its barbed-wire rivers and executed trees,
has been dehumanized through an excess of history. But Mona Lisa, the goal of his
quest, is finally no less inhuman though she has fallen prey not tohistory, but
towhat appears tobe an excess of artifice:
19
26
20
Zagajewski, Two Cities: On Exile, History and the Imagination, tr. Lillian Vallee
(New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1995), 260.
Herbert, Barbarian in the Garden, 101; Herbert, Still Life with aBridle, tr. John and
Bogdana Carpenter (New York: Ecco, 1991), 79. Selected Poems, tr. Czeslaw Milosz,
Peter Dale Scott (Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1968), 85-87.
History and art as worlds kept apart are equally uninhabitable and inhuman, the
poem suggests. History as brute machine is countered here by what looks tobe an
equally mechanical artistry, and the speaker cannot bridge the gap that divides his
living heels from the empty volumes of the Mona Lisas flesh, that separates his
specific historical experience from the static artifact before him:
between the blackness of her back
and the first tree of my life
lies asword
amelted precipice
These are the poems closing lines. But are the speakers final thoughts also the
poets? The pilgrims description of his unsatisfactory icon suggests otherwise. Mona
Lisa, he complains earlier,
has been hewed off from the meat of life
abducted from home and history
27
28
Donteven think about it, the speaker warns. But Herberts poem reveals that
there can be no thinking, no seeing, outside of history. Mona Lisas haunted speaker
finds the past he flees everywhere. It haunts the tainted landscape of the opening
lines, as human villains and victims are displaced onto bridges and trees; and it infects the failed sanctuary of Leonardos portrait, with its fat signora brutally hewed
from the meat of life. What is poetry which does not save/ Nations or peoples?
Milosz asks in his famous poem Dedication (96-7).21 For Herbert, Szymborska,
and Zagajewski poetry is not subservient tohistory, as it was for their more orthodox
colleagues. But neither does it exist in isolation. In Dutch Painters, Mona Lisa,
and Medieval Miniatures, we find not celebrations of arts iconic autonomy from
time, but stories of the complex interaction between art and human time, art and
human history as embodied in an individual perceiver who stands before awork
from adistant era. And these stories, in turn, speak toeach poets conception of the
lyric, as in each case, aspeaker rooted in aspecific time and place supplements and
complicates the story told by the images he or she works torecreate.
The speakers in Zagajewskis and Szymborskas lyrics do this consciously. They
seek first toenter the artwork and the world it represents, and then toaddress it
from what is recognizably amodern Eastern European perspective. Zagajewski and
Szymborska thus offer us amodel for approaching individual lyrics, amodel in which
we both seek toenter the poems world and bring our own individual context, our
own rootedness in history tobear upon the work before us. Poetry that seeks tokeep
itself at arms length from merely human time is doomed tofailure or so the fate
of Mallarmes frozen swan in the Song on Porcelain suggests. But the viewer or
reader who looks toremove himself and art from history, however understandably, impoverishes both himself and art in the process; he refuses even the partial
knowledge, the imperfect redemption that is all art can offer at best. One might
at any rate read Herberts Mona Lisa this way; it is acautionary tale against the
mistaking of icons, be they visual or verbal, as asafe haven from history.
Historicize, historicize, the cultural critics cry. Yet they themselves overlook
large chunks of culture and history that might complicate or challenge the limits
of their own brand of historicism. Both their neglect of Eastern Europe whose
troublesome history of Marxism in practice might undermine the Marxist theory
that underpins so much recent scholarship and their distortion of lyric poetry are
telling in this respect. The call tohistoricize carries with it an implicit condemnation
of some earlier, spurious form of pseudohistoricism or ahistoricism, the crime
with which the lyric in particular has been charged. But if the lyric struggles tobe
context-free, as such critics argue, it is because human beings likewise try, time and
again, torise above the contexts that confine them: Keats Grecian urn yields its
secrets, if indeed it does, only in response tothe insistent questioning of the poems
mortal speaker towhom its glimpses of transcendence remain forever out of reach.
All efforts tostep outside time, the lyric reminds us, are doomed tofail in advance,
which is why the lyric poet must struggle time and again toachieve the revenge of
21
22
29
amortal hand, the temporary reprieve from mortality that is all we can hope for
at best (Szymborska 68).22
Herberts speaker in Mona Lisa goes in quest of atimeless icon that will release
him, if only temporarily, from historys shackles; what he finds is inevitably distorted
by the history he tries toleave behind. Attempts toread the lyric as the antithesis
tolegitimate, historically engaged writing whatever that might be likewise tell
us at least as much about the genres interrogators as they do about the mode of
writing such critics claim toilluminate. The lyric is, as Ive been arguing, agenre
of limits but as its Polish practitioners reveal, its limitations are self-conscious
and self-critical. This heightened self-consciousness, moreover, is itself aresponse
toaspecific historical situation, in which Polands foreign-backed rulers claimed
tohave uncovered ahistorical master key, aMetahistory or Megahistory that rendered all earlier versions obsolete. The new in New Historicism inevitably calls
tomind the language of advertising, where the adjective new is invariably paired
with its Madison Avenue twin, improved. The very idea of aNew Historicism
rests on the notions of intellectual progress and superior vision, if not outright
omniscience, that its adherents claim toreject. They would do well tolearn from
the spurned lyric, which, particularly in its postwar Polish incarnation, teaches us
totest the limits not just of the thing perceived, but of its all-too-human perceiver.
30
1.
The starting point of Czesaw Mioszs poetical development shows him as
the heir of one of the main lines of Romantic poetry. When embarking on his
literary career as a member of the poetical group agary (the so-called Wilno
catastrophists), he owed much to two literary currents rooted in Romanticism
that together with the modernized classicism of the Cracow Avant-garde and the
hybrid poetics of Skamander shaped the poetical scenery of the interwar period.
Iam, of course, thinking of Surrealism and also of Symbolism that, in the person
of Paul Valry, remained in the thirties an important point of reference. Both these
currents derive more or less immediately from the hermetic, somnambulist line
of Romantic poetry that is usually associated with names like Novalis, Grard de
Nerval, Lautramont etc..
The atmosphere of this literary model also pervades Miosz collection of poems
Three Winters (Trzy zimy), particularly with respect tothe status of the poetical subject
that appears toact under the pressure of demonic forces. However, the influence of
this brand of Romanticism on Miosz turned out tobe short-lived. During the last
years of the Second World War, and in the first post-war years, he revised his poetics completely, taking advantage of Anglo-Saxon modernism with its concept of an
impersonal authorial instance as the basis of apolyphony of voices. Simultaneously,
Miosz revived certain eighteenth-century (Enlightenment) genres. For that reason
it could be maintained that his post-war poems testify toagenuine anti-Romantic
turn. In the period initiated by his Treatise on Poetry (Traktat poetycki), Mioszs
poetics underwent afurther transformation that consisted of the rediscovery of the
This is not tosay that hermetic or theosophical concepts do not occur in oeuvre
of these poets, but their presence is always subjected tothe larger structure of the
existential autobiography.
31
authorial instance as adistinct self without, however, giving up the polyphony (or
multi-voicedness (Bakhtin)) that marked his previous period of development (an
exemplary embodiment of this poetical strategy were The Songs of Poor People (Gosy
biednych ludzi)). The first fully realized specimens of this new period are the long
poems AChronicle of the Town Pornic (Kroniki miasteczka Pornic) and Throughout Our
Lands (Po ziemi naszej).
At this point, Iwould like toput forward the following thesis: the difference
between the catastrophist poetry of the young Miosz and his poetical oeuvre
starting from the sixties was not merely due tothe discovery of T.S. Eliot and other
Anglo-Saxon modernists. It was not less indebted (perhaps not in the sense of an
overt poetical model, but rather as apoint of reference) toan alternative romantic
current, opposed tothe hermetic line of Novalis and Nerval that was later adopted
by the Symbolists. This alternative brand of Romanticism attempted to create
apoetics that (as previously with Classicism) mirrored the metaphysical order of
being. In other words: it proposed an integral interpretation of mans being-in-theworld by creating an existential autobiography that went far beyond the somnambulist, lunar aspects of existence. The founding fathers of this Romantic line
were by definition major poets. Toour mind come immediately two names:
Goethe (after overcoming his period of Sturm und Drang) and William Wordsworth. It is important, at this point, tostress that what Ipropose is an intertextual
investigation from the point of view of ageneral typology of Romanticism, and not
an attempt tounearth direct influences of the abovementioned poets on Miosz.
Iuse their poetics rather as aheuristic category, in order tospecify the existential
structure by which the later poetry of Polands greatest twentieth century poet has
been shaped. From the point of view of intertextuality, in anarrower sense, this
structure is mainly (but not exclusively) dependent on the particular circumstances
of the Polish literary tradition (Adam Mickiewicz, the author of Pan Tadeusz, as
the chief Polish exponent of non-hermetic Romanticism). What I from the point
of view of ageneral typology essentially assert is that the underlying poetical
structure through which these major Romantic poets express aspecific totality
of (self)-experience1 recalls the structure of Mioszs mature poetry, particularly
with regard tothe relationship between the authorial instance (speaker) and the
voices on the level of the represented world. This similarity is toacertain extent
obscured by the fact that Miosz employs poetical devices typical for the modernist
(long) poem, e.g. the technique of collage.
The tension between two types of Romanticism (the autobiographical as opposed tothe lunar one) at various stages of Mioszs poetic development essentially
boils down todifferent models of personality. Let us, in order toclarify this opposition, examine the status of the poetical subject in Mioszs already mentioned book
of poems Three Winters. The major Polish critic Jan Boski has pointed out that in
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6
7
8
9
33
generation of (young) poets attempts, on the one hand, toexpress in pure words
what is elemental and unique (unrepeatable): the morning rocking of the sea
the first glimmer of the day.6 On the other hand, it does not omit the suffering
we are woven up/ with their harm, and from our shoulders flows aroyal mantle,/
lined with the blood of curses, the laments of the oppressed7. These contradictory
points of view are reconciled by splendidly roaming (wdrwk wspania), or,
in other words: we must embark upon aQuest. It does not suffice towait passively
for beauty that should be visible/ and easy even toachild8. However, this beauty,
this new order of regenerated forms that eagerly express the truth9, is also agift
that arrives silently (nadchodzi cicho). The relationship between history and the
realm of (not necessarily Christian) grace pertains toaparadox, and this paradox
is formulated in a(quasi) discursive manner.
Thus, the Dithyramb appears to be a first sketch of the poetical project
presented by the mature Miosz in which the author by the very process of creating his autobiography incorporates himself into acontinuously widening world
that is revealed by epiphanies. However, unlike the situation in Mioszs later
oeuvre, the Dithyramb fails to proceed from adequately stating this project
towards its embodiment, or rather it embodies it only partially by focusing on
the epiphany that interrupts and suspends the subjects normal way of temporal
being-in-the-world. After achieving this it becomes, from an ontological point
of view, clear that the realization of this moment has not been accomplished by
the subject that experiences it directly. At best, adifferent, general subject can
assert that what has happened to the original subject is, in fact, an event.
Anecessary (even though not sufficient) condition of recognizing an epiphany as
an event happening tome is that the I creates apoetical space in which it can
simultaneously represent itself as the subject of epiphany and incorporate (which
means toacertain extent objectifying it) this event in the larger context of my
existential autobiography. The visionary is agift. Creating an autobiography: atask
that the subject sets itself. In the case of Miosz, this awareness turns out tobe
amoral imperative. As such it affects all of us: we proceed from the first person
singular tothe first person plural, uniting in acommunity. The Dithyramb fails
toaccomplish this task. The poet stands on the threshold of maturity, but lacks
the ability (or insight) tocross it. Ihave already pointed out that Miosz crossed
this threshold much later, around 1960, in AChronicle of the Town Pornic and the
long poem Throughout Our Lands. However, before analyzing these texts in greater
detail, Iwill start by presenting afamous nineteenth-century example of apoetical
autobiography, and subsequently, attempt toexplain why more than twenty years
2.
The archetype of arealized poetical autobiography appears tobe Wordsworths
famous poem about the growth of apoets mind: The Prelude. An essential part of
this long poem are the events from his childhood and youth that, as far as the metaphysical impact of these anecdotes is concerned, recall Mioszs poetry and prose of
remembrance. Agood example of an event with ametaphysical bearing is an episode in which Wordsworth describes how, still achild, he plundered aravens nest:
Nor less when spring had warmed the cultured Vale,
Roved we as plunderers where the mother-bird
Had in high places built her lodge; though mean
Our object and inglorious, yet the end
Was not ignoble
oh, at that time
While on the perilous ridge Ihung alone,
With what strange utterance did the loud dry wind
Blow through my ears! The sky seemed not asky
Of earth and with what motion moved the clouds! (498-9)
Due tothe miraculous power of memory, this event plays an important role in the
autobiography of agrowing mind. It acquires moral significance, being one of the
many stages that prepare the protagonist for experiencing in the final episode of
The Prelude, when he climbs Mount Snowdon, the epiphany of the Spirit of the
Universe. Wordsworth explicitly attributes the educational significance of this
episode tothe immortal spirit that is tobe be equated with Nature as adynamic,
growing organism (instead of aprimordial, given state):
34
Not less important for the autobiography of the protagonist is (afurther parallel
with Miosz) his role as awitness to, and active participant of, history. Wordsworth
stayed during the first years of the Revolution in France, and in The Prelude he attempted torecapture the messianic hopes of this period. However, the memory of
3.
10
11
35
Let us now try toanswer the second question. We have already seen that the postulate of an existential autobiography, aproject that, as amatter of fact, seemed tobe
completely in tune with Mioszs essentially Romantic worldview, was already put
forward in the Dithyramb (1937). Keeping this in mind, how can it be explained
that it took twenty years before the poet started torealize this project? Furthermore,
why was the act of stating its necessity almost immediately followed by Mioszs
anti-romantic turn that made him consciously renounce his intention of integrating the profound self with the self as the witness of acertain generation, in favor of
aimpersonality typical for the Eliotic brand of modernism? This development seems
less startling (Iconsciously center on the immanent dynamics of literature, leaving
aside not without acertain moral uneasiness the impact of the horror caused by
the destruction of whole nations and societies), when we compare it with the evolution undergone by another poet who, just like Miosz, attempted to reconcile the
Romantic concept of the poetical subject with the postulate of impersonality, put
forward by the Anglo-Saxon modernists. The self in Yeatss poetry is, as an energy,
infinite. However, its poetic objectivizations cannot be but finite, fragmentary. Becoming aware of this apparently inevitable one-sidedness and attempting toachieve
36
12
C.f. the following passages from Four Quartets: the point of intersection of the
timeless/ With time (T.S. Eliot, Collected Poems 1909-1962, London 1990, p. 212
Dry Salvages) and Only through time time is conquered (ibid., p. 192, Burnt
Norton). Miosz is not preoccupied with overcoming (conquering) time, but with
redeeming it. In his Treatise on Poetry he revises Eliots concept of abolishing time
by somewhat modifying astatement from Little Gidding: Here is the unattainable/
Truth of being, here at the edge of lasting/ and not lasting. Where the parallel lines
intersect,/ Time lifted above time by time ( 143] (Tuniedosigalna/ Prawda istoty,
tutaj na krawdzi/ Trwania, nietrwania. Dwie linie przecite./ Czas wyniesione ponad
czas przez czas [Wt. 2, p. 236-237]). The difference with Eliot seems slight, but it
is essential: Here, the intersection of the timeless moment/ Is England and nowhere.
Never and Always (Eliot, Collected Poems, p. 215, italics A.v.N.)
had not succeeded in connecting the visions of the somnambulist self with asense
of belonging toadistinct generation committed tothe praxis of istory. Eliots discoveries in the field of poetical genres did not do anything toremedy this situation.
Therefore, Miosz was forced tochoose adifferent path, following the example of
poets like W.H. Auden and Carl Shapiro, and create amodern counterpart for the
eighteenth century poetical treatise. This genre always specifies its speaker and
addressee. The rules of communication between them are in principle clearly defined. There is no room for the ambiguity and self-concealment that so often occur
in Mioszs catastrophist poetry. Moreover, the author of atreatise is fully aware of
his role as aspokesman of acertain community (ageneration, class or nation) and
understands the mechanisms by which it is ruled. His very task consists in analyzing
these mechanisms and explaining them tothe group of which he is both spokesman
and teacher. For that reason his way of belonging to(and participating in) the group
presupposes acertain distance, not only toit, but also tohimself as amember of this
community. It seems that the poetics of the treatise allowed Miosz taking agreat
step forward, both with regard tothe model of socially committed poetry (The Poem
about the Frozen River) and the somnambulist phantasmagorias of Three Winters.
Yet, it cannot be overlooked that he had to pay a high price. The self of the
poetical treatise is, in fact, even more one-dimensional than the somnambulist I.
It does not cross lands and continents searching for fresh experiences, nor does
it feel itself knit up in aGordian knot with wrongs (Dythyramb), but limits
itself todescribing, presenting causes and effects, passing assessment etc., in other
words: it engages into something that had been hitherto absent from Mioszs poetry.
However, it fails toaccomplish this in the context of an existential autobiography.
The (Enlightenment) generality of Mioszs treatise project was from the very beginning undermined by irony, which is hardly surprising in the case of apoet who
always tried touphold the existence of the particular and the sensual in face of the
universal and the abstract. Because of this inner tension, the poetry of the treatise
that achieved its zenith in the Treatise on Morals began in the fifties togradually
dissolve. Mioszs major work of this period, the Treatise on Poetry, belongs, in fact,
only partially tothis genre understood in the above-mentioned sense, and refers on
adifferent level tothe dichotomy characteristic for his pre-war poetry.
In the first, historical parts of the Treatise on Poetry dominates the perspective
of generational community. Behind the first person plural appears (unlike the we
of Mioszs catastrophist poetry) the self of ateacher who does not in the first place
express solidarity with his generation nor calls on it toundertake joint action, but
rather attempts totransmit the knowledge necessary do distinguish between what
is valuable or not, authentic or inauthentic, in short: the difference between good
and evil. This mentoring subject shuns all remarks or comments referring toits own
history and, when it cannot avoid tomake its personality felt, accomplishes this
necessity discretely, employing being arepresentative of the younger generation
the third person plural: Thats why it was that the new generation/ Liked these
poets (the Skamandrites) only moderately./ Paid them tribute, but with acertain
37
13
14
15
16
38
17
4.
18
19
20
21
39
It could be argued that the Treatise on Poetry, notwithstanding its artistic importance, is amasterpiece that does not resolve all inner tensions. Nevertheless, the
poem is an important link in Mioszs project of working out amore comprehensive
form (acircumstance that, from an existential perspective, would appear tojustify
its being flawed). Furthermore, it is obvious that not the poetics of the poetical
treatise shaping the first two parts of the poem, but the shift of perspective toan
existential autobiography in its last (fourth) part were decisive for the evolution
of Mioszs poetry. Its basis is the creative energy of memory, due towhich time
loses its opacity and reveals a specific architecture. Past and present intertwine
through the act of representing the individual and distinct experiences of the self,
often by means of, at first sight trivial, anecdotes. Mioszs adopting of anecdotes as
aconstructive principle in his later poetry recalls asimilar tendency in the type of
Romanticism of which Wordsworth was the acknowledged master, and that derived
from the same concept of time as afunction of the creative power of memory. The
poem on the growth of apoets mind focuses (here Iparaphrase the remarks of
Thomas Vogler in his book Preludes toaVision) not only on the remembered objects
and scenes from nature in itself, but also aims torepresent the way of remembering
and experiencing those objects and scenes as features of certain general, or at least
more comprehensive patterns that connect image with image, scene with scene21.
22
40
23
24
25
28
26
27
41
de Retz do not in any way relate tothe authors autobiography. It is not he who is
speaking. He is merely repeating other peoples (chroniclers) tales. But his inability
tounderstand the supposed cruelty of Joan of Arcs one time companion represents
in alarger sense the individual mans impotence towards history
Things change in the next parts of the Chronicle. The events from history gradually intertwine with the existential autobiography of the author who is arefugee,
an migr from a land devastated by historical disasters, revolutions, incursions
and even civil war. Against this background we understand why he feels obliged
topreserve the memory of the parson Galipaud who failed tobe apatriot, although
even his political opponents considered him agood man: In this reveals itself the
contradiction between the particular and the general/ Because he was even liked
by those who dance the carmagnole.25 Galipaud is particularly close tothe author
since he was forced him toflee because of aideology professing tobe universal, and
his fate could easily have become that of the author (Galipaud died in exile in San
Sebastian, longing).26 The poems Heirs and Vandeans could be interpreted
in the same context. The link between the historical figures from Pornic and the
author is shown from adifferent angle in the poem Our Lady of salvation. Each
of us stands in need of salvation, including ordinary people. How can we explain
that some of us perish and others, although with lesser merit, are saved (this is, in
fact, arecurring theme in Mioszs later poetry)? We must be content with putting
forward the question, after which we simply go on with our life (Later they drank,
grew boisterous, their women conceived (174)).27
In the following parts of the poem the connection between the events that took
place in the town Pornic and the authors existential autobiography becomes even
more intimate. Polish issues make their appearance. It turns out that Sowackis
mystical philosophy of the Genesis of the spirit (the author is appalled by it) has
been conceived on this very spot. Sowacki walked being, just like the author himself,
alonely exile, here where heather and juniper grew,/ And little sheep grazed next
todruidic stones./ Notaries and merchants have built villas28. The contrast between
the metaphysical concepts created by the fertile imagination of the romantic poet
and ordinary life that has been reinstated in its right arouses in the author amood of
reverie, but the very fact of his being conscious of these quasi-religious illusions appears tobe an indirect affirmation of Sowackis presence (the speaker actually quotes
a distich from his mystical drama Samuel Zborowski). The protagonists polemical
intentions do not matter. Sowackis presence remains an inalienable element of the
Polish tradition that he carries with him, due tohis being an exile. Tradition does not
merely establish alink with his countrymen, but shapes his very perception of reality.
5.
The Chronicle of Pornic presents an existential autobiography as asequence of
loosely connected fragments. Mioszs poem has (not unlike Eliots Waste Land)
been put together from chunks of real life that derive from different times. The
31
29
42
30
32
33
Miosz refers tothe author of the Song about myself in the first lines of his poem:
When Ipassd through apopulous city, as Walt Whitman says in the Polish
version (182) (Kiedy przechodziem miastem ludnym/ (jak mwi Walt Whitman
wprzekadzie Alfreda Toma) [W. t. 2. p. 316]).
43
authors memory of the past is inextricably bound up with the memory of other
people, each of whom brings his own time with him. These individual times add
up toacomplicated structure that achieves wholeness due tomoments of epiphany.
As far as its form is concerned, the poem adheres toamodernist poetics (c.f. work
in progress or the modern sylva rerum), aspiring at the same time tothe status
of a revelation determined by the timeless superstructure that constitutes the
metaphysical fundament of its possibility. From this point of view the Chronicle is
reminiscent of the Romantic poem of remembrance. However, this superstructure
(time redeemed) is not accessed by alinear and cumulative movement of growth,
as in Wordsworths The Prelude. The events in Mioszs Chronicle that point totranscendence are not connected by acausal chain. Its composition exposes the freak
nature of these sudden insights. Therefore, the interrelatedness of particular moments of individual experience revealed by the epiphanic knots in Mioszs mature
poetry (as Ihave tried toshow in my analysis of British War Cemetery) should
not be understood as fulfilling the unrealized potential of previous episodes. In
fact, each episode constitutes adistinct, existentially independent whole in which
the subject reconsiders its situation here and now by summoning voices both
from the present and the past. In this experience the distance between past and
present is abolished. Past and present are represented as being simultaneously
contemplated by aself that questions its own existential autonomy as the absolute
center of the concept of atime-space (chronotope) imposed by amechanistic
worldview. The moments of epiphany reveal such adensity and overlapping of
real (past and passing) presences that the framework of the present moment
seems tobreak apart, forcing the author toask about the paradoxical nature of
time and toaccount for the fact that one moment contains more reality than he
could hitherto conceive of. As aconsequence, the less complicated episodes of the
poem, corresponding tocommonplace (linear or cyclical) notions of time, acquire
anew sense as being potentially susceptible toasimilar transformation. An even
more original representation of this chronotope in which ordinary time and time
redeemed intertwine can be found in the second long poem Miosz wrote in the
early sixties: Throughout Our Lands.
Even asuperficial reading reveals the fact that the presence of the first person
singular in Throughout Our Lands is much more exposed than in the Chronicle where
the act of representation started from the life of other people that only gradually
intertwines with the intimate autobiography of the author. The I in Mioszs
first American long poem expresses the immediateness of its ecstatic communion
with the world in an almost Whitmanian fashion.33 Asimilar stance was not unfamiliar tothe romantic poetry of memory and is, in an almost exemplary fashion,
represented by Wordsworths Lines composed afew miles above Tintern Abbey, on
Here we are not concerned with aconcrete return toplaces of the past, but with the
attempt tocreate through memory acontext that would allow tosave apast towhich
it is impossible toreturn in the ordinary manner (the author is awakened by the
sun shining straight into my eyes/ as it stood above the pass on the Nevada side
(183)).36 This sense of commitment towards others derives from the awareness
that the authors life, after his settling in the United Stated, has somehow worked
out, i.e. achieved fulfillment: Is it ashame or not,/ that this is my portion? (182).37
In other words: he implicitly assumes that his life has apurpose, pointing tothe
redemption of concrete (human) existences in their particularity by means of placing
them in alarger context, towhich he also, with the completed meaning of his life,
will belong (in fact, this sense is identical with the very task of creating acomprehensive existential autobiography; no postulate is less egotistic we remember:
also Wordsworth had, with regard toThe Prelude, torefute accusations of egotism).
It is perhaps impossible tojustify this concept theologically, but it stands beyond
all doubt as amoral postulate. If God proves unable tosave and redeem these individual existences in their particularity, the author will replace him in carrying out
this task: And if they all, kneeling with poised palms (like for instance Pascal, who
might not have been redeemed),/ millions, billions of them, ended together with
their illusion?/ Ishall never agree. Iwill give them the crown (184).38
34
35
36
44
37
38
39
40
41
45
What sort of crown could this be, since it is only the day that is worthy of
praise. Only this: the day (183),39 when with their chins high, girls come back
from the tennis courts./ The spray rainbows over the sloping lawns ( 184),40 and the
memory of past appears tobe adream between two real moments, in other words:
time dissolving? In order tocope with this existential paradox, one has torepresent
the ceasing of time as something positive. Mioszs crown is neither tobe equated
with the passing moment, nor with astate of stillness. Therefore, it must (linking
metaphysics with ethics) be the simultaneity of passing moments, asomething
in which what was, still is (not freezing into motionlessness, but retaining its fluid
essence). For that reason a simultaneity of times cannot consist of self-enclosed
segments. The objects and situations that it contains must be understood as being
involved in a process of continuous expansion and intertwining. In Throughout
Our Lands Miosz argues with Wallace Stevens who in his famous poem AStudy
of Two Pears tried todefine these fruits by negation. According toMiosz pears
in general do not exist; there are only particular pears. Even these varieties do not
exist in itself, but are mutually dependent on each other, while being recalled by
aconcrete human self within space and time: And the word revealed out of darkness
was: pear/So Itried Comice then right away fields/ beyond this (not another)
palisade, abrook, countryside./ So Itried Jargonelle, Bosc, and Bergamotte./ No
good. Between me and pear, equipages, countries (183).41 Particular objects in their
entanglement with equally particular and unrepeatable landscapes constitute the
elementary content of all human experience (connecting space with the internal
stratification of time), but the self-evident nature of this truth makes us often take
it for granted. Yet, without this human ability tograsp various complex segments
of being in their passing, memory could not represent them simultaneously as the
experience of astable (though at the same time developing) self.
The eleventh part of Throughout Our Lands focuses on asimilar way of experiencing asimultaneity of times that is even more closely linked tothe authors existential
autobiography. The author who has settled in California tries toretrieve the memory
of Pauline, asimple Lithuanian peasant woman, arather distant acquaintance of his
youth. We do not learn what she meant tohim. The poem is rather devoted tothe
miracle that apast presence can be at all (present) here and now. While recalling
her presence the author feels obliged (the creative power of memory is, in fact, an
inner compulsion) tomention all tangible details that they once shared, due totheir
sensual faculties. He reconstructs their common landscape: Pauline, her room behind
the servants quarters, with one window on the orchard/ where Igather the best
apples near the pigsty/ squishing with my big toe the warm muck of the dunghill,/
This naive way of experiencing reality makes the author draw afar from naive conclusion (interestingly, he starts by formulating the conclusion and only then proceeds
torepresenting the experience by which it is motivated in fact, we are assisting
here at an act of faith): Pauline died long ago, but is,/ and, Iam somehow convinced,
not only in my consciousness (152).44 The possibility of asimultaneity of times
(experiencing at the same time different moments and places) as anaive vision is, in
last resort, upheld by the existence of God. In His consciousness the consciousness
of the simultaneity of the authors time (in which past and present overlap) and the
time past of Pauline (recalled and again made present by the author) participate,
creating an infinitely more complex knot of temporal simultaneity that announces
and adumbrates some (ultimate?) state of Plenitude. At the end of the road that
has been designated by Mioszs poetics of epiphany stands atheological postulate.
Let us now try again toformulate how Miosz modified the romantic poem of
amaturing mind. Above all we are struck by the circumstance that in the case of
Wordsworths poetry (understood as apars pro toto) moments of epiphany usually
42
46
43
44
45
47
focus on one place, towhich the author returns. Miosz, on the other hand, focuses
rather on one moment, in which two, or even more, places co-exist, overlap, and intertwine. These places are linked with the present and past of the poetical subject.
In the former case the world is diversified (represented in its multi-perspectivity)
by time, or perhaps rather by times passing. In the later poetry of Czesaw Miosz,
on the other hand, the diversifying element is space that consists, hardly surprising
for an exile, always of anumber of centers (Lithuania, America, Paris, Warsaw etc.),
and time the individual time of the subject is the integrating element. In other
words: space expands in so far as time, the time of an individual man, contracts
toone moment that ideally turns out tobe eternal, linking the totality of his experience in atemporal simultaneity. With regard tothese two types of poetry about (of)
memory we face an almost unavoidable conclusion. The concept of time has, since
the decline of Romanticism, essentially changed. What is the nature of this change?
It appears that modern poets do not believe in the possibility of repetition within
time. Would Miosz, while returning toLithuania, be assured that what he sees are
still the same trees, the same fields, the same manors, cots etc., and that they are
perceived by the same self? He would probably say, slightly modifying afragment
from Throughout our Lands: Between me and Lithuania (in the original pear),
equipages, countries (183). Immersing ourselves in the Heraclitean river, in the
waves of time, as commanded by the author of Dithyramb (Let us once again
immerse in times waves), we discover that we cannot repeat our-selves. When,
however, the illusion of linear temporality ceases to protect human identity, the
only remedy consists in juxtaposing the various elements by which it is constituted
(this explains the mature Mioszs preference for the device of collage). Each second
of particular existence (My house asecond: in it the worlds beginning45, On the
Song of aBird on the Banks of the Potomac) contains the whole of our existence,
its past, present and the promise of a future. The ultimate meaning of Mioszs
project of the existential autobiography pertains to a paradox: each individually
experienced moment lies always in the past, and therefore the eternal moment of
temporal simultaneity never passes.
Jan Boski
48
Based on the translation by Lillian Valee, slightly modified for the purpose of
this essay. Gombrowicz, Witold. Diaries. Volume 1. Northwestern University Press:
Evanston, IL. 92. (AW)
49
cally it rarely gave birth totimeless masterpieces, and when these were born, they
also tended to die swiftly, like Krzytopr, the most magnificent of palaces. The
Renaissance effortlessly produced mighty talents, such as that of Jan Kochanowski,
but the baroque seems tohave oddly lacked apowerhouse capable of phrasing its
problems in universal terms. Therefore, in order tobe understood today, they need
tobe modernized or reinterpreted by our contemporaries. The most spectacular of
such re-interpretations came from Gombrowicz: it identifies the Pole with the
baroque man or with the Sarmatian. Such identification, however, is not instantly
obvious, it has tobe reconstructed, or worked out.
At the end of his life, weary of the Western episteme, of all the Freudianisms,
scientisms, and structuralisms that dissolve the Self in doctrines and systems, Gombrowicz talks of his Diary as an attempt by aPolish bumpkin or perhaps acountry
gent toenter European cultureThis particular gentle manner was bred into me
and is something incredibly resistantso Iwalk around with athoughtful air and
without much interest, exactly as if Iwere anobleman walking in his orchard, there,
in the country side, and every once in awhile, trying this or that product (like apear
or aplum) Isay: Hm, hm, this is good but this one is too hard for meIwould describe myself as aPolish gent who has found his raison d'tre in the distrust of form.1
Gombrowicz searches for amethod that would allow him totransform and restage
himself tohis own liking but also tothe liking of others, preferably neighbors, in
other words, he sees personality as akind of game.
Hence there is the image of landed gentry (neither lesser nobility, nor aristocracy), someone freely ruling over fashions, customs and culture instead of yielding
tothem. An image with numerous literary antecedents as well, immediately bringing
tomind Potocki, who wrote as much for himself as for his neighbors, it brings tomind
Pasek and Rej, incessantly talking (writing) while walking around his lands. Hardly
anything could be more anachronistic than being aSarmatian but being one can
hardly be criticized once you have proven your thorough knowledge of Nietzsche and
Sartre! On the contrary, it helps in gaining aperspective also on the mighty sages.
The point is exactly that Icome from your rubbish heap...Now, when you look
out the window, you can see that atree has sprung up on that trash heap, atree that
is aparody of atree" (36).
Parody of atree is aobviously areference toTrans-Atlantic where Gombrowicz rewrites and distorts the scenes of Pan Tadeusz through abloated, grotesquely
elevated style reminiscent of the Sarmatian 17th and 18th centuries. At the same
time, he draws us into ahighly suspicious scheme that results in the triumph of
the sons-land over fatherland, a direction exactly the opposite to the one
Mickiewicz set out for.
It is not my task today totalk about Trans-Atlantic but Iwill say this: the author
is fully aware of akinship, or even acrossover between the characters. His familiar
50
Being unravels, just as letters turn silver-pale and fade. All seems reduced
toavolatile particle play and disperses eventually, dissolving in the mathematicians
equation acontemporary equivalent of the ancient memento mori. But the torment
does not end there: contemplation of beauty (in other words, awe over beauty) may
as well be the source of its own damnation. Is loving creation enough toclaim loving
God? or, even worse, perhaps the poet needs God only tojustify or grace his own
aesthetic endeavors? How difficult it is today tonegotiate between the religious and
51
52
The origins of the tear that Miosz alludes toare not unknown: it first appeared
in the baroque, spawning further questions and doubts. One could even say that
this tear is inseparable from the baroque. 17th century religious rule would seem
tohave encouraged clear and austere forms but it yielded, also in churches, toforms
incredibly rich and prolific. The baroque teems with ajoy of life, apossessive kind
of energy that was togive birth tomodern Europe Miosz himself admits toan
incredible voracity for things. He wishes for the memory and imagination tosave
and restage everything he has ever tasted and loved, as the writers of the baroque
especially in Poland who wanted tostore everything in their opulent catalogues.
But at the same time he cannot do without areligious sanction, sensing that the
world is full of evil and can be only saved by an Absolute Being. This is hardly
surprising, as the theological educational model implemented in Europe after the
Council of Trent, seems tohave survived the longest in that other Europe that
Miosz so much admires.
It suffices to read a few poems dedicated to Fr. Chomski to understand this
fully. Especially the first lyric, from 1934, reveals abaroque spectacle of salvation
and damnation aspectacle that for along time and through convoluted means
was associated by the critics with catastrophism, surrealism, or even romanticism. The baroques religious background (and baroque religiousness) sometimes
manifests itself directly in Mioszs work. When he speaks of salvation, damnation,
suffering etc. his imagination brings forth scenes, characters and images of the 17th
and 18th century, as in The Master where abaroque composer analyses the relation of music (i.e. art) and evil. Or in From the Rising of the Sun, where the
poet presents himself (or his doppleganger) as aCalvinist preacher. Finally, when
Miosz talks about himself, he talks about someone who has seen three centuries of
human fate: the 18th century, whose living presence he still sensed in Vilnius, had
yet tobecome enlightened.
Both our major writers reveal in their work athinly veiled presence of sensitivity patterns that were shaped by the 17th century and are marked by the baroque.
Importantly, those patterns, models and stereotypes still resurface in contemporary
Polish culture, including literature. Gombrowicz and Miosz interpret them individually, without (or rarely) referring tothe philosophy or literature of the baroque.
The baroque heritage, however, even if by other name, is deeply seated in their work
and they were both well aware of its presence.
It was put touse more openly though perhaps also more superficially by
younger artists, especially poets among whom Tadeusz Gajcy seems tohave been
53
54
Ryszard Nycz
Four poetics: Miosz and literary movements
Much has been written, and in much detail, on Mioszs attitude tothe literary
and cultural trends of his era, ones that shaped him as apoet and ones he shaped
himself, or brought back, or resurrected through his work. What has been written was by several major critics of his poetry, such as Boski, Fiut, Kwiatkowski,
apiski, Stala, and by Miosz himself. Todo it again seems inevitable, though,
and necessary, especially once we realize that each new work changes our understanding of the place and importance of all previous books, and that each shift in
the current state of knowledge and sensitivity determines the result of our analysis or, in other words, our overall idea of Mioszs published work. At the same
time, it is also an act that betrays and reveals the fragility or perhaps aparticular
character of the basis of the humanities, as we turn out toprophesize from the
outcome, shaping succession into causality, noticing what we had known before
toexist and what we expect tosee. Taking all this into account, also because it is
an important matter for the writer, Iwill restrict myself toasingle problem and
neither as the first nor the last ask about the place of the poet (the position he
takes and speaks from) and the role, or the understanding, of literature that this
position evokes or assumes.
Miosz appears tohave astrong sense of immersion in the world, as well as
astrong sense of the consequences resulting from this predilection which influenced him and the poetics condition, as well as the situation of the human being.
We are all tossed by elements independent of our will in this century, he observes
55
Four poetics.
The earliest of these could be referred to, perhaps, as the poetics of visionary commonality. Miosz usually defines it through negation, as one opposed tothat of the
Skamander group on the one hand, and the Cracovian avant-garde on the other;
one that if we were todefine it with positive terms bears similarity the poetics
of Wayk and Czechowicz in Poland and Apollinaire and Eliot in the modern European tradition. It seeks spoken language (conversational and colloquial) instead of
autonomous poetics tradition or hermetic diction; puts metonymy above metaphor,
and vision above construction, asuperhuman metaphysical perspective above the
artists point of view or opinio communis; finally, adomination of dialogue of roles
and masks worn by adepersonalized subject over aunitary confession-monologue
of a(privileged) individual. Teatr pche ((Flea circus), 1932) is agood example of
56
Referring tothis period of his writing Miosz says in 1943: Iwas in sway of two
kinds of fear the social fear and the metaphysical fear, expressing one through the
other. Talking about his new cycle, Voices of Poor People, he remarks:
Following my experience as a human being in this volume I turn away from the
metaphysical fear as it only spawns death and silence, and one is not always allowed
toyearn for these. If Isucceed in speaking in the voice of the poor, do not assume that
Iam simply apoor human being and that their voices are my own complaint, one that
Icannot rise above. Having been able toconjure these characters Iam happier than
they are, by enacting their sadness and madness Iprotect myself from both. Even when
Iseem tospeak in my own voice, there is amischievous kind of distance between the
speaking Iand me as ahuman being: Iam simply another voice overseen by the inquisitive mind. (BL, box 1 (1943))
For the generation of Iwaszkiewicz, Tuwim, Pasternak () naming the sensation was in
itself enough but it is not enough for us. If we want tocommunicate, if we want tomove
forward, jointly, combining the sensation and the idea, literary genres need tobe broken
until something liminal appears, in between the poem, the essay and the novel.
(BL, box 4 (l. 60) emphasis R. N.)
57
From this assumption, the idea of poetry as consciousness of an era (BL, ibid.) begins
totake shape; poetry which turns away from its recent attempts at unearthing hidden
senses (historiosophic or metaphysical), and instead claiming the public discourse
as its broad territory toreveal the most important and the most poignant aspects of
the collective experience. It is assumed tobe addressed toawider audience (such
as asociety or nation) that it enters into adialogue with uncovering the actual
face of reality and the truth of the historical experience; it is poetry as atestimony
tomemory, one documenting the Zeitgeist (including ideological disputes, ethical
and philosophical attitudes, and social mentality).
The third type of poetics let us refer toit as the poetics of aparabolic autobiography
was born in the 50s and marks an abrupt turn towards own experience, environment,
tradition, and cultural genealogy. The sudden opening of the previously supressed
personal dimension was possibly aresult of the teachings and persuasion of Jeanne
Hersch that Miosz (which is meaningful in itself) begins totalk about only three
decades later and with such intensity that their importance cannot be doubted. It is
more than adiscovery of aperspective both personal and ethno- and anthropocentric,
in which personal events become aspecimen of universal fate. It is achance for
anew relation to(and asettlement with) ones past, and consequently, with the past
as such arelation that allows the past tobecome an accepted (or even affirmed)
part of ones identity, and at the same time atelling exemplum of human fate.
Im referring here tothree symptomatic remarks made in the 80s and 90s. In
Unattainable Earth:
It is adurable achievement of existential philosophy toremind us that we should not think
of our past as definitely settled, for we are not astone or atree. In other words, my past
changes every minute according tothe meaning given toit now, in this moment.
58
(1987 121)
On the following page Miosz comments on his philosophical remark and points
out its particular value tohis own biography at acertain stage: Jeanne (Hersch),
adisciple of Karl Jaspers, taught me the philosophy of freedom, which consists in
being aware that achoice made now, today, projects itself backward and changes
our past actions. That was the period of my harsh struggle against delectatio morosa
to which I have always been prone (1987 122). In late 1980s autobiographical
elements come tothe foreground while the need todescribe his interlocutor in
concrete terms wanes: There was atime in my life when Iwent through avery
difficult period of constant retrospective thinking about my shortcomings, my
sins and misdeeds in the past. Afriend of mine...said that our past is not static
form is a constant struggle against chaos and nothingness...we enter into a relationship with
the world primarily through language composed of words, or sign, or lines, or colors, or
shapes; we do not enter the world through adirect relationship. Our human nature consists of
everything being mediated; were are part of civilization; we are part of the human world.
59
and that it constantly changes according toour deeds at the present (2006 77).
Finally, in What ILearned from Jeanne Hersch from This, we read: in our lives
we should not succumb todespair because of our errors and our sins for the past
is never closed down and receives the meaning we give it by our subsequent acts (2003
712 emphasis R.N.).
Iperformed this little literary investigation tounderstand the mysterious
circumstances of Mioszs turn toward the third, mature poetics; to outline his
more general attitude tothe past as well as, perhaps more importantly, changes in
the ways of thinking about sense and the truth of the past(including the contemporary argument). The past may seem tous tobe determined in absolute terms,
something already closed and given, finished and unchangeable: we often remark:
Isaid what Isaid, what happened cannot unhappen. From this perspective, the
past is aheavy burden of deeds weighing on the future; aburden that irrevocably
determines or rather takes away the meaning and value from every present act.
Seen traditionally, the future is already contained in the past and consequently our
past sins, mistakes and misdeeds not only remain forever what they are (obviously) but also brand each future good did with their unredeemable mark. The
story of the individuals life (or the life of community) falls apart into aseries of
separate, chaotic, and consequently, cryptic episodes. And when planning for any
kind of future appears senseless, all that is left is delectatio morosa, afruitless
retrospect of the painful past.
Considering the above, to acknowledge (not only in the privately-individual
dimension but also in the universally-human one) that the past is open tothe future
since the sense and value of the past are determined by the present biography as
awhole, or by present history not only helps toovercome the trauma of the past
and toaccept oneself and ones history, but also encourages the planning of ones
actions. This is especially true for action understood as abasis for acontinuous exegesis and condition necessary for the continuous retelling of the tale of life through
which the narrative identity of the writer and the truth of his (and not his only) past
evolves, crystallizes, and transforms. This is at least how Iunderstand the motivation for the third turn in Mioszs life and work perhaps the most important one,
as it was also the most dramatic. This is also how Iexplain the easily recognizable
features of his creative strategy and the poetics of his work from the 1960s, 70s and,
tosome extent, 1980s. Miosz believes that this kind of poetry sides with mythos
(1997 122). It evokes, presents, and preserves in the language the experience of
human reality towhich it assigns form, meaning and place in the universal order
(mythical, religious, or one resulting from the philosophical fate in the essence
of reality). Mioszs general view in this respect does not differ much from the key
assumptions of modern literature.
Thus, the reasons for the schism formulating among the modernists become even
more intriguing, aschism that Miosz observed with keen interest, and supported.
He usually listed Gombrowicz, and Beckett among his major antagonists but in
order tofully explain the essence of the argument, Iam going refer toawriter
almost completely absent from Mioszs work (perhaps due tothe cool determination of his approach), to J. L. Borges, who concludes his Maker with the
following image:
Aman sets out todraw the world. As the years go he peoples aspace with of provinces,
kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, instruments, starts, horses, and
individual. Ashort time before he dies he discovers that patient labyrinth of line traces
the lineaments of his own face.2
60
The main reason for Mioszs critique and for his anti-modernist campaign is the
radical subjectivisation of cognition: contemporary tendency to undermine
reality of the world, the shift of emphasis tosubjective perception (as nothing else
supposedly exists) or totexts, as there is only that which man can spun from himself
this seems tome tobe the disease of the era (1995 246). Among several sources
and symptoms of the disease that Miosz meticulously diagnoses in his work, the
most common ones result from the reduction of reality tothat which remains in
the medium used by the subject toestablish contact with the world be it sensual
perception, laws of reason, or the quasi-ontological power of language.
We learned of the latter from the proclamations of avant-garde writers, sometimes as distinct from one another as Schulz and Przybo (the nameless does not
exist for us says the first, as if that which was not named, did not exist echoes the
other). Miosz appears tohave shared their view, seen as an expression of trust in the
2
3
J. L. Borges. Collected Fictions. Transl. by Andrew Hurley. Penguin Books, 1999. 327.
F. Nietzsche. Human, All-Too-Human. University of Nebrasca Press. 1984. 238.
It is perhaps worth noticing that anthropocentrism and anthropomorphism of cognition are not only unquestioned here, but are also ascribed value. Here, the basic
function of literature is primarily anthropological: the task of poetry is toreveal
the truth of human nature and the human place in an inhuman world; a truth
which can be made permanent in the poetics form and which can only be learned
through apoetic language. Iput such heavy emphasis on this rather general aspect
of artistic (and humanist) activity, despite the fact that it seems tohave been something natural and matter-of-fact for the modernist thought, because Mioszs last
poetics doubts and questions precisely the validity of anthropomorphism. The last
direction in Mioszs literary endeavor could perhaps be described as apoetics of
meditation, especially considering the amount of exalted reflection in his later texts
but Iprefer touse different words here, words that will more precisely outline the
new poetics territory of Mioszs work. It is, putting it simply, apoetics of seeing
or rather showing the world, and tobe more precise (even at the risk of sounding
alittle odd), apoetics of inhuman indication.
All of this seems obvious on the one hand, mysterious on the other. Obvious if
we consider the subject matter of Mioszs last books, the epiphanic records and
meditations of the Road-side Dog and both ABCs, his books of revelations such
as Haiku or ABook of Luminous Things or, in particular This, Mioszs last book of
poetry. Mysterious, if we consider the consequence of this new direction. In an
intriguing commentary on the work of one of the most interesting personalities in
contemporary poetry, Miosz declares: Ponges poetry can serve as proof that we
cannot enter arelationship with what surrounds us be it inanimate matter or living creatures unless we submit it toconstant humanization. His expedition into the
inhuman is purely illusory (1997 113 emphasis R.N.).
61
(2003 569)
62
Ashort conclusion
63
64
Marek Zaleski
Instead
It would seem that all human beings should fall into
each other's arms, crying out that they cannot live, but
no cry escapes from their throat and the one thing they
are more or less capable of doing is putting words on
paper or paint on canvas, knowing full well that so
called literature and art are instead of.1
Czesaw Miosz. Notatnik 196468.
1
2
Czesaw Miosz. ToBegin Where IAm. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. New York. 440.
Miosz. Orpheus and Eurydice. All further quotations from Orpheus and
Eurydice and Treatise on Theology come from Second Space: New Poems (Ecco,
2005). All other quotations from Mioszs poems come from: Miosz. New and
Collected Poems. (AW)
Ernst Cassirer. Essay on Man: An Introduction toAPhilosophy of Human Culture. Yale
University Press. 1962. 82.
65
1.
In the poem dedicated tothe memory of his dead wife, Orpheus obeys the prohibition of the gods of Hades.2 He does not look back and attempt totalk tohis beloved.
Despite his obedience, he loses Eurydice: the path emerging from the Underworld
is empty. While each departure from the original myth is significant, it does not
change the function of the myth itself. Each version of the myth remains amyth
anthropologists, theologians, philosophers, and historians have written much on its
function and meaning. What seems particularly important in Mioszs rendering of
the story, however, is adeep conviction accompanying the mythical idea of life that
Ernst Cassier describes as that fundamental feeling...of the solidarity of life that
bridges over the multiplicity and variety of its single forms (82).3 Cassirer identifies
it with the feeling of indestructible unity of life, one so strong that it eclipses all
4
5
8
6
66
Cassirer, 83-84.
In Descent and Return. The Orphic Theme in Modern Literature (Harvard University
Press, CambridgeMassachusetss 1971) W.A. Strauss remarks on how in
postmodernity the Orphic myth began tofunction as an interpretative metatext,
amyth analyzing the myth (2). In The Orphic Moment. Shaman toPoet- thinker in Plato,
Nietzsche & Mallarm (State University of New York Press 1994) Robert McGahey
(after Elizabeth Sewell) similarly reflects on contemporary Orphic poetry as poetry
thinking itself. (xvi)
Strauss, Descent. 2.
Cassirer, Essay. 110.
Emanuel Levinas. Spojrzenie poety (Le Regard du Pote) transl. M.P. Markowski,
Literatura na swiecie 1996 no. 10. 71 (All further references toLevinas are based on
the Polish translations of his essay AW)
Zaleski Instead
10
11
12
Paul de Man Blindness and Insight, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1983.
256.
Maurice Blanchot. The Gaze of Orpheus. The Space of Literature. University of
Nebraska Press, 1982.
See also: A. Krokiewicz Studia orfickie. (Orphic Studies) Biblioteka Meandra.
Warsaw, 1947, p. 41 and elsewhere, and R. McGahey The Orphic Momement, xviii and
elsewhere.
McGahey, xvi-xvii and 119-121.
67
13
68
14
15
Levinas. 74-5.
Richard Stalmelman, Lost Beyond Telling. Representation of Death and Absence in Modern
French Poetry, Cornell University Press, 1990.
R. McGahey, xv.
Zaleski Instead
tombstone one should live in away that it allows one toengrave aworthy epitaph
on it. Blanchot also believes death tobe the telos of the literary text, or aspace in
which each act of writing inevitably fulfills itself or, more importantly, completes
itself. The writer is nothingness at work, and death and nothingness are the hope of
language, he says in his 1947 essay titled Literature as the Right toDeath (336).16
Writing is an experience of the wondrous power of negativity in his metaphysic, it
is death that is afigure of possibility and of the possible. Writing alas! language
itself appears instead of reality, taking place of that which fundamentally no longer
is: if reality, despite seeming obvious, was not aproblematic presence, language and
literature would be unnecessary. Writing is founded on the sense of lack of access
toreality, it articulates absence the fullest expression of which is death. Writing is
thus an embodiment of nothingness, even if secondary tothe original and constituting its poor imitation an embodiment of nothingness still. And it has, as death
does, the power of negativity, it destroys what it represents.
Language is reassuring and disquieting at the same time...Isay, "This woman," and she is
immediately available tome, Ipush her away, Ibring her close, she is everything Iwant
her tobe, she becomes the place in which the most surprising sort of transformations occur
and actions unfold. We cannot do anything with an object that has no name...Isay This
woman. Hlderlin, Mallarm, and all poets whose theme is the essence of poetry have felt
that the act of naming is disquieting and marvellous. Aword may give me its meaning,
but first it suppresses it. For me tobe able tosay, This woman, Imust somehow take her
fleshandblood reality away from her, cause her tobe absent, annihilate her. The word
gives me the being, but it gives it tome deprived of being. The word is the absence of that
being, its nothingness, what is left of it when it has lost being the very fact that it does
not exist. Considered in this light, speaking is acurious thing. (322)17
Thus, language appears instead of what is. Not only does it deprive things of their
ontological reality, it also cannot retrieve the meaning of that which has been lost
in the well of the past. It has no power torecover what it has made the object of its
presentation by turning into an image or ametaphor. It builds constructions that
supposedly refer toreality, puts itself instead of it and replaces the other presence,
pushing it away into nonexistence. Talking about things and naming things equals
wiping away, destroying the object of the utterance.
16
17
18
Blanchot. "Literature and the Right toDeath." The Work of Fire. Stanford University
Press, 1995. 336
Ibid. 322.
Blanchot. The Infinite Conversation. University of Minnesota Press. 1992.36
69
And, certainly, when Ispeak, Irecognize very well that there is speech only becasue what
"is" has disappeared in what names it, struck with death so as tobecome the reality of the
name...Something was there that there is no longer. How can Ifind it again, how can I, in
my speech, recapture this prior presence that Imust exclude in order tospeak? In order
tospeak it? And here we will evoke the eternal torment of our language when its longing
turns back toward what it always misses, through the necessity under which it labors of
being the lack of what it would say. (36)18
2.
Mioszs thought is diametrically different from Blanchots, even though, as
amodern poet, he shares with the author of LEspace littraire the awareness of the
21
19
70
20
Stamelman, 39.
Blanchot, "Literature and the Right toDeath." 324.
Roland Barthes. ALovers Discourse: Fragments. Hill and Wang, 2010. 100. Earlier
he notes: Someone would have toteach me that one cannot write without burying
sincerity (that is, usurping the hope toaccess reality MZ) and adds: always the
Orpheus myth: not toturn back.
Zaleski Instead
ontological break between language and reality. Miosz, however, draws drastically
different conclusions, and consequently, builds adifferent mythology of literature.
Towrite that Miosz removes himself from the Orphic mysticism that found its home
in the modern poetry would not be enough: the author of City Without aName, is
reluctant, even hostile toit: at the World Poetry Conference (1967) he spoke of poetry
as energy and of the mysterious complicity between energy, movement, mind, life,
and health, insisting that poems whether optimistic or pessimistic are always
written against death (346).22 From Three Winters onward, he always situates his
poetry on the side of life, light, and movement, fervently praising existence. His idea
of literature is thus directly the opposite of Blanchots vision marked by negativity.
If Blanchot sees transgression taking place on paper tobe the goal and nourishment
of literature: from existence to nonexistence, Miosz argues the contrary, as that
which is not pronounced, tends tononexistence.
He declares himself tobe apoet of is in all senses of the word, from the
physical tothe metaphysical one, always siding with what is referred totoday as the
metaphysics of presence. This is what happens also in his Orphic poem. Orpheus
attempts tosway Persephone and the gods of Underworld by singing the beauty of the
world, and perceives his affirmation of being and existence as his poetic achievement.
He sang the brightness of mornings and green rivers,
He sang of smoking water in the rosecolored daybreaks,
Of colors: cinnabar, carmine, burnt sienna, blue,
Of the delight of swimming in the sea under marble cliffs,
Of feasting on aterrace above the tumult of afishing port,
Of tastes of wine, olive oil, almonds, mustard, salt.
Of the flight of the swallow, the falcon,
Of adignified flock of pelicans above the bay,
Of the scent of an armful of lilacs in summer rain,
Of his having composed his words always against death
And of having made no rhyme in praise of nothingness. (2005 100)
22
23
71
In Mioszs poem, Orpheuss song reverberates against its traditional readings. Beginning with Virgil and Ovid, Orpheuss song is atale of pain after loss, alament
after the dead beloved, alovers complaint against the cruelty of fate and an attempt
toenchant it through amournful incantation. When Orpheus sings one could think
that the world of grief arose, as Rilke tells us. This time, however, Orpheuss song
praises life and its wonders. It remains in discord with the poetic tradition but not
necessarily with Orphic mythology. Yearning after death found in the archaic Orphic literature and echoing the Minoan metaphysics, is adjacent toapraise of life
clearly present in the later Orphic hymns from the 3rd century and in the writing
of Neoplatonists who viewed Orphism as asource of their philosophy.23
The Orphic and Neoplatonic elements of the tradition that Miosz embraced studying
the writings of gnostics, Fathers of the Church, and exegetes of Scripture, resound in
his poem but not only there. And those pointed out so far are by no means acomplete
list. In fact, all of the important Orphic idea echo through Mioszs writing. The idea
of connection between the whole and the multiple is one of the key assumptions of
Orphism: the Orphics believed that multiplicity emerges from the whole but also
returns toit and therefore all things are one. This is symbolized by Zagreus-Dionysus,
torn to pieces by Titans and reborn from the heart, representing a whole forced
against its will toturn into multiplicity and later returning tothe original state.
Zagreus exists doubly after being torn apart and burnt toashes by the Titans, first as one
person, Dionysus, born from his heart, and second, as the multiplicity of all human souls
(symbolized by the innumerable particles of ash) that has tobe purified of the murderous
Titanic impulses and therefore enter various human, animal and plant bodies until they
reach the salvation of apotheosis or are condemned toeterernal punishment in Tartarus:
For before now Ihave been at some time boy and girl, bush, bird, and amute fish in the
sea writes Empedocles. (50, 81)25
72
Vision of the world as agreat cosmic transformation found Mioszs early volume, Three
Winters, is complemented by the concept of apokatasthasis (the idea of reconstitution
or restitution of the lost original condition, and eventually of unity) present in his
writing from the 70s onwards. Correspondingly, the idea of the pilgrimage of souls is
reflected in the imaginary and phantasmagoric stagings of the speaking voices and in
24
25
Ibidem 59.
Krokiewicz, 50 and 81.
Zaleski Instead
the desire for multiple incarnations: Iwould be everything/ Perhaps even abutterfly
of athrush, by magic (2003 164). Iwas wearing plumes, silks, ruffles and armor/
Women's dresses, Iwas licking the rouge./ Iwas hovering at each flower from the day of
creation/ Iknocked on the closed doors of the beaver's halls and the mole's (2003 193).
Similar observations can be made regarding Mioszs concept of life after death
and immortality. Here, however, poetic Orphic mythology seems to function in
avery particular manner: no longer belonging tothe private museum of images it
becomes something more than element of living tradition. It acquires areligious
dimension but importantly in his other poems, not in Orpheus and Eurydice!
In Orpheus and Eurydice it is distorted, negated, and abandoned, which only adds
tothe poems importance and places it among those works that reveal choices and
decisions fundamental toMiosz and his philosophy of literature. Its exceptional
character is thus of fundamental importance also tous. How are we tounderstand
the will tocontinue and the act of rebellion?
In the Orphic belief, those chosen by gods, following the life on earth and the
release from the cycle of eternal lives, will live on the fortunate islands experiencing eternal bliss. For them, life after death will be acontinuation of earthly life but
without its suffering and afflictions. The conviction that the other world is same as
this one (same is tobe understood as an affirmation of lifes beauty and sweetness otherwise one should probably doubt the idea of divine goodness and love of
creation) returns often in Mioszs writing. Ancient Greeks, however, had adifferent
eschatological vision: in Homer, souls of the dead lead an insufferably empty and
artificial existence of quite unnecessary underworld shadows and their immortal
soul is that part of man which is worse and inferior tothe mortal body (78, 56).26
As such, to use Krokiewiczs formulation, hopelessly gray eschatology appears
also in Mioszs poem; earlier, in On Parting with My Wife, Janina and Treatise
on Theology, we will find doubt about the idea of resurrection and immortality of
the soul. One cannot, however, ascribe atheism tothe gray eschatology of Mioszs
poem: despair resulting from the thought that the Orphic-Christian longing may be
nothing more than agreat illusion is anegative proof of the existence of the object
of faith. It is precisely its impossible presence that becomes the only true reality in
Orpheus and Eurydice.
Under his faith adoubt sprang up
And entwined him like cold bindweed.
Unable toweep, he wept at the loss
Of the human hope for the resurrection of the dead,
Because he was, now, like every other mortal.
His lyre was silent, yet he dreamed, defenseless.
He knew he must have faith and he could not have faith. (2005 101)
26
73
Miosz puts at stake something that lies at the very center of his philosophical anthropology, something that for many years has been the cornerstone of his poetic
74
27
Zaleski Instead
Mioszs Orpheus we find ourselves Nowhere, the words from this side, words
that ensure the worlds creation and confirm its existence, lose their magical power
and our faith reveals itself as an illusion, aconsolation that may bring relief here
but is powerless there.
Because he was, now, like every other mortal./
His lyre was silent, yet he dreamed, defenseless (2005 101).
On the other hand, mythologies are futile. They all originate Miosz evades the
question about the transcendental source of sense as something incomprehensible
tous from this world (83).28 Miosz never doubts the primacy of what is above
that which is only the object of our longing, even of our religious longing. He has
already denounced Orpheuss gaze before. It was not easy: his fascination with
Robinson Jeffers, a supremely Orphic poet, despite the fact that Miosz did not
focus on the Orphic element in the work of the Californian poet, left permanent
marks on his own poetry. His adventure with Jefferss poems forced him toaddress
his own questions as well.
He was not indifferent tothe Orphic element in Jeffers, especially tothe pursuit
of the pantheistically defined unity, although as Ihave mentioned he spoke about
it without referencing Orphism. In the conclusion of his essay on Jeffers he remarks:
It should be clear at this point that Iam viewing poetry as an appendage of religion (an
exact opposite of poetry seen as religion), religion in the broad sense (regardless whether
it is derived from religare, tobind), but the desired unity can be theistic or atheistic. The
muscles and nerves of the mind shine through the word religion and it is thus better
than Weltanschaung. Poetry that avoids the participation in the basic human unifying
attempt, turns into trifle and dies. However, this is not Jefferss poetry and Iapproach it
with due seriousness. (259)29
30
28
29
75
Speaking of the Orphic elements, one more parallel should not escape our attention as it testifies tothe kinship of the linguistic imagination of the modern poet
and the archaic mythology. Miosz says that poetry is servant toreligion and that
muscles and nerves of the mind shine through the word religion. The frequent presence of carnal tropes in Mioszs thinking is not neutral in the Orphic
context. Orpheus mediates in himself the human and the animalistic but his lyre,
too, unites two opposite orders: that of nature and culture. Producing the song, it
produces metaphors of the primordial next tothe metaphors of harmony and order.
Elizabeth Sewell points toBacons commentary in De Sapientia Veterum on Orpheuss
history as ametaphor of philosophy that he himself personifies, and toasentence
from Shakespeare about the strings of Orpheuss lute strung with poets' sinews
(III.2).30 Orpheuss body is his instrument and he himself (and his history) is the
says Jeffers, whom Miosz translated.33 The mythical tale of the world, told by the
body of the teller, like Orpheuss tale (Orphic legends recount that long after the
poets death his head continued tospeak prophesies) heals in the centuries of poetic
language, in the language of tropes among which metaphor is the most crucial as
afigure of identity and identicalness of different elements.
This longing for unity that Miosz shares with Jeffers did not erase his objections tothe metaphysics of the American poet. Our humanity is like acathedral
suspended in an abyss, filled with the anguish of transient organisms passing
without atrace (87).34 But without our gaze the other, the abyss, though real, does
not exist, devoid of meaning. In APhilosophers Home Miosz declares esse est
percipi tobe means tobe perceived (2003 573). One more factor may come into
play here: an absolutization of the poetic gaze, serving the religion of poetry that
Miosz, as Ihave pointed out earlier, refuses tobe apriest of. There are many writers and poets who worship the Work, the mythical Book, enthusing about the act
creation competing with the created. Miosz was never one of them, always wanting
tobe the poet of that which is.
The gaze of Orpheus, writes Lvinas, goes beyond the metaphysics of esse
percipi: literature opens us tothe unthinkable. In other words, it enters into the
33
34
31
76
32
Zaleski Instead
37
35
36
77
eternal streaming of the outside, into that which is beyond the horizon of our
perception. The gaze of Orpheus is thus something different from the contemplative
gaze, it is its radicalization because it wants toavoid the distance that is proper
tocontemplation, distance which although it allows for the abandonment of the
I and tounite with the perceived is still atrace of presence and supremacy of
I, making the gaze an act of our will, leaving tous the autonomy of the I and
tothe horizon of our world (72, 75).35 Miosz, too, while praising sight above all
other senses, sees the fundamental importance of the gaze as the gaze not only
establishes the relation, but also constitutes it in away more perfect than literary
representation is capable of. The desire tosee, purely and simply, without name/
Without expectations, fears, or hopes / At the edge where there is no Ior not-I
is precisely adesire for the kind of relation in which the mediation of language is
eliminated, along with the deficiencies of verbal and graphic articulation that delay
and blur the essence of contact (2003 460). Seeing is an act of direct communication, realization of the deictic function; it constitutes the presence of the object
as agesture of pointing does, unclouded by the always unreliable and imperfect
mediation of the language.
Can this gaze be free from its objectifying aspect? Never completely! One can
try toavoid the mediation of the subject: depersonalized lyric resulting from the
Mallarman revolution shows that it is possible, at the cost of representational
function of literature, proving thereby that the perspective of the subject is necessary for representation. One cannot, however, avoid the mediation of language. It
cannot be avoided even in the Mallarms and Blanchots approach in which the
being of things is not named in the work but speaks itself in it, despite the fact
that in this perspective the I vanishes and being equals speaking in impersonal
speech, in the Self of the language (72-3).36 No attempt at representation can be
rid of I and tear the veil of language covering the barest reality. But an awareness of this difficulty, and in particular, the knowledge that it is language that
upholds our reality, inspires distrust towards our attempts at representation,
arousing suspicion towards ones own poetic endeavor, towards being a poet
and most of all, towards our own presentations. 37 It reminds that they are usurpations and that as representations of reality they are always already ex post and
incomplete, blurring and distorting the object of presentation. Already Blanchot
spoke of this particular aspect of literary autopresentation: Isay my name, and
it is as though Iwere chanting my own dirge: Iseparate myself from myself, Iam
no longer either presence or my reality, but an objective, impersonal presence,
the presence of my name, which goes beyond me and whose stonelike immobility
performs exactly the same function for me as atombstone weighing on the void
3.
78
The desire totear through toreality, the hope tocross over the breach, tosolve the
antinomy between language and reality that evades it, is what drives literature today
more than ever, and as aphilosophical question finds itself again at the heart of
writing. The necessity tomake present, especially tomake present that which had
been lost is what sustains and justifies literature. Would literature be necessary if we
were in aperfect unity with that which is, if we had perfect insight into the nature
of things and if things and events did not pass, if memory was aforce at least equal
toour imagination, if our impressions and feelings retained their intensity forever?
Writing literature would be an unnecessary task, otium negotiosum, as it was for our
ancestors, even though it was more than just this for them as well. It has been more
than just this since Orpheus descended into the Underworld and his story became
atopos of elegiac poetry.
But can absence and lack find representation through anything else than an
illusory and incomplete form of figuration? Figuration that always discredits and
falsifies the original because torepresent absence is an impossibility, acontradiction in itself and aperformative paradox? We don'treply for we have no language,
38
39
Zaleski Instead
in which totalk with the living. And the flowers wilt, useless, laid when we were
already far, says Miosz in one of his last poems (309).40
Literature is one of those rituals that uphold the world in its existence. But
Mioszs Orpheus knows about the futility of the ritual outside the world of the living. He keeps his promise: he will not look at Eurydice, he will not try toaddress
her. He will not look because he knows that his gaze is adouble gaze: of the man
who loves and suffers and of the man who writes of love and suffering. It is also the
gaze of amagician, atrickster, abrave who wants totear the veil and outsmart fate.
His gaze would place him in the mythical order, but it would kill his beloved for
asecond time. Once so obviously present, she is now beyond language, escaping that
which remains in the presentation. In the presentation she is always ashadow, she
refers tosomething beyond the image, tosomething other than what the image
contains, something that she resembles but is not. She is thus asign of something
that is absent from presentation and this poignant fact makes loss rather than her
the object of presentation. What has been lost is absent and appears as afiguration
of something other, of lack and emptiness. Her face no longer hers, utterly gray.
In his refusal tolook, Mioszs Orpheus betrays the condition of the poet and the
poets calling. Departing from the traditional version of the myth, he manifests his
disagreement: he waits for amiracle, for adifferent, happy ending, atriumph of life
over death, an epiphany of presence. But the miracle does not happen.
Day was breaking. Shapes of rock loomed up
Under the luminous eye of the exit from underground.
It happened as he expected. He turned his head
And behind him on the path was no one.
Sun. And sky. And in the sky white clouds.
Only now everything cried tohim: Eurydice!
How will Ilive without you, my consoling one!
But there was afragrant scent of herbs, the low humming of bees,
And he fell asleep with his cheek on the sunwarmed earth.
40
Miosz, What do I. Selected and Last Poems. 1931-2004. Ecco, 2011. 309.
79
Writing is an act of giving sense, it upholds our world in its existence. But the dream
of poetry as atool of magic, areligious ritual capable of moving the Sun and stars,
of changing the world and resulting in the triumph of life above death Orphic
poetrys dream of a causative language that participates in the presence is only
apoetic mythology. Poetry makes nothing happen remarked W.H. Auden, who
found himself on the antipodes of Orphism and was as important toMiosz at one
point as Jeffers. But an Orphic might say today every poem is performative, since
the state of things that the poem can be referred todoes not exist before it. Poetic
utterance has no other reference than itself, no other reference than the will tosay
of the chanting authorial voice. More so: it is aguarantee of reality, it is in the poetic
text that being reveals itself.
This new mythology, as hermetic as the Orphic teachings were once, equips the writer
with the will of writing, it makes Orpheus look into the well of the abyss, face his
own text and disappear in it. But the poem can never compensate for the loss it
is at most awork of mourning which, as we have learned from Feud, always serves
life. Is it afigure of consolation then? Things are not that simple. For the author
of Orpheus and Eurydice writing includes aconsolatory function but also the lie
of poetry, the immorality of art, the contradiction that removes it from the moral
judgment, beyond the world placed between good and evil. It is arecurrent theme
in Mioszs thought42.
As adaimon mediating between the contradictory orders of being, Orpheus unites
the old and the new. His descent into the realm of death and his return has been
traditionally, since Ovids Metamorphoses, viewed as afigure of transformation and
renewal. This time his katabasis his journey toHell happens in modern scenery,
characteristic of our age that for Miosz is also a continuation Baudelaires cit
infernale, amodern desacralized space devoid of the promise of sense. The image of
Orpheous falling asleep with his cheek on the sun-warmed earth is ametaphor of
consolation: dream can be afigure of live-giving oblivion, of rest and respite, after
which memory returns with new force, recovering through repetition the image
of the beloved. In other words, recovering that which can be recovered. But this
poetic image is also afigure of unity, lost and recovered, of an alliance with being
in its entirety, ametaphor of agreement toexistence.
Is it because such agreement is at the same time an affirmation of the mystery of
being? In his poem, Miosz still equals being with good. He repeats after St Thomas
Aquinas: it is good because it is. But old categories and notions, although important, receive new interpretations. Is, word that Nietzsche believed tobe crucial for
the European metaphysics, is given explication. For Nicholas of Cusa, Neoplatonist,
what is exists as coincidentia oppositorum. Referring toCassirer, Strauss writes that
the dynamic of this dialectic retains constant, polar tensions between explicatio and
complicatio, between alteritas and unitas. The only truth, one beyond comprehension
in its final sense can only be presented and accessed through the mediation of the
other but all that is other tends towards unity and participates in it (16).43 Nicholas
of Cusa believes contradiction tofind its positive resolution in God. This is viewed
differently by the poets of the linguistic turn, such as Mallarm, who identify
41
80
42
43
Zaleski Instead
the borders of our world with the borders of our language. In Mallarm, nothingness means universe from which God is absent (89). 44 For Blanchot, negation is the
moving force that holds the reality of things in suspension (253).45 In the writing of
Mallarm, Rilke and Blanchot, coincidentia oppositorum, believed tobe the principle
of being, became a vibrating void, an aporia that is the matrix of sense. And, as
Ihave said in Miosz poeta powtrzenia (Miosz, apoet of repetition) toone who
is lead by invisible hands, is has acompletely new interpretation, one typical of
postHeideggerian philosophy.46 As we have seen, an interpretation not differing
much from the one found in the writing of modern Orphics.
46
44
45
Ibidem. 89.
Blanchot in Strauss, Descend and Return. 253.
Miosz, poeta powtrzenia. Teksty Drugie. 2001. Vol. 4/5.
81
Jacek ukasiewicz
82
Poet on poets
In his creative work Miosz frequently surrenders his role as apoet, or rather, he
incorporates it into it his other roles: that of aliterary historian, lecturer, publicist,
journalist, reviewer. Although he discusses poetry and comments on other poets in
several genres of his discursive prose, my essay will focus only on Mioszs poetic
work and on what he says in it about poets about other Polish poets tobe precise.
And he says alot, in several ways and from several perspectives.
They are addressed directly in dedications and poem titles as recipients of letters,
odes, or witty verses. They are written about in the third person as well: from abrief
mention or ashort commentary toalong ballad or aquasi-essay. Miosz summons
them in their various non-literary roles but sometimes also strictly in their poetic
function, as speakers of their poetic work. Others yet make their appearance through
quotations, allusions, stylistic mimicry and similar techniques that are too plentiful
in Mioszs work tobe thoroughly discussed in this paper. Iwill thus concentrate
only on those instances which mention clearly and beyond the realm of doubt other
poets by their name, surname, pseudonym or periphrasis.
That poetry as aspace strives tobe fully autonomous, isolated from other textual
orders, is something Miosz is well aware of and fears. He uses several methods
tobreak the boundaries of poetry and toopen up poetic diction: assuming the role
of abiographer, chronicler, and literary historian in his poems, he broadens also the
meaning of those roles and enriches with them the space of his own poetry.
Mioszs poetic work evolved with time: in the prewar period (which for convenience Iwill treat here as awhole) one will find recipients of his dedications in the
poems written in the third person. Omodszym bracie (ToaBrother) is dedicated
to Jarosaw Iwaszkiewicz, Koysanka (Lullaby) to Jzef Czechowicz and List
1/1/1935 (Letter from 1/1/1935) not is not as much dedicated toas directed specifi-
83
The plural form in this poem is not ironic. But this changed dramatically during the war. In Rescue, Conrad, Goethe, Hafiz and Norwid are no longer viewed as
belonging tothe realm of the past somewhere on the other side of the abyss. On the
contrary, Miosz takes aleap in their direction. From there, looking upon what is
now the other side, he sees those who continue foolishly, he believes the poetic
of catastrophic symbolism, the twenty-year old poets of Warsaw.
His writing from the war period does not speak about other poets directly, with
the exception of the (already post-war) Przedmowa (Introduction) from Rescue. In
it, Miosz addresses the poets of the war generation: Baczyski, Gajcy, Trzebiski,
declaring that there is no wizardry of words in him. He lays his prophetic-didactic
volume on their graves, so that the ghost should visit us no more. But pushing
away from the old shore with spells, he knows very that these cannot work. His
post-uprising poems included in Rescue make use of numerous talisman-words, such
as seconds, pearls, or star (in Rozmowa pocha) and of exquisite baroque
stanzas in Los (Fate).
It was after the war that Mioszs poetic space opened up widely and filled with
other writers. His poetic invocations addressed those long gone (he asks Jonathan
Swift for support in writing poetry that is critical, satirical and mocking but at the
same time not devoid of poetic essence) and those still alive. At Tadeusz Rewicz
he directs his emphatic praise for the redemptive element of poetry (And all around
thunders laughter of the poet/ and his life, eternal), contrasting Rewicz with
rhetors who preach official lies.
In the satirical and didactic AMoral Treatise he lists several patrons: Witkiewicz,
Sartre, Rabelais, and Conrad, the author of Heart of Darkness. But these were not poets.
ATreatise on Poetry (1956) is the main work in which Miosz gathers other poets.
No other poem among his work presents alandscape inhabited by poets as broad, as
rich and as complete as that unveiled in ATreatise whose composite timeless space
gathers together those already dead and those still alive disregarding the boundaries
of history, literary history, and autobiography. All those constituent types of space
coexist in ATreatise but at the same time they do not overlap fully, like slides that
have been moved minimally so that the resulting image is ambiguous.
In ATreatise Miosz formulates poetic and metaphorical, as they are apart of
the poetic image definitions of artistic creation and of the described poets. Behind
the metaphors, behind every image there is alyrical I that produced the defining
metaphor. He has done that before: No more will from your pages he addressed
the book shine onto us foggy/ evening over still waters, as in Conrad's prose
following his comparison-based definition with another, built on anthropomorphizing metaphors: no more will the skies speak in Faustian choir and no more will
Hafez's long forgotten poem/ coolly touch our brows. Finally, he defines by means
of metonymy: Norwid will no more reveal to us the harsh laws/ of the century
covered with red dust. There is strong poetic imagery in the quoted fragment but
it is accompanied by astrong rhetorical and notional element. Immaterial nouns,
such as evening, skies, or poem are anthropomorphized turning into images
but names of the poets, remaining in the shadow of the images, are inscribed in
their structure. At the same time, we know that it is the names that are most crucial:
genetically primal here.
ATreatise on Poetry formulates its definitions using different method. Those
identified by their names are actual subjects of sentences. Descriptions refer tothem
and not toimpressions and moods of the reader, speaking voice of the poem. ATreatise
resembles (or imitates) atextbook by aliterary historian, or apiece of literary criticism, rather than an impressionist lyric: the I or we readers are pushed tothe
background, we are not as much reading subjects as objects shaped by the defined
poets. This is what happens in the passages on Conrad and Wyspiaski. They are
presented as protagonists on the historical (not only literary historical) scene. But
even they are not portrayed directly. Instead of Conrad himself, the decisive passage
of his tale uses ametonym mentioning acharacter in Heart of Darkness: One of the
civilizers, amadman named Kurtz who Scribbled in the margin of his report/ On
the Light of Culture: The horror. And climbed/ Into the twentieth century (114).2
Wyspiaski is spoken of as being defeated by the contradiction between solemnity,
84
After New and Collected Poems. Polish version of Mioszs line about Kurtz, also
quoted in the original version of this essay, reads Na memoriale owiatach kultury/
Pisa ohyda awic ju wstpowa/ Wdwudziesty wiek. Miosz seems tobe referring
toKurtzs report, and the translation toKurtzs last words. (AW)
This thought needs tobe emphasized, given back its fundamental meaning the
thought precisely, and not an element of poeticity. In the passage above, the eschatological dimension of Tuwims poetry, one he could not express directly, is revealed
as crucial. Eschatological that is transcending the boundaries of the present, portraying it sub speciae aeternitatis, because poetry itself was degraded by Tuwim (or
perhaps by his poetic? or by the poet-subject) toopulent poeticity. Tuwims poetic
85
86
He wanted to put motion into static images. (121) Mioszs satirical picture
portrays Przybo as either ahypocrite or someone lacking in the breadth of view:
ahypocrite who uses metaphors tofeign ambiguity of the poetic world that hides
rationalism and its common-sense discourse; lacking breadth of view as he fails
to see the contradiction between that pliable conformity of rationalism and the
cult of metaphor. Przybos avant-garde poetry is unjustly reduced toatechnical
exercise, performed despite historical cataclysms: He wanted toput motion into
static images.
Just as in the earlier part of A Treatise he oversimplifies the Young Poland,
Miosz simplifies the avant-garde in the following passages. He views its language
as poeticity, different from the one of the Young Poland but stemming from the
same root; as afalse pitching of voice, ayielding tothe ease and emotionality of
the Polish language (except on adifferent, ideological level) tothe infantile idea
of peoples power.
Tuwims portrait suggestively recalls the imagery of his poetry and it is asphere
in which Miosz establishes arelationship with Tuwim. In his portrayal of Przybo
there is not aslightest formal allusion tothe poetry of the latter, it is not brought
into view for even asecond, having been pre-judged and rejected.
Tuwim and Przybos literaty portraits are strongly embedded in the (Polish)
literary consciousness, probably stronger than any other critical treatment they have
been subjected to. Part III of ATreatise, The Spirit of History (with the exception of the
passage on twenty-year old poets of Warsaw) is dominated by quotation. Tradition
is built differently here Miosz does not begin with people but with texts (though
people are present too, as Mickiewicz is inseparable from Mickiewiczs quotations).
The diachrony of literary history mixing with amuch faster pace of literary life (that
the speaker-author of ATreatise is apart of) gives place tothe synchrony of poetic
time of the present perceived in an Eliotic manner as coexistence with the past.
Oh sad one, loved one
Sorely deceived one
It is not the eternal spirit, rebel, Lucifer
That writhes in the eel pierced with atoothed bone
It is not him who is so full of vigor that his head
Against stone needs tobe flung, till he is mum
87
The quoted poem of the killed poet is apart of the (broadly understood) authentic
linguistic tradition of old Lithuania, integrally tied tothe rhythm, the physiology
of the native land (tothe same extent towhich we tie apoem with the rhythm of
its authors organism Miosz writes about it for instance in Unattainable Earth).
88
Mioszs poem is not acollage; its an integral poetic space whose components are
nonetheless heterogeneous: court records and testaments are viewed as equal tolyrical poetry. Even if Bujnicki is somehow present in his own poem, his presence is
The memory is imprecise. Information about those shot in the empty lot seems
topoint tothe war period but Kamieska, who was born in 1920, was already at
least twenty at that time. The following poem is entitled Reading the Notebook
of Anna Kamieska.
Reading her, Irealized how rich she was and myself, how poor.
Rich in love and suffering, in crying and dream and prayer.
She lived among her own people who were not very happy but supported each other,
And were bound by apact between the dead and the living renewed at the graves.
She was gladdened by herbs, wild roses, pines, potato fields.
And the scents of the soil, familiar since childhood.
She was not an eminent poet. But that was just: Agood person will not learn the
wiles of art.
89
(531)
wirszczyska is treated with trust, Kamieska as apoet with distrust but both
found their way into Mioszs poetic space for important reasons.
They are recalled in Mioszs poems by his autobiographical and real I, he
simply reminiscences about them. There are no special rituals used to summon
them, no literary historical categories. The poet does not have toand does not take
on the role of aconjurer or aliterary historian.
In the poem about Czechowicz from The Separate Notebook cycle, the subject
acts in ayet different, more ritual manner. Is there away tocommunicate with
the dead across the boundary of death? There is, but an insufficient one answers
the poem in several verses of different tonality. The colloquialism of some of them
aims toeliminate or reduce the distance between the living and the dead (Yet
Ipresume you have some trace of interest, at least as toyour own continued stay
among the living. (382)). The high tone of others clearly emphasizes the poetic
character of the situation: you appear now on this other continent, in the sudden
lightning of your afterlife). Czechowicz is presented in the uniform of asoldier
from the year 1920.
90
From shit-houses in the yeard, tomatoes on the windowsill, vapor over washtubs, greasy
checkered notebooks How could that modest music for young voices soar, transforming
the dark fields below?Set apart by aflaw in your blood, you knew about Fate; but only
the chant endures, nobody knows about your sorrow (383)
Czechowiczs poetry directs the reader (or the listener) not toits maker but toadifferent reality that he created or revealed. Not abiographical, historical, social, but
ametahistorical, metaphysical one:
For avery long time, actually from the very beginning, Miosz paid special attention tofigures of authority and constructed perspectives toproperly receive them.
Depending on the perspective, the same person was admired or criticized, for example Mickiewicz (as discussed thoroughly by Elbieta Kilak in the second part
of Walka Jakuba zanioem (Jacobs Battle with the Angel)) As the perspectives shift,
new approaches are adapted, including the attitude of the worshipper, or more
frequently in Mioszs work the attitude of the student.
The third part of This is devoted topoets and other authors. Poets should not be
singled out, despite the fact that matters of poetry are also discussed here. Miosz
talks about what he owes to others and, once again, recapitulates the points he
disagrees with them about. It is his second most important dialogue with other writers after ATreatise but one very different from the latter. Its basic diction, natural
and practical, is modified here in several ways, from the pathos of an ode tothe
sarcasm of apamphlet.
Mickiewicz is the first tomake appearance. He was the one taught by the fate
that its enough to:
Put two words together, and here they come running,
Grab you totake you tothe tribal rite.
Let us write for ourselves, for ahandful of friends,
Just towhile away aSunday picnic:
This is how it starts. And before you know it there are flags,
Screams, prophesies, defending barricades
Ilearned, says Miosz, not only from Mickiewiczs great and right accomplishments
but also from his mistakes. But he always remains my great patron, the first one
tosummon. In him is the lesson and the warning.
91
92
12. That in our lives we should not succumb todespair because of our errors and our sins
for the past is never closed down and receives the meaning we give it by our subsequent
acts (712).
The rhymed ending (of the Polish version) introduces irony tothe poem, weakening
the deriding tone, also hinting at auto-irony.
This part of the volume includes other poems, Aleksander Wat's Tie and
ToRobert Lowell, as well as poems about two Polish poets: Zbigniew Herbert and
Tadeusz Rewicz. Iwill briefly refer tothe last two.
On Poetry, Upon the Occasion of Many Telephone Calls after Zbigniew Herbert's
Death returns tothe division that keeps tormenting Miosz, the division between
the carnal and the spiritual, the amoral nature and the moral sphere of God and
humanity. Even though it seems that poetry should not it does, for some reason,
inhabit that which is earthly, dirty and sinful. Individualized in man, after his death
it becomes identical with his individual soul that has left the body.
Liberated from the phantoms of psychosis
from the screams of perishing tissue
from the agony of the impaled one
It wanders through the world
Forever, clear (724)
Poetry is thus important also for the non-earthly future of the poet.
ToRewicz who said that evil comes from man/ always from man/ only from
man (726), Miosz replies with his leitmotif saying that evil is, unfortunately, immanent in nature: good nature and wicked man/ are romantic inventions. He
adds tothis, however, by adding tothe volume the last poem in this part, one that
is aportrait and adefinition, Rewicz.
he does not indulge
in the frivolity of form
in the comic abundance of human beliefs
he wants toknow for sure
The last two lines are amystery and each attempt toshed light onto it must falsify
it. Let us try tointerpret them nonetheless: todig in black soul means tosearch
for something in nature, tofarm the land and at the same time tohurt it. Rewicz
does both, obeying the external force (the force of poetry), being its tool the spade
and at the same time the injured mole. What does one find digging in the ground?
An earthworm or precisely amole. The latter has already made an appearance
93
94
*
The material presented here allows one todraw several different conclusions. It
can be interpreted using different keys.
First and foremost, other poets fill the space of poetry seen as atradition that is
history. They appear in adiachrony, living in their allotted time, composing poems
and leaving their texts behind. Among these poets there is also aplace for the I
standing for Czesaw Miosz, poet, born in Sztejnie, given along but also limited
moment in the history of Polish and international poetry. I am looking at myself
from the outside, looking at my place as aplace in the history of literature, at myself
as aone of the poets fulfilling their functions.
Secondly, they fill the space of poetry defined as my personal tradition. Iorganize this space arbitrarily toadegree, highlighting selected works of literature.
Ichoose them and shuffle, or they shuffle themselves inside me, co-creating my
internal landscape, not necessarily in chronological order although the order of
history is present in me tothe extent that other poets cannot abandon it entirely.
Iam the center of the system, not one of them but separate from them. Imeet
them but on my ground, on the ground of my personality and my poetry. My poetry, however, is not asingle space governed by one causal subject. No, my poetry
is divided into circles (let us stick for a while tothis imprecise but convenient
Dantean metaphor).
Those circles are arranged according tothe enumeration included in the Preface to A Treatise on Poetry. In each there is an I and in each others appear.
Mickiewicz, who is especially important for Miosz, continues tore-emerge. The first
circle is acircle of the worlds revelation in an image. It is an epiphanic unveiling
of the mystery, of being. It is experienced by the I directly and in the communion
with other poets capable of experiencing it. With Mickiewicz, one of the greatest,
perhaps the greatest among the Polish poets, who experienced and immortalized
it in the language, or who experienced in through the language. Next, he opens (or
rather closes) the circle of Melody, daydream, equivocal but also necessary, specifically poetic (as the epiphanic circle does not require verse). In the second circle
irrational powers are released as the speaker appears as aconjurer in its dual role.
The third circle is acircle of thoughts: here Mickiewicz appears ambiguously as
awise man who managed tooppose the bourgeois and scientistic Land of Urlo with
agreat force and as ademagogic usurper from The Books and The Pilgrimage of the
95
Bogdana Carpenter
Ethical and Metaphysical Testimony in the Poetry .
of Zbigniew Herbert and Czesaw Miosz1
The concept of poetry as witness determines and defines the poetics of Czesaw
Miosz and Zbigniew Herbert, two of the most important contemporary Polish
poets. Both share aconviction that the poets obligation is togive testimony tohistory. Miosz speaks simply of atask, explaining that he can fulfill his life only
by apublic confession / Revealing asham, my own and of my epoch (259).2 He
wonders if this was the reason why he was saved by the Might from bullets ripping
up the sand. (586) Similarly, Zbigniew Herbert pronounces categorically:
you were saved not in order tolive
you have little time you must give testimony3
96
The idea of poetry as witness can be traced as far back as Chord of Light, Herberts
most elegiac volume, shaped almost entirely by the war experience. It is also where
the juxtaposition of the instinct of life and the moral obligation of fidelity tothose
who passed away appears for the first time.
life purls like blood
Shadows softly melt
lets not let the fallen perish (6)
The lifeline that surges forth overthrowing obstacles is contrasted with the line
of fidelity, helpless like acry in the night ariver in the desert, invisible tothe eye
but parting the tissue of muscles and entering the arteries so that we might meet
at night our dead.(50) The same opposition returns in Prologue where the speaker
buries the dead like the ancient Antigone, refusing tostep into lifes new stream
praised by the choir.
Iswim upstream and they with me ...
Imust bring them toadry place
and pile the sand into aheap (224)44
The political context of the poem and its clear polemic with Miosz were noted by
several critics.
97
From the very beginning the concept of the poet as witness bearer is accompanied
by asense of inadequacy of words and poetry confronted with the task: too few
98
(6)
Surging from all sides, life and material reality of the external world blur the contour
of the past and replace the memories of what used tobe: our hands won'tpass on
the shape of your hands / we let them go towaste touching common things (6).
Instead of portraying real presences, images of the past are without memory, like
amirror that reflects only the immediately given: the city which stands on water /
as smooth as mirror's memory (8). In Warsaw, which after the uprising resembles
agraveyard, the dead ask in vain for aslight sign from above. (27) The living only
care about their own survival, and the names of the dead turn into adried kernel
(29). Our duty is toremember them; it is an obligation that not only the poet (cup
your hands as if tohold amemory) (29), but also things such as apebble or achair,
ceaselessly remind us of.
Duty toremember and togive witness concerns only victims. Herbert does not
attempt torecreate places that were lost: Lvov, vast sky of my neighborhood,
the house that knows all my escapes and my returns, the houses gate latch,
(28), thereby arguing against Mioszs The World. Each attempt torecall old
places is afailure: the ocean of flighty memory/ washes crumbles imagesthe
view suddenly breaks off (105). It is not only the failure of memory but also an
awareness that the reality we talk about is irrevocably lost. If Iwent back there/
Iwould probably not findasingle thing that belonged tous (278). Once again,
alost city turns into agraveyard: all that survived is aflagstone/ with achalk
circle (278).
Because of the date (1983) and the circumstances surrounding the publication of
the Report from the Besieged City, and of the title poem in particular, the volume is
frequently interpreted as adescription of the political and social situation in Poland
before and during the period of martial law (1981-1982). However, Poland and martial
law never literally surface in the poems, acharacteristic that distinguishes Herberts
witness from other testimonies and reports published in that period. His ability
toframe current events in abroad historical structure lends his poetry aunique
depth and range: each of the described facts reverberates with history and connects
tothe events of the past. As in ahall of mirrors, the events of 1981-82 reflect the
situation of 1956, 1939, 1863, 1795 and further back in time tothe beginnings of the
Polish state. The task that Herberts chronicler sets for himself grows bigger as he
continues towrite; little by little he becomes achronicler of not only contemporary,
but of the entire Polish history, and the siege that he describes turns out tohave
lasted longer than the martial law introduced by General Jaruzelski.
The image of history as ahall of mirrors functions on more than one level: it
reflects the events along the vertical axis of time but also along the horizontal, geographical one. Even if the chronicler of the Report concentrates first and foremost
on the history of Poland, he swiftly crosses the national boundary, setting parallels
99
(404)
The choice of words breaks the narrow actuality of the poem while the language
broadens its referential reality.
Bearing witness is doubly motivated for the author of the Report: it is amoral
obligation tothe victims of history on the one hand, and on the other, an attempt
to write a different history, one that is usually unnoticed, or worse, ignored by
professional historians. Herbert sees two faces of history one that it shows tothe
victims and another, shown tothe rulers and executioners. Tothe latter history
means power, crime and lies; for victims, the essence of history lies in suffering,
humiliation and death. And it is in matters that involve victims that the historians
are shamefully negligent.
aspecter is haunting
the map of history
the specter of indeterminacy
(404)
Faced with history unable tofulfill its task and bear witness, the poet is left with no
other choice than tobear it himself. He accepts his role as achronicler and write(s)
down not knowing for whom asieges history (416).
100
*
The problem of giving testimony is presented differently in Mioszs poetry.
The author of ATask considers it in fear and trembling, aware that he lives in
times when pure and generous words are forbidden (259). Hence the task of bearing witness, at least in Herberts understanding of the word, remains unfulfilled:
Isaid so little/ Days were short he confesses (274). Elsewhere the speaker of the
poem calls himself aschemer, different from those who give testimony remaining
indifferent togunfire, hue and cry in the bushwood, and mockery (345). He sees
the children from our street / met with avery hard death. Three Poems By Heart
(7)
See: Recepcja poezji Czesawa Miosza wAmeryce, Teksty drugie. Vol. 3-4. 2001.
99-114.
Eseje. Warszawa. 2000. 121-126.
101
his task elsewhere: Iprotect my good name, for language is my measure. (273).
Both Mioszs poems appeared in From the Rising of the Sun, published in 1974, as
was Mr. Cogito.
But it was also Miosz who, among the first poets, gave testimony tohis time
in Rescue. In Fever, 1939 mentions the killed children from our street and its
echoes can be heard in Herberts Chord of Light.5 Both Campo di Fiori and APoor
Christian Looks at the Ghetto are Holocaust testimonies, rare in Polish poetry, of
the fate of Jewish victims, abandoned and condemned tooblivion. In On the Death
Of Tadeusz Borowski he talks about smoke over Birkenau; Prologue outlines
atragic fate of an entire generation; The Moral Treaty (1947) remains one of the
most important and one of the earliest testimonies of the impending Stalinist terror. And Captive Mind, The Seizure of Power and ATreaty on Poetry carry on the
analysis of the political mechanisms of our century.
Further, in the academic year 1980/81 Miosz also delivered aseries of lecture at
Harvard University, poignantly titled The Witness of Poetry, admitting that with other
poets from Eastern Europe, he sought tofind in poetry witness and aparticipant
in one of mankinds major transformations (4). Miosz is aware that posterity will
read us in an attempt tocomprehend what the twentieth century was like (11).
He devotes one of the lectures, Ruins and Poetry, topoets who gave testimony
totheir era and the experience of war in particular acollective experience for Polish society as awhole not only sympathizing, but actually identifying with those
poets. Until the mid-80s, English and American criticism tended toread his work
mostly through apolitical and historical lens, reducing it wrongly and unjustly
towitness literature6 and Miosz himself claims testimony tobe aconstitutive part
of aliterary fact, and literature as it transcends the message delivered by the press
and television amore reliable witness than journalism (16).
Why, then, does he use a conditional in A Task? Why does he call himself
aschemer in Not This Way, cutting himself off from those who give testimony?
It is because in the three decades after WWII his stance on the question of witness
evolved. Miosz changed his mind regarding both poetry as witness and the very
concept of witness. In his famous essay Szlachetno, niestety (Nobility, unfortunately) published in Kultura (Paris, 1983) he warns against the kind of poetry
which in an attempt to fulfill the moral obligation of witness situates itself
too close toapolitical document and transforms into propagandistic journalism.7
Mioszs paradigmatic witness-poem, Sarajevo, written in the late 90s importantly
includes aremark that denies it apoetic status: Perhaps this is not apoem but at
least Isay what Ifeel (610). and his work evolves increasingly towards the existential
experience, abandoning not only politics, but history as well.
In contrast toMr. Cogito, who follows the ethical imperative that he is both the
sender and the recipient of, the secretary fulfills the intentions of an external
102
The evolution of the concept of witness in Miosz has several reasons, the most
obvious of which, though not necessarily the most important one, is his emigration,
in other words, aforced removal from ones own community, its historical experience
and along stay in the United States, where until recently the beating pulse of
history was less strongly pronounced. Visions from San Francisco Bay and poems
written during the first decade of his stay in America are an attempt at facing
American ahistorocity. Compared tothe first half of the 20th century, the second one
is undeniably marked by acertain slowing down of history, which lead one of the
American historians toarather haphazard pronouncement of the end of history
(F. Fukuyama, The End of History, National Interest, Summer 1989). What is
crucial, though, is the internal dynamic of this poetry whose existential dimensions
coexists from the very start with an immersion in history and politics. Evolution
should be understood then in terms of ashift, or achange in proportion.
Marian Stala believes the shift from negation toaffirmation tobe one of the most
fundamental structures in Mioszs sense of the world. (Trzy nieskoczonoci. Krakw
2001.126)
10
11
Two decades later his Report opens with an apostrophe toGod: OMost High, you
willed tocreate me apoet and now it is time for me topresent areport (589).
Miosz, Czesaw. Introduction. Haiku. Wydawnictwo M: Krakw. 1992.
103
force: All my life Ihave been in the power of adaimonion, and how the poems
dictated by him came into being Ido not quite understand (3).10 The idea of giving
testimony remains apart of the secretarial duty aiming totranspose what was
felt into amagical register, except for Miosz the sensation implies atotality of
experience as many colors, tastes, sounds and smells (687) and not only what
is believed tobe history.
Cogitare of Mr. Cogito does not attempt to affirm existence; his meditation
does not lead toan affirmation of reality but toan ethical conclusion: the duty
of faithfulness even at the cost of ones own life, Be faithful. Go. Faithful not
toexistence but to non-existence, to ashes and ruins, to the symbolic Troy and
her fallen defenders. Herberts poetic witness stays in the shadow of the dead.
Should we imagine Mr. Cogito as a product of Mioszs creative mind, cogitare
would instead lead to an affirmation of existence, to sum and esse, as one the
title of one of his poems suggests. The act of creation opposes that which is
destructive and is an attempt toovercome death. Tofind my home in one sentence, concise, as if hammered in metal. Not to enchant anybody. Not to earn
a lasting name in posterity. An unnamed need for order, for rhythm, for form,
which three words are opposed to chaos and nothingness (453). Poetry becomes a warrant of survival: I cast a spell on the city, asking it to last(425).
This new concept of witness and poetry seen as apassionate pursuit of the Real
determines the poetic of the author of Unattainable Earth, apoetic in which the
word tries to move as close as it is possible to the described object, replacing
the signifiant with the signifi: When poets discover that their words refer only
towords and not toareality which must be described as faithfully as possible,
they despair but the never-fulfilled desire toachieve amimesis...makes for the
health of poetry (49, 56).
Hence the strong presence of description in Mioszs poetry, his interest with
the poetry of the East and his haiku anthology where, as in his own poems, savoring every detail of the visible matter refers the reader tosomething other than
just words and images (7-9).11 Description is the witness of existence as reality made permanent by the poetic word confirms existence. Seen as arebellion
against non-existence witness acquires anew, metaphysical dimension: Mimesis is
not only amatter of style, but first and foremost aworldview proclaiming the
existence of objective reality that can be seen as it is (73). Thus, each detail,
such as the polka-dot dress or pearls on the belt of Venetian courtesans, acquires
new importance. It is the detail seen, heard, felt and remembered that lends
credence tothe act of witness, becoming irrefutable proof of the truth of relation,
and of truth as such. Also, aproof of existence, as with every word the presence of
entire human lives is felt (73). Naming, the very core of poetic act, re-enacts the
divine act of creation and being its highest praise at the same time. The chance
As Marek Zaleski rightly observes, Mioszs constant revisiting of his homeland and
Vilnius are more than asymptom of nostalgia, they are asymbol of transcendence
and arite of redemption.12 Remembered images express disagreement with the
order of this world, a rebellion against the earthly law that sentences memory
toextinction (588), an attempt topush against the stone wall (644).
The poetry of the conviction of reality is not an attempt toescape history. Historical experience, including the experiences of WWII and communism, crucial
for Herbert and contemporary Polish writers, is not despite the initial impression
absent from the concept of witness suggested by Miosz, fundamentally shaped
by those experiences. No less than the author of ToMarcus Aurelius is Miosz
branded by history and its cruelty: For since Iopened my eyes Ihave seen only
the glow of fires, massacres (59). He, too, gives testimony tothose who have died.
However, siding with life, Miosz defines the role of witness differently than Herbert
who sees evil as embodied evil, always with ahuman face (635 emphasis mine).
The cruelty of war, totalitarian systems, and the deaths of millions, do not conceal the truth about the tragic fate of the individual whose existence always ends
in death. Death caused by political systems remains only apart of evil of human
death as such. This is why the author of ABC is not concerned with the status of
those he resurrects in his poems, be it amaid, Paulina, or two sisters, Anna and Dora
Druyno, old women, defenseless against historical time, and simply time itself
whose names no one but me remembers. Each evoked character is apart of alarger
order: atestimony totheir existence is thus atestimony toexistence as such, pars pro
toto.13 Historicity does not manifest itself only through large events in the form of
12
104
13
14
105
Anna Nasiowska
Female Identity in the 20th Century Polish Poetry: .
Between Androgyny and Essentialism.1
106
The following essay expands on the presentation given at the 32th TheoreticalLiterary Conference organized by Uniwersytet Jagieloski and Institute of Literary
Research in Janowice, September 2003.
J. Butler Gender trouble. Feminism and Subversion of Identity, London, New York 1990.
P. Dybel Refleksje wok diagramu rnicy seksualnej Jacquesa Lacana. [Reflecting
on Lacans diagram of sexual difference] Krytyka feministyczna. Siostra teorii ihistorii
literatury. G. Borkowska, L. Sikorska (eds.) Warszawa, 2000. 30-42.
107
Who was Iakowiczwna? In the minds of her readers she was or is first and
foremost apoet. But there were other determinants of her existence and fate, and
her textual auto-creations include areas of non-identity that need tobe talked about.
Even my opening claim that she was apoet [poetka, fem. sg.]6 must be taken
with reservation. Anatol Stern, for instance, referencing Iakowiczwna in one of
his critical essays, referred toher using the male form of poet. Stern says: Our
country has been fortunate with poets [fem. pl.]. This goes as far back as toUrszula
Kochanowska.Our country has also been fortunate with poets [male. pl.] that were
female, such as Maria Pawlikowska, Kazimiera Iakowiczwnam and others7 Stern
proceeds todiscuss avolume of poetry by another author, forgotten today, whom he
believes todeserve aplace in our memory. Many years later Micha Gowiski used
asimilar critical concept referring tothe work of Wisawa Szymborska on the day
she was awarded honorary doctorate by Adam Mickiewicz University in Pozna.
Gowiski also felt the need tocomment on his decision touse the masculine:
Both Stern and Gowiski use the masculine as acompliment whose wording is one
of the loci communes of literary criticism, apopular device used toshow appreciation..
Reading Iakowiczwnas early writing, one discovers that the hesitation regarding her status as apoetka or poeta was inscribed in her first poetic attempts. Her
fist volume, Ikarowe loty [Icarian Flights] was published in 1912 in Cracow under
the name I.K. Iakowicz [devoid of the fem. ending]. Ayear later she found herself
in aguest house in Zakopane where, as aresult of her recent literary success, she
was seated at the table next toStefan eromski whose work she passionately read.
Noticing ayoung person eromski started asmall talk asking initially about skies
and bobsleighs. As none of the topics worked, the company at the table hinted that
the young lady wrote and even published literature.
So, are you by any chance related to he asked hesitantly.
Yes, yes Iinterrupted knowing what was coming and said Actually, not
related. Iwrote those poems myself.
The face of my great neighbor went dark, slowly turning tostone, his eyes lost
interest
and kindness.
Dear God he said flatly I.K.Iakowicz is awoman!
He turned away and never looked at me again.9
108
10
11
109
Masculine verb forms (bom sdzi ibd wlk) are used for the first time in the
fourth stanza of the five but from the very beginning the poem exhibits features
tied tothe male cultural pattern that could be interpreted as signaling masculinity,
as well as clear literary reminiscences of Leopold Staff s will of power from Sny
opotdze [Dreams of Power] (1901) and Mickiewiczs Ode toYouth. The latter
echoes even more loudly in the second poem of the volume, Bunt modoci [Rebellion of the Youth] and lyrics that follow further add tothe constructed image
of the speaking subject who declares the end of melancholy and praises rebellion,
transforming into Icarus, Pilgrim and Samson, someone feeling astrong bond with
their generation and ready tomeet the demands of heroism, including apossible
participation in the patriotic goals. Such adeclaration on the eve of the Great War
seemed very timely. The sense of community is expressed through the repetitive use
of the plural we and certainly implies acollective willingness tofight: in other
words, military preparedness. At the same time, the speaker is very much aware
of the spiritual dilemmas of the recent past, which in turn are associated with the
female word soul. The lyrical tension is born between the soul whose weakness
needs tobe overcome and the spirit, declarations of power, and the willingness
toact in the real world. Poems such as these foreshadowed, in away, the activism
and vitality of the Skamander group. Tortured wombs, angels, graves, funerals
and souls are all part of the symbolic inheritance, re-evaluated with the thought of
abrighter, heroic future. It is not until the seventh poem in the volume, Tsknota
do ycia [ALonging for Life] that the feminine forms appear, but the verse itself
is stylized into afairy-tale. Its speaker is ashadow of aprincess who, clad in
stolen radiance and suspended between life and illusion, dreams the dream of
asoul. The dream, too, ends with avictory of life.
This is followed by athematically linked series centered around the confession
of a lover. He awaits death in the arms of his belowed (Psen [Half-asleep]),
dreams of the dead (Umara panienka ukazuje si spoczywajcemu [Dead Girl
Appears tothe Dreamer]), yearns, sings toarose, and becomes apoor prince. Here,
however, following afew clearly distinct poems, returns the fairy-tale character: in
the song of the orphan, in the lament of the sick and the cycle in which those poems
are included is titled Shadows, immediately suggesting role-playing which allows
to move freely between masculinity and femininity. Similarly, in the succeeding
three cycles, male and female voices are treated interchangeably.
110
Before one begins toattribute masculinity toIakowicz, more needs tobe said
about the poet herself. Already around the time of her literary debut her feminist
consciousness was uniquely developed. She received an education in Cracow, and
earlier, in England. We know little about her studies in Oxford, where her time was
probably largely spent on overcoming the language barrier. Later (in 1908, it is
unclear for how long precisely) she studied at aLondon school for women located
on Church Street and lead by an Irishwoman, Mme DEsterre, called Amica. The
school was actually akind of women phalanstery whose life was organized around
intellectual pursuits; it followed astrictly vegetarian diet and inhabiting students
(foreigners and girls from poorer families) did not pay tuition but had tohelp with
housework. They wore uniforms resembling togas and small round caps that provoked the curiosity of onlookers but solved the problem of buying clothes. Tuition
fees were obligatory only for the non-inhabiting students, among them wives of
Members of Parliament, ministers, and Anglican clergy.
The curriculum of the house of Simple Life included what today would be
called courses in rhetoric and literature (English, French and German). It emphasized the importance of practical skills such as discussion, argumentation, presenting and defending ones opinion, the preparation of speeches, and public speaking.
These were trained during actual discussions and presentations on various abstract
subjects.12 It seems that Iakowiczwna utilized the skills acquired in London in the
1920s and 30s while preparing speeches commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs aimed at winning support for the Polish cause abroad and presenting the
12
13
14
15
16
Text based on the version printed in Polish in the Polish press. In : Wspomnienia
ireportae. 28-54.
K. Iakowiczwna cieka obok drogi, Warszawa 1939. 39-41. Emmeline and her
daughter, Christabel Pankhurst fought for the voting rights of women, attempting
first toput the matter of the vote on the Parliament agenda. Since 1905, they were
deeply conflicted with the police authorities, the fight for the suffragist cause
entailed the loss of life among protesting women.
K. Iakowiczwna Niewczesne wynurzenia. Warszawa 1958. 232.
K. Iakowiczwna Trazymeski zajc. 15.
111
Because she went into the woods with agun and caused alot of trouble tothose gentlemen Imagine how embarrassing it must have been for them! 16
112
17
18
19
20
21
Ibidem, 175.
D. Baron Grammar and Gender, New Haven and London 1986.
113
In the tale of Iakowiczwna meanings first seem inclined towards masculinity only toindicate femininity later on. Interpretations alluding togender identity
disorders should be rejected, however, as relying on open and ungrounded psychologism. Iwill add only that in my use of biographical material Irefer exclusively
toIakowiczwnas own written testimony, remaining within the scope of her point
of view.
Her identity seems to present itself as an unsolvable riddle, a paradox, but
nothing justifies apotential claim that we are dealing with something dangerous
or pathological. It is not an act of transgression, nor acase of gender disorder as
it was with Maria Komornicka.
One could definitely say that as much as there are attempts in contemporary
Polish feminism toenforce the policy of using female forms torefer toprofessions
and functions exercised by women, at the beginning of the 20th century feminist
consciousness entailed afight for the right touse the masculine torefer towomen.
Grammatical forms are often ideologized, as evidenced by Dennis Baron in Grammar
and Gender.21 And so, today one will meet women referring tothemselves using the
feminine forms of professions such as literary critic, historian of ideas, anthropologist, or sociologist. Meanwhile, Iakowiczwna used the masculine when she said
was aministers secretary, diplomatic courier, civil servant and she wanted tobe
22
114
23
24
draws attention with its grammatical eccentricity, and with the impossibility of the
proposed construct. It de-constructs every essentialist vision. As adoctor, Fugulian
is arenown ophthalmologist [masc. sg.] while remaining agreat cook [fem. sg.]
and hostess. Femininity and masculinity exist simultaneously, parallel, repealing
the either/or. This is only the beginning of the character presentation, further
on femininity outweighs masculinity. What follows is adescription of extremely
complicated procedures performed in an improvised kitchen and their strangeness,
resulting from cultural difference, turns them into akind of transformative ritual
that involves not only people, but also water and herbs, and the entire surrounding.
That Iakowiczwna supported the ideal of androgyny, typical of liberal feminism
of the first half of the 20th century, is something completely forgotten today. She is
simply believed tohave been aCatholic poet, probably as aresult of her meditative
and prayer poems, the legends of saints that she wrote, and her declarations of faith.
She often used masculine grammatical forms but kept the feminine ending of her
surname, even though she could have easily abandoned it. There were administrative
pressures after the war toabandon traditional endings such as owa and wna (or
ina, -lina) since it was sometimes difficult toreconstruct the basic in other words,
male form of the name that used the ending. Iakowiczwna bore her mothers name:
her biological father died in unknown circumstances and she was born out of wedlock.
The fact that her father was ason of Tomasz Zan, aphilomath and Mickiewiczs friend,
was mythologized only after her death as it had apotential totransform into larger
poetic legend. Iakowiczwna herself built her self-creation around adifferent fact,
namely, that she had two mothers, both very loving. She bore agreat sense of guilt
towards the foster mother, who looked after her after the death of the biological one,
during aturbulent period of adolescence and of gaining independence.
Iakowiczwna never wrote a straightforward memoir but her entire prose,
without exception, relies on memory, uses lived experience, and refers tothe past
and undoubtedly authorial Self. The pre-war cieka obok drogi (1938) [The Path
Next ToThe Road], intended as didactic propaganda, did not foreshadow the emergence of aprosaic talent and for several reasons was not well received. It is an odd
work which fails tosuccessfully combine the educational and patriotic attempt at
presenting aheroic leader with avery individual point of view, resulting in afalse
mannerism and tone. These reservations do not apply tothe post-war books: tothe
already mentioned cycle Zrozbitego fotoplastikonu [From aBroken Kaiser-Panorama]
(1957) which could be classified as poetic prose, toNiewczesne wynurzenia [Untimely
Confessions] (1958), and Trazymeski zajc [Trasimeno Hare] (1968), nor to the
pre-war essays. Niewczesne wynurzenia and Trazymeski zajc refer tochildhood, the
interwar years and the poets travels that revealed toher the relativity of all customs
believed tobe universal and non-debatable, and tothe years 1939-1948, when she
stayed in Transylvania, immersed in the Romanian-Hungarian context and supporting herself by teaching languages.
The poets memoirs are always arranged in very particular constellations of remembered impressions, shards, and fragments. Despite reservations concerning the
115
25
26
116
27
28
117
118
29
30
M. Hillar, Czekanie na Dawida. Warszawa 1967. 67; M. Hillar Gotowo do, p. 83.
Iam indebted for this observation toAgnieszka Nietrestas research published in:
Magorzata Hillar. Ksiniczka wyobrani. Krakw 2003.
Cz. Miosz Jakiego togocia mielimy. OAnnie wirszczyskiej, Krakw 1996.
31
32
119
Kissing should probably be read here as asocially acceptable expression for having
sex as in the poetry of Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska or Halina Powiatowska.
The new formula of corporeal identity emerged gradually in wirszczyskas writing, first in Czarne sowa [Black Words], in poems described as African stylizations,
and matured as late as the 70s, when the author herself was about 60. Jestem baba
(1972) [IAm Baba] can be considered abreakthrough, tied toafundamental shift in
style, toarejection of culturalism, tofactography, and laconic expression. The title
of the volume is abold and irreverent assertion of identity. Baba is disrespectful
in Polish; it is afolk expression referring toan old woman. In folk tales baba and
dziad [the male equivalent of baba] are always coupled, and dziad also means
someone poor, sometimes even abeggar (interestingly, the word for the female
beggar is dziadwka. [dziad with afem. dim. ending] The semantic field of baba
is broad and includes the negativity of tybabo [direct address that borders on
name calling]; or, more intensely: babsztylu, babiszonie [more pejorative forms
of baba womanoid]; but also the neutral, even warm, babciu [granny] in the
mouth of achild; tothe approving, self-descriptive hej babki! [hey ladies!] lets get
down towork, well show them!
As she was going through this fundamental change, in 1973, wierszczyska
talked about her poetic work in the introduction to Poezje wybrane: Style is the
poets enemy and it is most advantageous when it is non-existent. Let me explain it
with aparadoxical shortcut: writers have two goals. The first one is tocreate their
own style. The second todestroy their own style. The latter is more difficult and
120
33
34
35
A. wirszczyska Mam dziesi ng [IHave Ten Feet] Szczliwa jako psi ogon.
Krakw, 1978. 13.
121
Androgyny is ahighly complex type of identity that does not result in asingle
model, and which contains varied cultural masculine and feminine ranges. Its shape
is always an individually constructed mosaic. Its presence is usually discreet: the
122
speaking subject often simply avoids using grammatical forms that disclose gender,
and the text can be read as both masculine and feminine. This way, the speaker of
the poem neutralizes the compulsion todefine each situation with regards togender
present in normal social life. This is also why androgyny is difficult tospot, as the
appearance of aneutral utterance does not exclude incidental returns tofemininity, or its strong accentuation in selected spheres and weak presence in others.
Iakowiczwnas work is an opportunity to trace the motifs and the methods of
constructing such acomplex identity, quite common at the beginning of the century.
Female androgyny is atypical formula of modernist individualism.36
Ibelieve it tobe something more than just an adventure of gender in the period
of Young Poland which was hostile towards women. It is astarting point for the
development of one of the most common models of the Self, tied tothe aspiration of female emancipation. The androgynous I establishes itself directly in the
world, and does not view the romantic relationship with aman tobe the only, the
most important, and generally privileged model on which ones self-creation is tobe
founded. Naturally, in several instances one could point out the poets dispersion in
the dominant model; however, it needs tobe stressed that androgyny does not entail
alack of female identification, but rather its co-existence with models identified
culturally as more masculine and, at the same time, an awareness of non-finality
of all description and the fluidity lurking beneath it. At the beginning of the century,
such identification was an act of independence and courage, even though today the
clarity of this option is blurred and unintelligible. It has found its continuation,
however, and is the main voice in poetry written by women. Most poetic texts by
Szymborska are undetermined. What draws attention is their rationalism and the
ability totransform situations into intellectual generalizations. Their irony reveals
astrong polemic intention towards the male stereotypes rather than agentle one.
Androgyny and anti-essentialism also characterize the construction of the subject
in the poetry of Julia Hartwig, where the love relationship is amarginal experience
in the process of constructing subjectivity.
Visions of womanhood as astrong, basic and irreducible part of identity (and not
as afeature of inferiority, but on the contrary, an element of positive characterization) require arevolution of values. Tobase the positive vision of womanhood on
the biologically defined sex, wirszczyska had toarrange the relation of nature
and culture differently than it has been done before, assuming the former to be
afundamental dimension towhich absolute truth is related. It was not arevolution
of language in Polish poetry and so there are few instances that could be viewed
as an implementation of the idea of criture feminine. It is also difficult toview the
biologically defined female identity as containable by mainstream feminism which
energetically cuts itself off from the biological definitions as agateway tothe worst
sort of determinism. wirszczyskas poetry is close toRewiczs tradition. Identity
36
123
Marek Zaleski
Biaoszewski: Idyllic
It has been half acentury since the publication of Miron Biaoszewskis debut
making collection. Biaoszewski turned out tobe arevelator of poetic language of
the scale that today is still difficult toassess, but the novum of his poems in 1956
relied also on their bringing forth arecord of aperipheral existence, avery particular kind of record although that too was obviously influenced by the venerable
poetic tradition. His poetic work can be placed within the tradition of the idyll of
the Self, especially in one of its models that Renato Poggioli names the the idyll
of ones own room (67).1 Ones own room is tobe understood not as much abastion of privacy (which around that time was completely unprotected), but rather
as ashelter or arecess providing the peace necessary for contemplation and relief.
It is the locus amoenus of the Stalinist age. Rituals and object filling this private
space, such as the stove like atriumphal arch (in Oh! Oh! Should They Take
Away My Stove),2 or the wardrobe (Sztuki pikne mojego pokoju) transform
124
125
the hermitage into aprivate Sans souci in which one dances the quadrille and precious time passes, as the ending of the latter poem informs. Solitude is an essential
state tothe contemplating mind, as essential as air and the mythology of apoet
which in this case is nothing other than aprivate idyll of belonging, belonging
toaconfraternity and not just any confraternity: the speaker of Biaoszewskis
poem is aware that he joins along lineage of predecessors: Yet/ my hermitage/
has its temptations:/ solitude / memories of the world / and that Iconsider myself
apoet. (Of My Hermitage With Calling [BCZ]).
Ones own room is also an extension of the Self which for Biaoszewski is the
most basic instance of beingintheworld omnipresent tothe extent characteristic of Romantic poets who perceived the boundaries of the Self tobe the only
boundaries of the world. It is interesting indeed that an archantiRomantic such
as Biaoszewski shares with the Romantics the belief in the supremacy of the Self,
aparadox that could perhaps be explained if one views his poetry as ademonstration of power of the projecting, creative Self of the poet in other words, if one
views Biaoszewski poetic work as arealization of the defensive and aggressive
variety of subjectivity (148).3 Hyperactivity of the lyrical voice is an attempt
toreconcile the contradiction resulting from existence within two separate and
conflicting orders: subjectivity and the world. Biaoszewski achieves this in the
simplest possible way by negation. He strives tobe like achild: unified with
the world. And the worm of consciousness? The poet pretends not tofeel its bite.
Being in all possible forms is good by its very nature and such is our existence in
it as well. Iam happy that Ithink (from AJoyful SelfPortrait [BCZ]) means:
Iam happy, therefore Iam: consciousness is adance of joy the poem continues.
Being is joy, but being no more is joy unspeakable.
Readings of Biaoszewskis early poems offered by prominent critics such as
Jacek ukasiewicz and Artur Sandauer determined important interpretative directions inasmuch as they mystified the body of his work. The poets alienation,
his decision totake the position of an outsider his scavengery, emphasized by
ukasiewicz,4 and the allegedly ostentatious, almost nihilistic strategy of avagrant posited by Sandauer,5 were in fact or so one might infer today strategies
But it was also not everyday beauty, which in the work of other poets for
instance, in Leopold Staff s Wiklina invites rather sentimental sacralizations
of the ordinary. The fascination with what is accessible totouch and sight, generally common, everyday, and rudimentary, apparent in The Revolution of Things, is
of arather different origin. It results from the experience of uncanniness of the
ordinary. Such acategory immediately leads us in the direction of the Freudian
Unheimliche, except in this case we seem tobe facing its so tosay positive variety.
Biaoszewski appears tobe aphenomenologist of what Freudian discourse would
refer toas Unheimliche der Gewhnlichkeit, but the convenient Freudian trope is
false in this particular instance. Amore suitable interpretation of Unheimliche as
strangeness is suggested by Stanley Cavell in his investigation of the ordinary;
it is the result of skepticism that has that found its newer incarnation in the
philosophy of language from Wittgensteins writings. Modern skepticism equips
language as a tool of everyday communication with the ability, or even desire,
to undermine and challenge itself and by doing this it raises awareness of the
surreal character of the real, in other words, of nonobviousness of what is real.
From this perspective, the world itself becomes problematic ascandal tophi
126
10
S. Cavell The Uncannines of the Ordinary in: Cavell, In quest of the Ordinary:
Lines in Scepticism and Romanticism, Chicago University Press, Chicago 1988. 154:
My idea is that what in philosophy is known as skepticism (for example, as in
Descartes, Hume and Kant) is arelation tothe world, and toothers, and tomyself,
and tolanguage, that is known towhat you might call literature, or anyway
responded toin literature, in uncounted other guises in Shakespeare's tragic
heroes, in Emerson's and Thoreau's "silent melancholy" and "quiet desperation," in
Wordsworth's perception of us as without "interest," in Poe's "perverseness." Why
philosophy and literature tonot know this about one another and tothat extent
remain unknown tothemselves has been my theme ut seems tome forever.
Ryszard Nycz discusses modern epiphany in Literatura jako trop rzeczywistoci.
Universitas, Krakw (2001) 41 and elsewhere.
A. Bielik Robson discusses epiphany as providing affirmative power in the
disenchanted world and the related, inextricable will toparticipate of the
subject as well as the power of the gaze complementing the sphere of ontology in the
Introduction toCh. Taylor rda podmiotowoci. Narodziny tosamoci nowoczesnej
[Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity] transl. M. Gruszczyski
et. al., T. Gadacz (ed.) with an Introduction by A. Bielik-Robson. PWN, Warszawa
(2001) p. L and n. Bielik-Robson develops the idea in Duch powierzchni. 126, 343 and
elsewhere.
Dziewi uwag do portretu Jzefa Stalina In: A. Wat. wiat na haku ipod kluczem.
K. Rutkowski (ed.) Polonia Book Fund, London 1985. 135-136.
127
losophy as Kant would have said.7 What evokes anxious attention or fascination
bordering on awe is the epiphanic scene of appearance, the aura of event in itself.
Beginning with Hofmannsthal, the appearance of an ordinary thing in its proper
form, natural and almost necessary and yet suddenly nonobvious and resisting
our knowledge of it (both visual knowledge and one previously acquired that allow
for its immanentization or assimilation) represents the modern epiphany.8 This is
precisely how an epiphany happens also in The Revolution of Things [Obroty rzeczy]
where the appearance of things is always helped by the presence of the subject.9
The subject reveals itself as anecessary catalyst, an interaction and acopresence,
as the Self is more than the locus of manifestation of principium individuationis.
It is also its cosmic extension: We are starfish. / Not separate from anything. /
Dispersed. (My rozgwiazdy [We, starfish]). In Noce nieoddzielenia [The
Nights of Unseparateness] the subject is acoexistence. It is from my breast
/ that stairs of reality growStrike me / Ostructure of my world! (My Jacobs
of Exhaustion [BCZ]) Biaoszewski facilitates the appearance of things because
the phenomenon never ceases toplease and amaze him: Igape astonished / and
Iastonish myself / and comment on the lives of things around me. (Of My Hermitage With Calling [BCZ])
An older division of labor, as Aleksander Wat observes, assumed surprise and
marvel to be the domain of philosophers while the task admiration was given
topoets.10 This division was abandoned in Romanticism in Balon, sentimental
poet Kajetan Komian writes: Our task is togaze, marvel and praise. His sense
of marvel still concerns, conventionally, the high object of rhetorical decorum (in
128
The stove in the poem is also beautiful in the evening when it enters the
elements/ of monumental shrouding. In Podogo, bogosaw! [Bless, OFloor!]
the presence of the floor, its color and texture, greybrowness of turnip makes an
appearance in several scenes, perseverations, and alternations. Biaoszewski writes
his own Metamorphoses. Each increasingly devout presentation of the object in the
poem is atrace of what its essence appears tobe. Throughout this chase, changes
its ontological status: the thing becomes aconcerting word as in Czachorowskis
poems, the order of language, in other words, the order of late allegory, is revealed
as the proper order of the existence of things. Finally, the attempt toexpress [in
words] turns into an incantation, in aprayerful chant.
This presentation is has been making appearance forms in poetry in increasingly
diversified since Romanticism: next topoetry that entered the circle of tormented
11
12
13
14
15
Dignities of plain occurrence. After: P.V. Marinelli Pastoral. The Critical idiom.
Methuen, London (1971) 5.
After: D. Siwicka. Turcja In: J.M. Rymkiewicz, D. Siwicka, A. Witkowska,
M. Zieliska Mickiewicz. Encyklopedia. wiat Ksiki, Warszawa (2001) 561.
Asmall thing! Is it asmall thing? tosee in the movement of heel,/ in the cork
sole of the shoe tosee the soul at work it is drama! Norwid, Aktor [Actor] (second
version). Act I, Sc. I. 8-14. R. Nycz describes those trivial events and details that
in Norwids Black Flowers and White Flowers become the center point of simple
allegories as an novel project of an epiphanic discourse in Literatura jako trop
rzeczywistoci. 90 and elsewhere.
J. Kwiatkowski Liturgia iabulia in: J. Kwiatkowski, Klucze do wyobrani. PIW,
Warszawa (1964).
129
More than with anything else, Mickiewicz is preoccupied with the scene of ordinary things (in this particular case, apile of rubbish) making an appearance in an
extraordinary way. In Norwid, ordinary things, insignificant and seemingly trivial
details will soon become amedium of most strange correspondence and epiphanic
drama of small things. 14
The world is astorehouse of contemplation tothe author the author of The
Revolution of Things, a place of the carnival of poetry,/ for a solemn unceasing
amazement (Of My Hermitage). What should be noted (and what suggests
the idyll of ones own room) is the fact that the strangeness of everyday objects,
differently than in Freud or too look into more literary and familiar sources
in Tuwim or Gombrowicz, is not sinister or demonic in its character. It does not
result in tormenting repetitions, it does not deprive of sense and turn our definition of reality inside out. Strangeness in Biaoszewski is not ahole in the Great
Other, in the symbolic system that we use totame the world. On the contrary, it
makes reality more attractive and strengthens it. Because of its strangeness,
reality turns out tobe friendly and deserving of adoration, it evokes admiration
instead of dread, moreover as critics have noted Biaoszewskis everyday is
sacralized.15 It is the gesture of sacralization and the accompanying ritualization
of mundane activities directs us most successfully at the notion of everyday lived
as positively experienced Unheimliche. Ordinary objects and actions do not evoke
130
16
17
Compare: A.F. Potts The Elegiac Mode: Poetic Form in Wordsworth and Other Elegist,
Cornell University Press, Ithaca 1967. 36 and elsewhere; K.E. Smythe Figuring Grief.
Gallant, Munro and the Poetics of Elegy, McGill-Queens University Press, Quebec
(1992). 11 and elsewhere.
After: C.M. Schenck Mourning and Panegyric. The Poetics of Pastoral Ceremony. The
Pensylvania State University Press, University Park and London (1988) 15.
18
19
20
131
One could say that, as arecord of described experiences, the text itself becomes
the pastoral otium. It is thus not surprising that Biaoszewski does not shy away
from the role of the poet. On the contrary, he subscribes toit. Balcerzan notes that
Biaoszewskis poetic strategy is in fact astrategy of archpoet: at the core of it
there lies atolerance for everything that exists. 20 Naturally! The sense of being at
21
22
23
132
24
render despair impossible () Biaoszewskis hero cannot free himself of the weight
of dazzle and marvel.
Compare: R. McGahey The Orphic Moment. Shaman toPoet-Thinker in Plato, Nietzsche
and Mallarm, State University of New York Press, Albany 1994, C.M. Schenck
Mourning and Panegyric, 2 and elsewhere, 58 and elsewhere. The crucial link
between pastoralism and Platonism, and between Arcadian and modern forms of
initiatory pastoral, is Orphism. Schenck, 20
Transl. Michael J. Miko
First two expressions from H. Friedrich, Struktura noweoczeasnej liryki [The Structure
of Modern Poetry] PIW, Warszawa (1978) 153, the latter by R. McGahey from The
Orphic Moment. 130.
The allusion seems clear tothose familiar with Hail! Bright Cecilia by the British
Orpheus, Henry Purcell, with lyric by Nicolas Brady (Ode toSaint Cecilia),
praising music as the echo of divine harmony. Matters complicate, however, further
in the poem: Saint Cecylia in politure / wheel manual Emmanuel / roller
interval fugue. Perhaps then, it is areference toone of the chorals by Carl Philip
Emannuel Bach, or perhaps Cecylias name is an play on the name of one of the
orchestras? Such as The Saint Cecylia Chorus & Orquestra (created in 1906) or
25
133
longing for Wholeness: the table is asufficient reason for poem with atelling title:
Stoowa piosenka prawie owszechbycie [ATable Song Almost Of The Universe].
In The Salt of Structure seawaves seem toplay Bach and the poet Orpheus,
commands them: waves! / put on your wigs / tssss [BCZ]. Iam all things/ and
sometimes Iam all things he says Liryka picego. [Verse Of The Sleeper]25 With
his sense of humor and inexhaustible linguistic ingenuity, balancing on the verge
of presentation and taking advantage of the incantational power of meaningful
euphonies, Biaoszewski definitely could be referred toas intelligence writing verse.
Asinging mystery as well, one that entrusts its existence tothe volatile substance
of language, one that exists in aconstant oscillation of meanings whose flickering
figures the liminal condition of Orpheus, stretching between the Dionysian and
the Apollonian.
But one should perhaps discuss one more echo of the pastoral poetic tradition in
Biaoszewski, namely, the element of dialogue, always present in his poems. Ancient
idylls gladly used dialogue and the colloquial tone. Virgils mysterious, mysticallyphilosophical (in the words of its publisher) Eclogue VI is amonologue of
Tityrus (containing utterances of others, Silenus in particular). In Theocrituss Idyll
VII, Simichidas introduces into his narrative his own song and the song of Lycidas.
Agon, or dispute, usually apoetic competition between herders in aquiet retreat,
becomes afigure of argument resolved in acivilized, peaceful, even friendly manner
and culminating with an exchange of gifts. Accompanying the dialogue, the speech
of simple people is introduced, with its colloquial tone, the tone of argument and
debate, the tone of confession. This pedigree of dialogue forms blurs gradually, with
the appearance of genres of living speech, folk idiom and the language of several
professions in high literature. From there, other considerations play the key role,
but the beginnings of the conversational idiom in poetry are tobe found in Theocrituss idylls and Virgil eclogues as well as the praise of the familiar represented by
native land and landscape, by closest neighborhood. The interlocutor resident of
Arcadian retreats, detached from everyday obligations becomes afigure of citizen
while his dialogue a figure of debate by the free and happy. The conversation
inscribed in the text is aploy aiming at acompromise between two forms of social
life: the active and the contemplative one. It allows tochange the idyll of solitude
for the idyll of human family. We are not men, nor have other tie upon one another,
The closer tomodernity, the more intriguing the dialectic of solitude and community becomes, taking the form of aporia.29 Todorov comments that for Rousseau,
solitude was atreasure that allowed toavoid the trap of alienating mechanisms of
worldly life. The man of opinion, in other words the worldly man, always wears
amask, Rousseau writes in Emile. That which he is, seems nothing tohim and what
he seems tobe, is everything. One could say that it was Rousseau who was the first
tooutline the difference between tre and paratre. It was also Rousseau who, already
in amodern fashion, made the other aguarantee of individualized subjectivity: the
social man lives outside himself, knowing tolive only in the opinion of others. And
it is from their judgment alone that he derives the sense of his own judgment alone
that he derives the sense of his own existence, Rousseau writes in his essay On the
Origin of Inequality Among Men (Todorov 107).30 Temanages toavoid aporia: solitude,
tempting with the promise of selfsufficiency but evoking fear as well, seen also as
de facto impossible, becomes dearly beloved solitude, as the contradiction finds
in it ahappy solution. Solitude is illusory, as for the writing man the presence of
the reader in the text becomes asubstitute of presence, while the text itself becomes
asubstitute for direct communication. Writing is that paradoxical activity which
demands that one flee from others in order tomeet them more effectively, observes
Todorov (138).31 ohe Romantics added tothis the questioning of the possibility of
understanding. The subject of Mickiewiczs ToSolitude is an exile in both in
the world of beloved solitude and outside of it. He is himself only in his text but
he writes it provoked by the language which (as one learns from the famous line in
The Great Improvisation Alone! Ah man! concerning precisely the language)
26
29
27
134
28
30
31
32
33
135
Conversation is, clearly, marked with impaired understanding but in The Revolution of Things, the element of conversation grows stronger, becoming anotation
of speaking (Zadumanie o sieni kamienicznej), and from one book of poems
to the next acquires new senses: an ordinary conversation becomes an allegory
of sociability but also of apolitical dialogue, disappearing or hidden in the years
when Biaoszewskis poems were created. The making public of the domestic
conversation and of the private dimension results in the domestication of the
public sphere, especially in the domestication and commonalization of the idea
of culture.33 This commonalization is essentially synonymous todemocratization.
Biaoszewski is atrue rarity in aRomantic, aristocratic culture laden with gentry
sentiments that have always pushed manifestations of plebeianism into the sphere
of shameful inferiority. His Madonnas from Raphaels paintings enjoy carousel rides
in the suburbs while right next tothem their neighbors, tenants of Art Nouveau,
are asleep, the landscape of left-bank Warsaw evokes images of ancient Mesopotamia
136
34
35
Ryszard Nycz formulates the notion of translation from the factual into the
expressible inspired byjak topowiedzie from Biaoszewskis later volume,
Oho! R. Nycz, Literatura jako trop. 226.
137
Cezary Zalewski
The One Moment: Photographing in Polish Poetry .
of the Twentieth Century
138
The resulting aporia seems insurmountable; the choice between adirect reception of momentary image and providing an explanatory comment. The former
is usually the case, hence the large number in Polish poetry of photographic
ekphrases, which, however, leave tothe reader the often difficult task of reconstructing their meaning.
In this context, amore interesting, though uncommon, trend seems tobe the one
which tries tosolve this problem differently. Instead of solely focusing on captured
image, it offers areconstruction of the process that led toits creation. The image is
presented from agenetic perspective, allowing for amore explicit and clear indication
of the meaning of the one, unique moment. The purpose of this essay is topresent
Lipska, Ewa.ywa mier. Krakw: Wydaw. Literackie, 1979. 49. Print. (translated by
Pawe Pyrka)
7
8
139
The poem Mediumiczno-magnetyczna fotografia poety Brunona Jasieskiego (Mediumistic-magnetic photograph of the poet Bruno Jasieski)2 by Tytus Czyewski
has long puzzled its commentators, who as aresult have either completely ignored
it or made an effort tofamiliarize it, by placing in the intersemiotic or intertextual
spaces (the realm of painting3 or surrealism4, respectively). Undoubtedly, the poem
requires aspecific context, one that has been directly indicated in the title. Acomplete
interpretation cannot, therefore, ignore the references tomagnetism and mediumism,
especially since these ideas were extremely popular (and recognizable) in the interwar
period5. Czyewski introduced them tothe initial and final sections of his texts, thus
tracing ahorizon of sorts, upon which the photograph and photographing appear.
Participants in sances would invariably observe the appearance of a matter
called ectoplasm in the proximity of the medium. Initially mist-like and formless,
it would gradually take on the shape and properties of some (usually dead) person.
However, according tothe monographer:
Not all mediums possess the ability toexude enough ectoplasm tomaterialize
afull-sized human figure. Often they are only hands, heads or busts (105-6).6
Thus, the initial sequence of images in which there appear several separated
parts of the body, is the poetic equivalent of psychic ectoplasm. This hypothesis is
confirmed by both the dynamic nature of each of these visions, as well as all accompanying phenomena: the spectral flames7 and akind of telekinesis,8 used toactivate
the keyboard instrument (95-6; 94).
Thus, the heart becomes the center of somatic order, while space is radically transformed: the interior of the house is replaced with the (secret) inner sanctum of
atemple. This spatial shift is not dysfunctional, however, as it signals the passage
into the sphere of another ritual. The eccentric spiritual sance becomes what Julian
Ochorowicz called magnetic sleep (172-5).9 In fact, it probably always was magnetic
sleep, especially if we interpret the onomatopoeia in the opening line as the sound
equivalent of the magnetizers gestures designed toput the magnetized person tosleep.
In order, therefore, appears somatic center (heart), and the space is radically
changed: instead of the house is shown (most secret) inside the temple. Special
Weekend displacement is not dysfunctional, because it signals another move in
the sphere of ritual. This udziwniony seance is in fact what Julian Ochorowicz called
magnetic sleep. The onomatopoeia in the opening line most likely can be interpreted
as referring tothe sound equivalent of movements that the magnetizermakesas
they magnetize the subject toputthem tosleep (209).10
The further course is then related as follows:
you are telling me in your sleep
you are at the ceiling of aGothic cathedral
and you cease tolive
you drown in orange water
Iwake you I
wake you
According toOchorowicz, magnetic sleep (as opposed tohypnosis) does not subdue
people, instead leaving them active so they can experience their state internally and
verbalize it, independent of the magnetizer. However, only the magnetizer can end
the experience, interrupting the sleep in asimilar fashion tohow it was induced
(thus, in Czyewskis poem, the graphic form of the last line corresponds to the
distribution of the opening onomatopoeia).
140
10
11
12
13
141
II
Stanisaw Baraczaks Widokwka z tego wiata (A Postcard from this World) is
a poetic synthesis of the metaphysical and concrete experience; the clearer the
presentation of local earthly reality, the stronger the emphasis on the metaphysical. The poem Zdjcie14 (Photo) seems tobe an exception tothis rule, as it shows
the eponymous situation in manner that is stereotypical, too brief and apparently
devoid of genuine reference. It is probably for this reason that identification of its
universal dimension is not obvious and still incomplete15.
It seems, however, that Baraczak deliberately used a schematic approach
to indicate a larger number of phenomena. The process of cropping a picture,
represented by the photographers monologue, refers in fact to a whole range of
other cultural practices that exist in American society, practices which the poet,
as stranger, immediately notices. In deciphering them we find most valuable the
reflections of another tourist, Jean Baudrillard, who was in American more or
less at the same time.
They seem especially important when we consider that Baraczak, as befits
a student of English metaphysical poets, chooses antithesis as the conceit of his
poem. It is organized analogically tothe process of photographing; the poet begins
by adopting anegative strategy, outlining what will not be included in the frame,
then moves tothe proper presentation of what the photo will show. However, tensions can be observed not only between the two perspectives both contain internal
dissonances constructed using the technique of zooming in and out.
14
142
15
Iwill set up my tripod,
And with the hiss of magnesium
Take ahuge negative
Turning clouds of day into everyday shadow
Pulsing poeticality into pounding of poetry
And walls of dust into cathedral gloom.
(Sonimski, Antoni.Godzina Poezji.Warszawa: Ignis, 1923. 63.)
(translated by Pawe Pyrka)
Baraczak, Stanisaw.Widokwka ZTego wiata: IInne Rymy ZLat 1986-1988. Pary:
Zeszyty Literackie, 1988. 42. Print. (translated by Pawe Pyrka)
Cf. Kandziora, Jerzy. "Obserwator Zawiatw. OWierszach Metafizycznych
Stanisawa Baraczaka."WDrodze1 (1990): 98. Print. and Lubaszewska, Antonina.
"WDaguerotyp Raczej Piro Zmieniam."Teksty Drugie4 (1999): 178-79. Print.
The act of removal is both physical (of people, words), and metaphorical, or internal
(of issues, misfortunes). This parallelism implies, however, acertain vision that is
worth reconstructing. If no other people appear around the photographed subject
and all experience related totheir presence disappears, it would mean the portrait
is totally focused on the individual dimension of the person, making the representation idyllic. Instead of signs indicating adifficult experience, the face now probably
shows abeaming smile.
Such an image is, on the one hand, typical (especially for photography), but, on
the other hand, it suggests aspecific style of behavior, functioning in American
society. When Baudrillard wondered what the nature of the common phenomenon of
showing joy was, he came tothe conclusion that its artificial, studied character acts
as amask, at the same time covering and creating distance. In America, therefore,
the following principle seems toapply:
Smile if you have nothing tosay. Most of all, do not hide the fact you have nothing tosay
nor your total indifference toothers. Let this emptiness, this profound indifference shine
out spontaneously in your smile. Give your emptiness and indifference toothers, light up
your face with the zero degree of joy and pleasure, smile, smile, smile.16
Baraczak seems toagree with Baudrillards diagnosis. By removing others from the
frame (i.e. beyond the sphere of life), the resulting individualism becomes aparadox,
since it produces avacuum devoid of subjectivity. Achasm impossible tocover
even with such agood strategy, the ubiquitous, self-satisfied smile.
In the second stage the photographer changes his method:
oh yes, stand still
just like that, let me just set
focus tocapture your dream
while awake, your
16
Baudrillard, Jean, and Chris Turner (transl.).America. London etc.: Verso, 1988. 34.
Print.
143
The positive presentation shows even stronger dissonance. On the one hand, the
portrait will be made accurately, so that, again, the external appearance will reflect
the inner experience (dream, thoughts) of the subject. On the other hand, the presentation will be done from adistance, eliminating all details.
From acultural perspective the dissonance is clearly weakened. The intention
tocapture aprecise and multi-faceted image of aperson seems analogous tothe
practice of detailed filming, which Americans, according toBaudrillard often cultivate. The essence of this activity, however, is pure self-reference:
Video, everywhere, serves only this end: it is ascreen of ecstatic refraction. As
such, it has nothing of the traditional image or scene, or of traditional theatricality,
and its purpose is not topresent action or allow self-contemplation; its goal is tobe
hooked up toitself.
Obtained in this way, the self-reflexivity reminds us of ashort-circuit which
immediately hooks up like with like, and, in so doing, emphasizes their surface
intensity and deeper meaninglessness. 17
Thus aphotograph, even one focused on the internal analysis, also participates in the ecstasy of communication. It becomes adoubling, amirror image of
the same. Simultaneously, however, it remains empty, offering no identification
or self-knowledge, only tautological repetition.
If so, then aphotograph inevitably forsakes its unique, strictly individual aspect;
acopy of one person is no different from acopy of someone else. All are equally
silent, and thus could be seen as, paradoxically, the more accurate, the more blurred
and unclear they are. By contaminating these two opposing images, Baraczak
again exposes the nature of American illusions. Because if anyone can exhibit
anarcissistic tendency (thanks tophotography), then on alarger scale everyone is
the same in this regard.
The strategy of demystification serves tointegrate this antithetical poem and that
is why the poet uses it consistently. The final part of the monologue reads as follows:
asnapshot: let time,
its laugh unsympathetic
be quiet
for ablink of ashutter;
144
17
Ibid. 37.
Thus photographs appear tonot only generate narcissistic delusion, but in the final
analysis seem toconfirm the aspirations which aim tonegate the passage of time and
its consequences. However, this effort is as pointless as it is energetic; aphotograph at
the very moment it is taken becomes the proof of loss, apermanent work of mourning.
III
In the poetry of Janusz Szuber photographs appear as frequently, as unambiguously. Regardless of whether they belong in the family album or not, their origin is
always distant, often dating tonineteenth century. Viewing such images is sometimes
risky, however, since, as Susan Sontag pointed out, most of them
do not keep their emotional charge. Aphotograph of 1900 that was affecting then because
of its subject would, today, be more likely tomove us because it is aphotograph taken in
1900. The particular qualities and intentions of photographs tend tobe swallowed up in
the generalized pathos of time past. (21)19
18
19
20
Ibid. 68.
Sontag, Susan.On Photography. New York: Picador USA, 2001. 21. Print. N.B. Julian
Tuwims poem Ryciny (presenting 19th century daguerreotypes) is agood illustration
of how pathos appropriates the viewers perspective. (Tuwim, Julian.Biblja Cygaska
IInne Wiersze. Warszawa: J. Mortkowicz, 1935. 79-80. Print.)
Sulikowski, Andrzej. "Twrczo Poetycka Janusza Szubera."Pamitnik Literacki2
(2004): 113-14. Print.
145
The photographer tries tozoom in on the schoolgirls standing in front of the lens,
since the details that he points out allow for separation and isolation, only tofinally
focus on whole figures. However, there is no presentation of faces, as if the presence of
too many people prevented individual characterization. Instead, the photographers
reflection focuses on the one element of dress common toall girls.
It is significant that here the corset does not function in the temporal perspective,22
but first and foremost in an anthropological one. The process of framing involves
isolating elements based on the difference between what is artificial (tin butterfly,
straw hat) and natural, but when the photographer is trying tocapture the closest
exemplification of this opposition, it turns out that it is unstable. Acorset is supposed
toimpose ashape on abody that nonetheless eludes its constraints, thus disrupting
the clear arrangement. Otherwise there would exist acomplete separation of the
two orders; from the point of view of the subject, any access totheir body would
be perfectly mediated. Therefore, the photographer uses conditional mood tostate
that the somatic experience of any of the schoolgirls would not be direct, but rather
conventional or solely cultural. However, the fluidity of this boundary suggests that
this pure unmediated experience is not only available tothe schoolgirls standing
in front of the lens, but it is also recognized by the photographer watching them.
This was the intention behind taking the picture or, more carefully, this is the
intention inferred and attributed by someone who much later looks at the effects of
photographers work. The lyrical monologue moves smoothly from the perspective
of the photographs author tothat of an observer, while echoing slightly the previous
reflections and introducing new ones:
21
146
22
Self-experience, forming the basis of identity for each of the girls, is thus impermanent and momentary. Their private, biographical sphere remains concealed here, but
it seems that it runs similar tohow the image continues tofunction. Both in their
(later) life, and in a(faded) photograph, the students will be watched, observed by
others. Szuber clearly emphasizes the creative aspect of the process; astrangers look
constitutes the somatic dimension, especially in its (hinted at) erotic dimension.
The autonomy observed by the photographer is thus fragile, asort of instantaneous
epiphany of the self, which almost immediately must be surrendered tothe process
of mediation which builds identity through the influence of others.
The final stanza reveals aconclusion drawn from the juxtaposition of the two
perspectives:
Modestly hidden for ever exposed
asks cruel mercy that one once lived
that day month year that minute of inattention.
The poet-observer avoids visualization, which would one more time recreate the
physicality of the schoolgirls. However, he is intrigued by the mere possibility of
this operation, as it attests tothe defenseless, so tospeak, status of photographic
representation. The more the women try tohide from the eyes of others, the stronger
they affect them, stimulating behaviors leading tovarious forms of appropriation.
The poet senses, however, that this is not the effect the photographer had in mind
and in his name, as well as his own, he recalls the original intent. The uniqueness of
the photograph is in the way it (perhaps accidentally) captures amoment of inner
epiphany, which should be admired, not manipulated. Of course, such mercy will
always be cruel, burdened with the knowledge that neither the schoolgirls, nor their
innocent self-perception are there anymore.
In the poems discussed above, photographing is not an autonomous (but technical) activity, insofar as itis included in abroader context, i.e. marked with the
textual references toother types of discourse. In Czyewskis poem the references
can be traced back tothe occult spiritualism, while Baraczak adopts acivilizational
perspective (focused on America), and Szuber an anthropological one. It seems,
therefore, that the relationship between arange of photographic expositions and
the type and frame of reference is based on the prominence of the local context. The
more specific it is (possibly for various reasons), the more accurate and broader the
presentation of photographing (Czyewski, Baraczak). And conversely, the more
147
IV
148
Tomasz ysak
149
150
agrey
What remains is
naked
hole
Sharp margin is used tointroduce achange either In the object or the manner of
perception. Cf. W. Sadowski, Tekst graficzny Biaoszewskiego, Warsaw 1999. p. 46.
151
The shift preserves the principle of conservation of mass, following the ellipsis of
the final line of the original stanza (szara naga jama), which concluded the stairlike progression of the sharp left margin.2 It seems obvious that in this case that the
period is transferred tothe end of astair-like division: szara / naga / jama. The
final pseudo-stanza consistently omits one variation (or realization) of the cluster:
sza-ra-na-ga-ja-ma, impossible to render in English, because of monosyllabic
structure of words (apart from naked) in the cluster greynakedhole. In addition, the
euphonic effect disappears, since the perfect vowel alliteration of the original has
no equivalent, either on the level of vowels, or compensated by consonants. Thus,
it is impossible todistort the sense of belonging of individual syllables toparticular
words, which, in Polish, evokes associations with the syllabic Japanese language. Of
the two options: toremain faithful tothe letter of the text or toretain its literary
conceit, the translator chose the former, while removing the elements which would
be non-functional in the translation. This is what happened tothe indentation at
the beginning of the line szara. Not even szaranagajama remains since, according tothe translator, such awhim is essentially devoid of function and does
not contribute to the translation. As for other minor differences in punctuation,
it is worth mentioning the colon at the end of the line: Itomi wystarczy: which
has been replaced with asemicolon in And this is enough for me;. In the original the
colons role was tobreak the necessary fragmentation of lines, toconstitute asort
of opening. On the other hand, the semicolon separates the self-referential statement by the speaker (And this is enough for me;) from the subject of that statement.
The translation of Ode can be characterized as a dictionary realization, or
one based on simple semantic equivalence. On the other hand, it could be accused
of excessive conservatism and consequent elimination of non-functional elements.
While there can be no objection toits correctness, the translation leaves the reader
unsatisfied. It sacrifices too much, without offering acomparable poetic effect in
return.
In contrast the poem ABallad of Going Down tothe Store is an example of
translatability. Once again, the translation reveals a discrepancy in typographic
conventions the first word of the first verse is printed in capitals with no aspirations tocreate additional focus for arrangement. Apart from this, the translation
remains close tothe original. This can be attributed tothe balladic quality of the
text devoid of traps. The original itself invites an economical translation technique.
Few departures from the standard language, such as the use of complementary forms
of zeszedem (bordering on incorrectness) have no counterpart in translated text.
Other differences are limited topunctuation as required by English. The first line of
the pseudo-stanza IEntered ... ends in an opening of sorts (:), while in the original
it clearly functions as closure (;). The reason for such aprocedure is revealed in
the following line, where instead of acomma, which would promise continuation,
aperiod appears, thus disrupting the sentence character of the whole pseudo-stanza.
152
It is clear that the changes follow the economy of the text, only occasionally rearranging the emphases. The absence of punctuation in the last segment of the original is
not retained: the comma after the first line not only separates the repetitions, but
necessitates taking a breath between the lines. While Ballada... does not insist
on clear end-of-line pauses, A Ballad... clearly indicates its delimitation units.
These minor differences do not change the fact that the English text follows the
Polish original, limiting the changes within the acceptable economy of expression.
It should be emphasized, however, that here the translator would not be faced with
choices so radical as in the case of And Even ...
Aquick comparison of Autoportet odczuwalny with Self-Portait as Felt reveals
the lack of lines in consisting wholly of dashes. Such a grouping of typographic
characters stresses not only adifferent writing convention (absence of text is not
simply noticeable, but rather specifically indicated), but also the status of the line.
The procedure toreplace an empty verse with amarker of absence does not have
the same function as leaving aspace between lines. While an empty verse breaks
the stanza apart, one burdened with typography locates itself clearly within its
tissue. Milosz's decision toremove the line containing only dashes cannot be easily explained. The ellipsis found in the second pseudo-stanza serves toassemble
the latter into one continuous whole. However, the omission present in the last
pseudo-stanza (Autoportret) results in its division into two smaller units. At first
glance, this may seem inconsistent. While the replaced units have the same graphical representation, the substitutions have opposite effects: acomplete ellipsis vs.
aline with removed typography. After all, the form of the text already allows (on
the most superficial level) for both readings. Tochoose between them (as it happens
in translation) is toextract the form (or some of its features) from the realm which
generates (potential) meaning, by assigning toit afixed conventionalized (present)
meaning. Removal of the graphical elements is also an aesthetic statement: form is
treated as amatter of secondary importance tothe content, and thus can be modified
in accordance with the accepted mode of interpretation.
It is worth taking acloser look at the two enjambments which were abandoned in
the translation: Zawsze jednak / peza we mnie (Yet always is crawling in me), and
Nosz sob / jakie swoje wasne / miejsce (Ibear by myself / aplace of my own). In
the first enjambment the predicator is detached from an adverbial the translation
restores the relationship, while retaining the inversion within the syntactic structure
with the subject postponed tothe end of the sentence:
Zawsze jednak
peza we mnie
existence
Self-Portrait removes (purges) elements that would emphasize the distance between the speaker and the content. By avoiding contrastive conjunctions, which only
Ibear by myself
aplace of my own
153
Miejsce
154
155
Janusz Sawiski
Unassigned (XV)
156
*
Poetry of the Time of Martial Law is an immense body of poetic texts, created and
received as aresponse towhat the colloquial language has recorded under the name
of Jaruzelskis war. If the beginning of this kind of poem-writing is clearly marked
by the date of 13 December 1981, the end of this practice appears somewhat blurred
over time. It can be assumed that the martial law, regardless of its suspensions and
terminations, continued as apoetically open reality up to1983, but not later. It was
then that it started toshift in the public consciousness from the position of lived and
felt present tothat of amemory of yesterday, which, albeit not completely closed,
was gradually being obscured by the experience the next day.
When speaking of poetry of the martial law, we explicitly indicate its constitutive
aspect the particular mode(s) of communication, which gave birth tothis poetry
and at the same time placed upon it an indelible stigma: it was the kind of work
un-thinkable outside the specific determinations of martial law. They delineated
its framework of possibility, determined where it would appear and what would
be its linguistic, cognitive and axiological horizon. It lived in the world of martial
law as one of the forms of independent communication between people about the
meaning of the new situation. At the same time the fact of the martial law was in
asense internalized by this poetry as atask (semantic, artistic, moral), which it
attempted tofulfill. What's more, it tried tomake noticeable its direct connection
tothe unique conditions of time and place, highlighting them clearly through appropriate language. Not only were the TV presenters given military uniforms on
13th of December Even the titles of numerous collections of poetry testified
from the other side of the barricade that the authors felt the need touse military
terminology. Raport zoblonego miasta [Report from aBesieged City] (Zbigniew
After the shock of the night of the 12th December 1981, but even before the start
of circulation of the first underground newspapers and newsletters, which would
contain information about what happened and first attempts at commentary, we
started receiving, along with leaflets and proclamations printed in striking factories,
verse records of the experience of martial law everywhere. Isay everywhere, because
it seemed as if those sheets of paper carrying poetic speech, were conveyed tous from
all corners of the country at once. How many had toprovide relevant texts, copy
them, spread, distribute or scatter! The form of these papers resembled the most
archaic creations of underground printing. Plain typescript was the common the
prototype of all underground self-publishing typed mostly on light green tissue
paper. The light green color is irrevocably fused in my memory with verses of martial
law. When we received an unfortunate later copy of the typescript, the text was often
almost completely illegible. Then upon the typescript azealous and pedantic reader
would by hand put the missing letters, the most likely words and even whole lines.
As the underground publishing movement became more organized in publishing
and editorial teams, the mass of poetic texts relating tothe realities of martial war
gradually increased, toreach its peak in the late spring and summer of 1982. This
growth remained more or less stable throughout the whole of the next year. Green
tissue paper gradually disappeared from circulation, replaced by poems published
in newsletters and magazines. Among the periodicals created in the first half of 1982
the unique contribution tothe work of collecting poetic texts on martial law belongs
toWarsaws Wezwanie (The Call) which from its first issue had been publishing
157
158
This increased intertextuality in anonymous texts, did not, by any means, secure
their integrity. The fact that they were openly parasitic in nature only encouraged their offhand treatment. In the course of circulation they underwent various
deformations, divisions, interpolations, and contaminations. As aresult different
sources frequently offer different local or regional variations of the same texts. Such
multiplicity led toblurring of the limits of texts, with none that would pass as the
original. The texts existence involved minor or major modification, as required
by circumstances of performance, needs or tastes, similarly toworks found in folk
circulation. The interesting aspect of this phenomenon of folklorization was, however, the fact that is occasionally involved works belonging tothe other two categories. Sometimes the text originally published as anonymous appeared later under
apseudonym, and then again under its creators actual name, gradually bridging
the gap separating it from its author. I remember Jarosaw Marek Rymkiewiczs
sheer amazement at an IBL conference devoted tocontemporary poetry (Warsaw
1984), when one of the speakers, anative of Lublin, provided astriking example of
anonymous folk art: Rymkiewiczs own poem, whose authorship he never denied!
The opposite also happened, situations when an anonymous text circulated under
the name of afamous writer. This happened, twice Ithink, toCzesaw Miosz, causing his irritated protests.
Any methodical analysis should include an extensive field of texts which, while
themselves do not fall under the label of martial law poetry as they did not arise
at that specific time, were probably the most important component of the soil in
which it grew. I refer here to numerous collections of earlier works, songs and
song-like, since the time of the Bar Confederation until the sixteen months-long
carnival of Solidarity, which appeared during the period of martial law (though
in later years as well), creating one of the most visible segments of second circulation. Most popular among them were the collections of patriotic or insurrectionist
songs, religious hymns, songs of the Polish Legions and from the Bolshevik War,
songs from the Second World War and the time of occupation. Just as important
were songs associated with the tradition of Solidarity (especially works of Jacek
Kaczmarski and in adifferent way those of Jan Krzysztof Kelus). This field of texts
includes reprints of the old hymn books, but also new compilations based on them,
both standard sets of well-known works, as well as specialized and themed anthologies, e.g. Polskie koldy patriotyczne 1831-1983 [Polish patriotic carols 1831-1983] or
Piosennik Powstania Styczniowego [Songbook of the January Uprising]. In numerous
collections old songs could be found next tocurrent (both anonymous and signed)
works written during the martial law. Such is the nature of, for example, Piosenki
internowanych [Songs of the interned]. There are afew such collections, and each
appeared in several editions, but all had the same title, an ambiguous one at that,
since it meant both the songs created by interned authors, and all the songs which
were simply sung collectively in detention centers. Asimilar mixture of old and new
songs can be found in collections associated with some permanent locations, usually
places important tothe community where these songs were sung. An example of this
159
160
*
The poetry of martial law left no room for complications or ideological dilemmas. In all its versions, it shared acommon point of view: it consistently remained
the speech of the abused, the intimidated, the persecuted, and the humiliated: the
voice of those targeted by the war machinery. Ex post, this unified perspective seems
tous quite natural, though, theoretically, its monopoly was not aforegone conclusion. After all, the introduction of martial law involved multitudes of people, not
only policymakers, executors, activists, and officials, but also the apologists, heralds,
hacks and silent supporters, realists, pragmatists, the ideologues of the lesser evil,
and possibly countless more! And yet, curiously, or strangely even, the state of mind
of all these people, their convictions, hopes, rationalizations, and even scruples have
not found any poetic expression.
Of course, they were verbalized in areas of public speech other than poetry.
Thus poetry which recorded the point of view of victims and rebels placed itself in
opposition not toanother poetic discourse, which would express different point of
view (as it didntexist), but tothe non-poetic discourse used by the power structure
and its political collaborators. Newspaper disinformation, propaganda, the deceitful
rhetoric of TV news, evasive arguments and excuses by egghead supporters, martial
orders and notices, sentences by military tribunals all of those marked the martial
law poetrys negative linguistic horizon. It assumed the role of counter-language,
opposed tomodes of speech in the service of violence. Hence the multiple references
tothis negative context; the adoption of words originating in the discourse of violence in order toimmediately unmask the lie it conceals; the use of the propaganda
formula in order tobe able toboil it down towhat it was in reality ahypocritical
161
(Anarchia)
And so on and so forth. We can observe here akind of stichomythic pattern: the
first line semantically collides with the second, which is symmetrical and related by
rhyme. The result is that of two voices alternating as in acomedic dialogue.
Such amechanism of signification, however simple or even primitive, was used
not exclusively in the poems belonging tofolklore, or imitating the works of folklore.
It was equally employed in literary poetry, the political lyric, especially from the
beginning of martial law. We find its workings in Ryszard Krynickis epigrams (from
the volume Jeeli wjakim kraju [If in acountry]) full of noble pathos, in which this
double gesture of invocation/rejection appears as afundamental principle for the
development of speech:
Na jaki nard
mie si jeszcze powoywa
samozwacza wadza,
ktra na obcy rozkaz wypowiedziaa wojn narodowi?
Jaki nard miaaby ocala?
Tonard szuka przed ni ocalenia
162
What nation
do they dare invoke,
the self-appointed authorities
that acting on aforeign order declared war on the nation?
What nation would they save?
This nation is looking tobe saved from them.]
(What nation?)
Kami:
Nie chcemy krwi
arozkazuj,
eby bi izabija.
Krzycz:
Historia nas osdzi
kiedy zbrodnie ju ich osdziy.
(Dr ze strachu)
They lie:
We do not want blood
and they order,
tofight and kill.
They shout:
History will judge us
when they have been judged already by their crimes.
All oppositions here are clearly visible. There is the speech of those who spread
false platitudes (about saving the country or saving the nation or vice versa) aimed
toobscure what they actually do as dictators, traitors, torturers and murderers, and
opposite there is the speech of those who expose their actions. Its them and us.
There's no complexity or ambiguity of dialogue, because in this relationship any
possibility of dialogue has been eliminated. There are two types of speech incompatible and mutually untranslatable. And there are two types of speakers, between
whom exists ayawning and impassable chasm. They cannot be considered partners in
communication, for they have become our occupants. Jerzy Malewski (Wodzimierz
Bolecki) aptly called the writings of martial law apoetry without illusions. Indeed,
it seems it finally broke away from all utopian negotiations, so much alive in the
period of sixteen months of Solidarity, said goodbye tothe naive hopes for an effective agreement and settlement and tothe belief in the possibility of developing
the language capable of mediating between the discourse of the communist regime
163
164
*
Martial law presented poetry, the literary, rather than the folk kind, with atruly
difficult task. Made lazy by its long time existence on the reservation provided by
PRL, it now had toleave its refuge and desperately seek an appropriate language
that could be used specifically toconstruct apoetic analysis of the changes in collective consciousness after the shock of December 13th.
Thus in the poem Do Matki Polki [Tothe Polish Mother] Mat (Jarosaw Markiewicz)
writes about this idea of recurrence and return. The thought of the fundamental
identity of destinies, duties, and defeats of successive Polish generations, naturally
leads toanother thought: namely, that there is no need for poetry towork hard on
inventing anew language togive an account of our present destiny, duty, and defeat,
as the images generated by earlier, especially romantic poetry, remain perfectly
adequate. Stanisaw Baraczak correctly emphasized the role that chorus plays in
many poems of the martial law, aformula that states that something is here again:
Iznowu dugie nocne rodakw rozmowy [And again, the long night talks of my
165
Later in this poem by Jarosaw Marek Rymkiewicz the image of conquered Warsaw
is developed into the image of post-uprising exodus of Warsaws inhabitants in the
autumn of 1944:
Ijak przed wielu laty, Lwowsk, Nowowiejsk
Wychodzilimy zmiasta dugimi kolumnami
166
Next comes the image of those detained, carried across the city chained and terrified. Of course they are carried in kibitka wagons and are:
jak cizceli Konrada, jak cispod Belwederu,
jak ze styczniowej branki,
zgrudniowego poboru.
...
znw powtarzaj tesame gesty, sowa
modlitwy lub przeklestw
In such poems we encounter the world immediately doubled. What is present and
available for observation had no time toappear in its factuality, because from the
very beginning it was imbued with the sense of something historical. That historical meaning came forward, and thus obscured, the image of the present, which as
aresult took on ahalf-unreal, spectral character, deprived of its own weight and
appearing only as arepetition or copy.
But the historiosophical vision, in which the primary sense of the events ofwinter
1981/82 amounts totheir repetitive character did not satisfy the ambitions ofanumber of poets who sought toexpose even more superior sense the meaning of repetition itself. And thus was revived an allegorical vision of inevitable martyrdom, of
Poland permanently crucified, sentenced toGolgotha.
167
This image comes from the poem Przepowiednie [Prophecies] published under the
pen name of Maciej Komiga (Jerzy Ficowski). In Jarosaw Marek Rymkiewiczs
poem this romantic allegory is becomes more straightforward:
Tociao gwodzie wdoniach ma,
Nad ciaem kry czarna wrona.
Jak caun jest grudniowa mga.
Opatrz! Ojczyzna twoja kona.
(13 grudnia)
168
(December 13th)
In general it can be said that poetry discussed here has historiosophically dreamed
through actual history. Besides, the theme of sleep and dreaming is anoticeably common occurrence (Ihave not yet mentioned Ernest Bryll: niem, e Papie wkomy
tak skrwawionej / a narodow barw miaa [Idreamed of the Pope in surplice so
bloodied / until it had the national color...]), creating akind of framework for all these
analogies, parables and allegories. The culmination of historiosophical dreaming
was sometimes, especially in the case of second-rate poets, amartyrological kitsch
or achromolithograph of patriotic zeal.
The second writing strategy, in opposition tosecond-hand imaging Iintend tocall
poetic documentalism. At its core was adesire torecord the momentary truth, and not
the essential or model truth of the time; adesire tocapture and instantly preserve what
has commonly been called the concrete event, situation and experience; atendency
toground the speech in here and now both through athematization of the present, as well as by means of indication, by becoming its mark. Such poetry was eager
todocument the everyday of Jaruzelskis war, the state of mind of people bearing
the burdens of martial law, the peculiar atmosphere of different places and centers
of social activity, and the ways of verbalizing experiences in different environment. It
never strived for ageneral definition, but was rather satisfied with observations that
were aspect-oriented, local, fragmented. It saw the order of the observational data as
abasic level of expression, which validates other levels of meaning.
169
Quoted above is Adam Zagajewskis Sd [The Court], published in 1982 under the
pseudonym of Sumero. At other times still, the poetic documentalism manifested
itself through akind of quotes from reality seemingly directs records of what
was heard, what came from the outside. As in Wiktor Woroszylskis six-liner which
transferred into poetic speech adialogue between ZOM
O officers:
zdae ten om
no zdaem
janie zdaem
trzeba byo zda
co bd zdawa ibra
zdawa ibra
170
In the writings of martial law there is awhole family of related works particularly
representative of this type of writing. By that Imean the collections and series of
texts produced in the internment camps and prisons. In other words, sets of works
whose distinguishing feature is that the situation of speech is clearly defined at
least in this one dimension: they are broadcast from there: from Biaoka, Jaworz,
Darwko, Godap, Strzelce Opolskie, Nowy Winicz, Zae, and so on. One could
mention collections such as the two Dzienniki internowania [Diaries of internment]
by Woroszylski, Biaa ka [White meadow] by Tomasza Jastrun, Ogie [Fire] by
Jan Polkowski, Zmierzch igrypsy [Twilight and kites] by Antoni Pawlak, Racja stanu
[Reason of state] by Anka Kowalska, Polska wizienna [Poland imprisoned] by Lothar
Herbst, czy Listy do brata [Letters tomy brother] by Grzegorz Musia.
It is indeed significant that the sobriety and relevance of observations, acertain
realistic quality of speech, apreference for facts, an emotional restraint, brevity and
simplicity of expression were all encouraged by the specific location of the subject. In the
Polish literary tradition, the prison cell is rather associated with visionary flights of fancy.
The documentary character of poetic texts was equally determined by their
genres. The authors referred tothem as diaries, prison kites, letters: in other words,
forms used for communicating information, notifying or reporting. For the most
part, these texts indicated their own incompleteness or indefiniteness, sketches
of possible poems, early drafts, poems with no punch lines, punch lines without
poems, ideas for future use, fragments of greater wholes, instances of speech cut in
mid-sentence, barely begun narratives. In terms of genre they could all be catego-
171
Jerzy Kandziora
That which is slipping away: .
On Exposing the Idiom in Stanisaw Baraczaks
Surgical Precision
Stanislaw Baraczaks readers are accustomed tothe fact that each new collection
of his poems surprises with poetic variety and introduction of previously unknown
registers. Without going back into too distant past, we recall that Atlantis (1986)
brought aseries of image-poems with distinct frames and highly saturated with color,
presenting aspecific hyperrealistic record of time, freed from axiology and polemics
with the language. APostcard from the Other World (1988) continued this new epic
style of poetic narration, but here, even more clearly than in individual poems from
Atlantis, the poet delved beneath the surface of the phenomena, searching in this
world for the secret codes and rhythms of that hypothetical world. This he did more
intensely the more transitory and indelibly sensual seemed reality and everyday life.
172
miaem potpiecz prac
rozbierajc towszystko
Ihad awretched job
dismantling it all*1
says the narrator in the poem Pan Elliot Tischler [Mr. Elliot Tischler], which is an
attempt tobreak through the tangible matter (bits of other people's privacy in the
newly purchased home) tothe transcendent, tothe question about the fate of the
owner of the house after his death. Dismantling Mr. Tischlers wooden structure
aramp tothe garden for his disabled wife can be seen as ametaphor for seeking
different, alternative dimension. The principle of ahidden code governed every poem
in APostcard from the Other World, dictating asophisticated, multi-level organiza1
tion of rhyme and meter, but also the composition of the whole set, in which the
metaphor of the heros single day, and of single human life, is inscribed along with
the metaphor of conversation with ahypothetical Creator, identifiable in amirror
arrangement of poems which represent the lack of conclusion in that dialogue.
And finally Journey in Winter (1994) afascinating poetic dream, unfolding in
monochromatic tones of winter. Here Baraczak seems toleave behind that poetic
joy of color and image. Ableak, wintry landscape inspired by the songs of Franz
Schubert, and more distantly, motifs from the poems of Wilhelm Mller provides
ascenery free of illusions of domesticity, where aspatial-conceptual philosophical
discourse develops, on the place of man in the universe and the absence of necessity
for human happiness. Adiscourse, we should add, which appears tobe amodern
paraphrase of confessions of adisappointed romantic lover who has been denied
the right tohappiness and rejected by indifferent world.
Released in 1998, Surgical Precision includes anumber of poems written in the
style known from Atlantis and APostcard from the Other World, in which Baraczaks
poetic road reaches its fullness. Iam thinking here among others of Altana [AGazebo] and Pync na Sutton Island [Going toSutton Island], probably some of the
most beautiful Polish poems of the twentieth century. Baraczaks latest volume,
however, is also, and perhaps most of all, an opening of new spaces and paths of
poetry, the existence of which was, admittedly, difficult topredict, reading his poems
from the eighties.
The most remarkable poetic innovation in this volume seems tobe the unusual,
almost expansive presence of idiom. By that I mean both the concept of idiolect
in its literal, encyclopedic sense (as aset of individual properties characterizing
speech of an individual, related totheir origin, education, profession, environmental
habits, stylistic preferences, etc. Dictionary of Literary Terms, ed. J. Sawiski),
and adeep poetic immersion in all other, not exclusively linguistic idioms of the
world the idiom of private biography, of human body, of asection of matter, space,
amemorized sound, amelody line. Idiom appears as adesign principle, indeed as
acenter where most of the poems are crystallized, while the essential poetic drama
of Surgical Precision involves the uncovering of what is hidden in the accident of
idiom: the fundamental mysteries of existence, marks of genius, traces of the sacred,
finished beauty, superhuman principles and logic of the world, all encoded in the
disposable and the mundane, concealed beneath the trivial coating of events. The
reader, being awitness tothese operations of poetry, may initially stand helpless in
the face of individual poems. With an extraordinary passion, Baraczak poetically
appropriates the most peculiar, and in asense the most extraneous areas of reality,
fragments of space, objects, texts of culture, individual words extracted from the
corners of language. They become an object of affirmation; their one-off quality,
their uniqueness and placement outside the order become dramatically enhanced,
perhaps refined in the act of poetry.
The poems in Surgical Precision which display fascination with idiom are
those formed around asingle personal word, expression or an artifact of memory;
173
The word powiat (district), which is an episode in the poem Powiedz, e wkrtce
[Say, it wontbe long]:
W no, tosowo, te na wp martwe wpowiecie?
Wpowiecie skry wszyscy znaj si nawzajem.
In the ... well, this word also half-dead ... in the district?
174
The word szczwany (wily) in the poem Debiutant w procederze [Rookie in the
Business], which carries an extinct grammatical category and awhole tradition and
cultural idiom is now lost in social memory (although the poet does not ask about
this prehistory in the text, something tells him make use of this particular word
repeatedly). Finally, there are the deep connotations of the title word porcz in
Handrail, bearing the refrain, Kto spamita? Ikto si odwdziczy?
In all these examples, the poetic amazement comes from singularity and accidentality as faces of the infinity, from the discovery that there is no territory of
language, that each idiom is able tocontain the universe, and finally that someone?
something? inscribes, encodes the universe, the absolute, the perfection, into colloquial words, familiar and indigenous expressions, dwelling in the dialects of
the language, in sanctuaries and provinces of time, space, culture, and that it does
Once heard, the idiom tubajfor is repeatedly echoed, transformed, but still
reminiscent of the original on the level of sound and rhythm. It is inserted into
a sophisticated rhyming pattern of the villanelle, which also provides framework
for the whole poem: : two-by-four ... Tu? Bd. Wr. ... Stj. Bd. Trwaj. ... To? Byt.
Twj [two-by-four ... Here? Error. Back. ... Stop. Be. Exist. ... This? Your. Life]. This
series of warnings, pleas and judgments seems tobe, hidden in the idiom, avoice of
aGuide? APerson who Knows the Way? AGuardian? It is one of many mysteries
of this poem. The word porcz (rail) undergoes multiple alliterations but returns
with its core unchanged thirteen times in rhyming position, in accordance with rules
of villanelle. It seems entwine the poem, towrap around the ends of lines, protecting
the text from dissolution, holding together that which is impermanent. It seems
toreenact in its verse-making role the idea of caring matter, repeatedly expressed
175
The idiom of the rail is aresponse tothese fears. Areaction tothe vision of an
inverted rainbow, of cold depths, stiffness and rot, which can be associated
with luminescent layers of acemetery, of underground space, unreachable by human voice (the ambiguity of the phrase undevelopable negatives of rainbow).
The proximity of the world of things, of inorganic material, more durable than the
human body is seen as astabilizing context for human life saturated with the fear
of passing and end:
Postna szczodro, najcianiej podrczny
pie nauk zheblowany wprzyziemny, bezdwiczny
gos, wlini prost, prost jak prg czy zapora:
Tu? Bd. Wr.
176
The relationship between man and things of inanimate matter is an area of, so
tospeak, heightened sensitivity in the poetry of Stanisaw Baraczak. In another
poem from the collection, Pakaa wnocy, ale nie jej pacz go zbudzi [She cried in the
night, but it wasntwhat woke him], there is the creak of wood, rattling against
The ending of the poem, therefore, opens itself touniversals and presents amoving
description of existential experience: youthful initiation into freedom, loneliness,
maturity, into feelings of the worlds ungraspability, its mystery, beauty and suffering. Thus we could read the final lines of the poem.
Before this opening, however, we observe in Behind Glass acertain exegesis
and sacralization of idiolect, an investigation into the nature, the substance of the
177
178
179
This perfectly contemplative text, devoid of aclear thesis or message is the early
record an intuition which in Surgical Precision will be developed in aseries of
poems. Note that September becomes crystallized through the astonishment at the
distance between two idioms, that it arose at the point of intersection of the language
idiom afew words of aSlavic poet of the first half of the nineteenth century, and
the spatial idiom the image of asunny day in an American college. The poem
Window, also from Atlantis offers asimilar record of interaction between two idioms:
apicture of suburban landscape outside aclosed window the poet writes directly
about the idiom of afternoon meets imposed upon him asoundtrack agreet-
180
181
182
183
184
The narrator, being one of us, carelessly, recklessly abandons the accident, just when
something begins toopen up, when one should start tolook carefully, because another story begins, here signaled by the ending and the subtle breach of the poems
shape: an additional, superfluous line that starts something we, who are seduced
by tangibility, who are slaves of the senses and incorrigible empiricists leaving the
scene of the event, will not experience, nor sense.
How about Surgical Precision? Does this poem, like Implosion, carry hidden signals indicating that its visible world, the order of the narrative, its human
emotions, omniscient quivering, rhetorical elephantiasis, in fact the whole idiom
of speech is actually there instead; instead of silence, instead of some transcendent code or message with which this monologue, auniversal human monologue,
will never meet, but which it will always miss? Such asignal can undoubtedly be
found at the end of the poem. Similarly toImplosion the ending has atexture
of ashimmering hologram, its own poetic ambiguity. The cartoon joke about surgeons it summarizes is yet another scene belonging tothe genre of black humor,
perfectly positioned in the whole sequence of similar anecdotes present in the
monologue. At the same time, however, such ending of the poem actually revokes
the significance of the monologue itself, placing it in quotation marks; everything
that was said may only serve todesignate ablank space left by amystery that is
ungraspable and extraverbal:
Rysunek: operacja wtoku; pochylone
plecy chirurgw tworz spoist zason,
ponad ktr wystrzela jak zprocy, wysoko,
liski wewntrzny organ (ledziona, na oko)
agwny chirurg wrzeszczy obecnym wtej scenie:
Nie wyrzuca tomoe mie jakie znaczenie!.
185
Perhaps the same thought about mans inevitable missing of what is significant,
about the diverging paths of human experience and of the unknowable, is also
inscribed into the structure of Surgical Precision. One could wonder about the
arbitrarily changing form of stanzas in the poem, and, perhaps more importantly,
about that forms incompatibility with the logical framework of narration. This
meaningful lack of precision, the mid-sentence and mid-thought breaks in the flow
of the monologue, caused by variation in the form of the stanza could suggest that
the whole architecture of the poem, including its arbitrary division into four parts,
is governed by some strange and mysterious logic, not identified with the intention
of the monologist. The latters surgical story, moving forward with anarrative
vigor and aslightly narcissistic self-confidence of someone who never found words
and language toresist the process of articulating the world, is confronted with the
logic of ahigher order. Adifferent, competing rhythm, superimposed on the poetic
monologue, seems tobe encoded in the text, in its extraverbal space, in the form
of amessage: we speak of, name and describe the world, but our discourse forever
misses the worlds true pulse; it is always speaking beside the world.
An issue not tobe missed in the consideration of Surgical Precision is the very
clear autothematic, as well as autobiographical character of the poem. The monologuing narrator is an Everyman, but also Stanislaw Baraczak the poet, author of
the text. The poem is saturated in ahumorous and self-ironic way with the idiom
of the authors biography and works. It contains abiographical thread, recognizable
by no small group of readers: the story of an operation the poet underwent after
leaving the country:
wyrostek, przewieziony wbrzuchu przez Atlantyk
(zapomniany appendix mojej kontrabandy),
186
At the same time the poems bears some characteristics of poetic self-paraphrase;
by changing the outline of the stanza four time, it becomes akind of agallery of
Stanisaw Baraczaks poetic formats, afinal revision, a display of self-quoted
capabilities of Baraczak-the poet.
By applying the idiom of his own biography and poetics, the author of Surgical
Precision places himself and his work on the side of this universal monologue that
will never be completed, will never reach the essence, the mystery, since those are
on the side of Silence. Ithink it is worth noting that serene self-irony inscribed in
the poem and in its concept, which is binding the winded monologue, transitory
in its mental fads, in its anecdotal randomness and grandiloquence, in acomplex,
variable structural pattern of rhymes and stanzas. In Surgical Precision one can
also encounter, albeit significantly changed, many afigure known from Baraczaks
poetry. As in the first part of the poem when we read through asentence of almost
Proustian proportions, with unusually lengthy embedded elements, and with asigh
of relief after astanza and ahalf we welcome its ending, along with the fact that in
spite of numerous included digressions, it turned out tobe perfectly written out
in lines and rhymes, and fortunately saved its ultimately unquestionable logic.
According tothe principle Ihave already described here, the more visible and
powerful the autobiographical element in Surgical Precision, the more it points
in the direction of its opposite the transience of life present like a negative
throughout the monologue, in its entanglement in the now, in the accelerated
respiration which is lifes too ostentatious manifestation. Autothematism, on the
other hand, communicates the inevitable moment when ones work misses the Mystery that escapes poetic expression, the result of which can be ahumorous poetic
hyperactivity of the author in this poem. And Ithink that this autothematic frame,
bearing the message: My poems are just uncertain indications of something that
we should not throw away as we may need it soon helps tounderstand why
Surgical Precision gave its title tothe entire collection and in some sense supports all of Stanisaw Baraczaks work, so much inclined towards the Unknowable.
187
Magorzata Czermiska
Ekphrases in the Poetry of Wisawa Szymborska1
188
The following paper was written for Wisawa Szymborska's Poetry, an international
conference, which was organized in May 2003 in Stockholm by the Royal Academy
of Letters, History and Antiquities in cooperation with departments of Slavic Studies
of universities in Stockholm and Uppsala; it will be published in the volume of
conference proceedings. Polish version is published by the organizers gracious
consent.
Faryno, J. Semiotyczne aspekty poezji osztuce. Na przykadzie wierszy Wisawy
Szymborskiej, Pamitnik Literacki 1975 vol. 4; J. Kwiatkowski Arcydzieka
Szymborskiej, in: Rado czytania Szymborskiej. Wybr tekstw krytycznych,
ed. S. Balbus, D. Wojda, Krakw 1996 (original sketch was prepared in 1977);
J. Grdziel wiat sztuki wpoezji Wisawy Szymborskiej, Pamitnik Literacki 1996
vol. 2; W. Ligza Opoezji Wisawy Szymborskiej. wiat wstanie korekty, Krakw 2001.
Anna Bikont and Joanna Szczsna note (Pamitkowe rupiecie, przyjaciele isny Wisawy
Szymborskiej, Warszawa 1997, pp. 113-115) that the poems motto was With authentic
event In the background, but asked about it the poet could not recall where she had
read about it. The two authors suggest that the anectode might have been referring
tothe painting in the so-called Hall of Fame or The War Gallery of 1812 in the
Winter Palace (reprint of The Painting in Wiersze wybrane, Warszawa 1964;
without the motto)
Neuger, L. Biedna Uppsala zodrobin wielkiej katedry (Prba lektury Elegii
podrnej Wisawy Szymborskiej), in: Rado czytania...
Szymborska, Wisawa, trans. Stanisaw Baraczak, and Clare Cavanagh.Nothing
Twice: Selected Poems. Krakw: Wydawn. Literackie, 1997. 29, 31.
189
Neuger is right topoint out that the issue of necessity and at the same time impossibility or at least difficulty involved in ekphrasis appears in Szymborskas texts as
a matter of importance and one worthy of consideration, not in Travel Elegy,
however. On the other hand, I would agree that we can observe the echo of that
thought in the poem Clochard, which Iwill discuss soon.
Ekphrasis is one of those devices adapted by literature from rhetoric which has
aroused great interest recently among literary theorists, because of its relevance
190
10
191
The statement about the relative ease of describing painting in comparison with
architecture may seem surprising at first, but we should remember that when the
poet said this, she had already written poems such as Brueghels Two Monkeys,
Rubens Women or AByzantine Mosaic, all dedicated tothe interpretation of
pictures. And Clochard, in which she decided not todescribe the Notre-Dame
Cathedral in the belief that
11
12
192
13
14
15
16
193
Ithink that these absent elements, drawn from asecond picture, could have been
found by the poet in amuch later cycle called Seasons by another favorite painter
of hers, whose style creates a clear counterweight to the sweetness of Limbourg
brothers miniatures, namely Pieter Brueghel the Elder. In AMedieval Miniature
the most important means of characterizing the style of painting is the stylization
of language: the humorously treated archaisation and the word-building experiments with forms of superlatives, which probably would have been appreciated by
Gombrowicz, the author of Trans-Atlantyk:
Up the verdantest of hills,
in this most equestrian of pageants,
wearing the silkiest of cloaks.
In several other poems can be found asynthetic characterization of style, rather than
reference toaspecific, individual work. In an interview, the poet said:
I was asked ... which of Rubens paintings inspired me to write Rubens
Women. Of course there is no such painting. It is a description of the style
(Szymborska 96).18
It seems that asimilar situation can be found in Mozaika bizantyjska [AByzantine Mosaic].Yet even in those ekphrases where the depicted work can be identified with certainty, or at least very high degree of probability, Szymborska's poems
direct the attention of areader through specific elements toward the impression
of style as awhole. In Rubens Women, the description of apainting which does
not exist, but is still most probable in terms of subject and style, can serve not
17
194
18
The same opposition emerges in AByzantine Mosaic where the ascetic ideal of
early medieval carnality, modestly hidden under aloose and rigid garment is contrasted with the nudity of ababy whose beauty is that of baroque putto and clearly
belongs among Rubens' Women:
Pink and shameless as apiglet,
plump and merry, verily,
all chubby wrists and ringlets came he (85,87)
19
195
196
20
21
22
197
meaning does not refer tosexual desire, but tothe natures power of motherhood, its
elemental life-giving force. In the description of the figurine we encounter the style
of everyday speech, simple phrases typical of spoken language and characteristic
of someone who focuses on afew basic categories outlined by anarrow horizon of
everyday life, without resorting tothinking about something as useless as beauty,
decoration, ornament.
In this poem, as in AMedieval Miniature, AByzantine Mosaic and Landscape, there is aplayfully ironic distanced attitude tothe convention that appears
between the image and the speaker as something palpable, and thus complicates full
identification; an ironic duality, noticeable at the level of style. In ekphrases which
refer toworks from the Paleolithic period, the Byzantine Empire, the Middle Ages
and the seventeenth century, the poet uses different means of language archaization
and customizes the choice of vocabulary, but at the same time maintains aclear
style and vocabulary of the twentieth-century point of view. The convention of the
past is indeed clear and in this sense acceptable from the perspective of the primary
consciousness of the subject in the poem, but it makes it impossible toapproach
art in the same way as in the case of Brueghels Two Monkeys or The People on
the Bridge, where the sense of the poem was identical with the meaning read from
the painting.
Similarly, this identifying, rather than ironic, attitude towards Rembrandts
art can be found in the poem Pami nareszcie [Memory Finally], which is not
a properly ekphrasis, but uses elements of its poetics. The theme of the poem is
adream of dead parents, whose vision in adream echoes the style, theme and coloring techniques of Rembrandt portraits in interiors. The whole lyrical monologue,
its reaching into memory, is inscribed in the depiction of imagined scene with the
parents sitting at the table, adreamed up image, which, however, has astrangely
strong relationship with painting, since the awakening is both touching the real
world and achiseled picture-frame.
We find ekphrasis in Szymborskas work not only in relation totraditional forms
of high art. The poet has expanded its use tothe phenomenon now appearing in the
modern, technicised culture, and having autilitarian, rather than artistic character.
Such decision is characteristic for the imagination of the poet, who can creatively
see poetic themes even in areas foreign toliterature, such as scientific inquiry or
the most common aspects of everyday life. In fact, Szymborska has applied the
venerable form of ekphrasis tophotography, and not just the purely artistic kind, but
also toatelier portraits, press photography and private amateur photography.22 The
clearest example here is the poem Znieruchomienie [Frozen Motion], carefully
describing the picture of Isadora Duncan standing in the atelier in an awkward, stiff
The photograph is usually reproduced together with the newspaper section containing the news of the birth of Alois Hitlers son, published in the society pages
of local newspaper on May 5th, 1889, so two weeks after birth. This, rather than the
photograph itself, gives rise tomemories of his birth:
Precious little angel, mommy's sunshine, honey bun.
While he was being born, ayear ago,
there was no dearth of signs on the earth and in the sky: (269)
The poem parodies the mythical pattern of the narrative of the birth of ahero accompanied by extraordinary circumstances, since these signs are in the style of
petty-bourgeois kitsch:
spring sun, geraniums in windows,
the organ-grinder's music in the yard,
alucky fortune wrapped in rosy paper.
Then just before the labor his mother's fateful dream.
Adove seen in adream means joyful news (269)
Perhaps this style hides the belief in the banality of evil? The boy in the photograph
is like the tots in every other family album (269). There is no description of his
appearance in the poem. The poem is akind of sentimental and adulatory monologue
about the baby and tothe baby just before having apicture taken by aphotographer
in aprovincial town. The ironic style parodies the chattering enthusiasm, full of
diminutives, and the names of baby accessories. Only in the last three lines of the
198
23
24
The two discussed poems about photographs talk about the crossing of boundaries
of time. This theme, which we already know Szymborskas previous ekphrases, also
dominates the two descriptions of photographs from the latest volume. Chwila [Moment] includes two texts which already in the title indicate the subject of description:
Negatyw [Negative] and Fotografia z11 wrzenia [Aphotograph from September
11]. The former describes anegative image of an anonymous, private photograph of
aman sitting at atable in the garden and is built on the principle of antithesis. The
opposition of light and dark areas which on the negative is the reverse image of reality shows the contrast that exists between the world of the dead and the living. At
the level of language the reversal is present in the modifications tofixed phrases and
idiomatic expressions (aghost/ trying tosummon the living, offer him questions
toany answer, life/ the storm before the quiet). The personal tone of the monologue, addressed toaclose person now dead, bears similarity tothat of the adjacent
Suchawka [Receiver] or Poegnanie widoku [Parting with aView] from the volume
Koniec ipocztek [The End and the Beginning], which makes us read it as an elegy.
Aphotograph from September 11 describes awell-known press photograph,
showing small silhouettes of people jumping from the burning tower, one of the
countless images of the terrorist attack in New York. Stylistically speaking, this is
not adescription of an object, but adynamic unfolding narration of what is happening. The reflection in this ekphrasis once again returns tothe topic of time being
frozen in an image. This time, however, it is not accompanied by the confident, even
triumphant note known from The Joy of Writing or The People on the Bridge.
Instead there is horror, similar tothe presentation of the last moment before the
explosion of abomb in Terrorysta, on patrzy [The Terrorist, Hes Watching].
The characteristic feature of all of Szymborskas ekphrases is in my opinion
the fact that their presentation of aselected work of art is not an end in itself, but
ameans toanother end, which is some reflection stimulated by the original work.
The descriptive element in ekphrases is always dependent on the interpretative idea
which allows us tosay something interesting about the problems which interest the
poet also in her other works, thematically unrelated tothe aesthetic qualities of any
painting. These problems are mainly time, the creative power of an artist, human
cruelty throughout history and different ways of understanding femininity. Ultimately, these ekphrases say more about the imagination of the poet than about the
works of art they depict. However, they say it differently than in poems where the
space between the poet and her readers is not occupied by any painting, sculpture
of photograph serving as an intermediary.
199
200
25
Polish translation by Leon Neuger along with the reproduction of Joanna Helanders
photograph can be found In: Rado czytania Szymborskiej, 5-6.
Hanna Marciniak
Our monuments are ambiguous: .
On Rewiczs Epitaphs1
Wordsworths Essay upon Epitaphs, one of the founding texts of the Romantic
concept of elegiac poetry and aesthetics of the Sublime, important also for their
modern varieties, reads:
201
And, verily, without the consciousness of aprinciple of immortality in the human soul, Man
could never have had awakened in him the desire tolive in the remembrance of his fellows
neither could the individual dying have had adesire tosurvive in the remembrance of his
fellows, nor on their side could they have felt awish topreserve for future times vestiges of
the departed; it follows, as afinal inference, that without the belief in immortality, wherein
these several desires originate, neither monuments nor epitaphs, in affectionate or laudatory commemoration of the deceased, could have existed in the world. (Wordsworth 605-7)2
202
203
Two Horatian topoi: exegi momentum and non omnis moriar are constitutive for
this poetry that has the power of expressing, making permanent, and eternalizing.
Both of them rely on perfection and finiteness of artistic form in two senses of
the Latin perfectum (Zawadzki xviii).4 They are an expression of faith in the permanence of the subject both the poet (as in Horaces Exegi monumentum and
Non usitata) and the person sung about guaranteed by the continuity of memory.
Horaces Donarem pateras, places the of poetic laudation above the commemorative value of monuments.5
In Der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland (In Memory of Paul Celan),
Rewicz recalls Horaces non omnis moriar but arrives at its paradoxical opposite:
Iknow that Ishall wholly die/ and from this flows/ the small comfort.6 (SS 170) Is
existence tobe understood as homeless vegetation in adeserted world / the gods
had left? Does existence outside of poetry voluntarily giving up on poetry in favor of the truth of experience juxtaposed against literary, cultural, and eschatological
myths not rather seem alacking condition? How is existence tobe understood:
as that which remains enduring and surviving through time or that which
continues toexist eternal permanence despite time, afeature of indestructibility.7
Why does the thought of death as annihilation, ultimate destruction of life, bring
comfort? What does it mean towholly die?
Zbigniew Majchrowski believes the monument tobe the most important motif in
Rewiczs poetic imagination and astutely identifies its multiple versions and
obsessive repetitiveness as an attempt at answering the question about the shape
of memory.8 I would supplement the discussion of the commemorative issue in
Rewicz (including remembrance, homage, memory) with the question of representation and expressibility implied by the monument (as well as the related themes
of stone, sculpture, and cathedral).
Amonument shaped like apit is tied tothe drastic image of death as falling,
acharacteristic of Rewiczs early poetry and stemming from the conviction of the
impossibility of resurrection and ultimate decomposition of the human body stripped
of the sacral dimension of corporeality. An oneiric vision of agrave that no longer
signifies the passage from the carnality of earthly existence towards eternal life of
the soul returns also in one of his later poems *** (wicher dobija si do okien)
[wind battered the windows]. Monument shaped liked smoke sends us toMassacre of the Boys and *** (Einst hab ich die Muse gefragt) where the tree loses
its symbolic value of a cultural topos, transformed into a tree of black smoke,
adead tree/ with no star in its crown. (Rewicz 1994 21) These appear tobe two
variations of acounter-monument which through its (non)existence touches the
problem of visual representation of liminal experience and the monumentalization
of memory.9 Rewicz seems tobe aware of the fact that once memory is assigned
the form of monument, we relieve ourselves, toan extent, of the duty toremember.
10
His ambiguous monuments neither elevate (also in the spatial meaning of
204
10
11
12
13
205
the word), nor eternalize, as they are easily annihilated themselves in the process
of organic decomposition, their feeble condition and shapelessness a testimony
touniversal destructibility.11
Rewiczs Preparations for aPoetry Reading, both volumes of Dzienniki [Diaries] and all of his books of poetry contain an elegiac cycle which expands continuously through addition of new poems devoted tothe memory of close and distant
friends, mostly poets, writers and critics as well as important artists unknown in
person. Two commemorative volumes: Our Elder Brother and Mother Departs have
aspecial status among his writing. Iwould like todevote my attention tothese two
works in particular, their obituaries, epitaphs, meditations and commemorations,
and tothe concepts of the other side, memory and poetry inscribed in them.
Memory in Rewicz is an ambiguous force. On the one hand, it is akind of
moral obligation, as it establishes the identity of man, community and culture,
even when it is the acute kind of memory, one testifying toloss and unattainable
wholeness rather than completeness of any kind (Kunz 225).12 In fact, rejecting the
illusion of repair, the poet seems tovalorize negative experiences that brand with
inerasable trauma. His reference toHlderlins hymnal Remembrance [Andenken] (in Tojednak co trwa [That which remains]), where Hlderlin points tothe
special role of the poet as the agent establishing reality and ensuring its endurance
through remembrance and commemoration seems of importance in this context.
On the other hand, the imperative toremember becomes acurse tothe living and
appears as aforce oppressive tothe body, threatening the psychological and physical
integrality of the Self. Eventually, it transforms into asense of guilt, betrayal and
denial of the deceased. This ambivalence accompanies the poet from the earliest
verses in Anxiety and Red Glove (see: Mask and Tothe Dead) tohis late work:13
Ipoet shepherd of life/ have become shepherd of the dead/ Ihave labored too
long on the pastures/ of your cemeteries Depart now/ you dead leave me/ in peace//
this is amatter for the living (Rewicz 2007 72-73).
206
Iwould like tolet this paradox resound fully, emphasize that Rewiczs poetry of
mourning situates itself somewhere in-between Ido not believe and Iam trying
tounderstand. Ido not think it necessary totry and arrive at all costs at asingle
conclusion and impose adefinite interpretation onto all those contradictions. One
14
15
16
17
Ibid. Nadmiar blu. yjc tracimy ycie. Niepokojce tematy egzystencji. W.A.B.,
Warszawa: 2001. 195.
Rewers, E. Pustka iforma Teksty Drugie 2002 Vol. 2/3. 311. ukowski, T. Non
omnis moriar? Res Publica Nowa. 2000 Vol. 5. 69.
Skrendo, A. Tadeusz Rewicz igranice literatury. Poetyka ietyka transgresji, Universitas,
Krakw: 2002. 150.
207
should rather accept both poles of Rewiczs antitheses and attempt toarticulate the
nuances of this ungraspable and notoriously ambiguous thanatological conception.
Rewiczs contradictions seem derive from his reflection on the expiring of the
Absolute [Wygasanie Absolutu] that brings about the fatal erosion of language and
poetry. He writes continuously about the death of poetry, which corresponds towriting
about the death of God; he seems tofind an analogy between poetry and God (195).15
His elegiac reflection oscillates between the word and the body; by incorporating what
seems impossible tocoexist, it places equation marks between biology, psychology,
and semiotics. It moves fluidly between different dimensions of death: from the
literal, biological death, dying off and decomposition of matter, through the death of
the soul and memory, word and art, tothe disappearance of sacrum.
Afundamental question Rewicz seems tobe asking is as follows: can poetry
that is deadthat is mortal (Pr3, 163) save anything in any way or make anything
permanent? How can the word, devoid of its metaphysical foundation, impermanent
and helpless against disintegration, eternalize and ensure immortality? Perhaps the
word is only atrace reminding of loss, aspace where that which is absent resounds
and seeks shelter? If so, the only function of poetry of mourning would be serving
as ahardly consolable vigil of death, adefense of its irreducibility and incomprehensibility, chasing shadows that run away into nothingness or guarding the empty
space marked by those shadows (Rewers 311; ukowski 69).16
How towrite in adying language about the dying of man? If the writing of elegiac
poetry is doomed tofailure (in the sense of the impossibility of raising the Dead
with the word), does it inevitably entail an even more painful failure of adding
one death toanotherthe experience of double death? (Skrendo 150).17
How does one invent a language and manner of representation which would
ensure not aform of immortality toman inasmuch as they would save the fact of
death from aesthetization and fetishization by its becoming aliterary topos or
theme. It would have tobe poetry that, paradoxically, ensures immortality todeath
itself as an event that is unimaginable and inexpressible, an event that cannot be
easily assimilated in the formal order of the cultural organization of experience.
It would have tobe language as something more than acontinuation of the deadly
annihilation by representation. The question of appropriateness, of the right tocross
an unspeakable line with the use of word and image, of entanglement in conventions that figure and aestheticize the originally amorphous and asemantic inhuman
reality, lies at the crux of Rewiczs funeral poetry.
Among the most moving moments of Dziennik gliwicki, [Gliwice diaries] some
passages of which were included in Mother Departs, there is ascene where the poet-
208
18
19
20
21
22
Ibid. 198-199. The version printed in [P2] is the one we know from Face: troch
wlewo / albo wrodku // nic / nie widz (P2 324) [emphasis mine, PP],
semantically most divergent from the version in Mother departs. [Due tosyntactical
differences between English and Polish, translation proposed by Czerniawski
(Rewicz 1994 145) alittle tothe left / or in the centre// Isee/ nothing erases
some of the syntactical oddity mentioned by the author further in the essay. In this
particular case Idontsee/ anything appears tobe closer translation of the version
in Faces. Paradoxically Isee/ nothing when translated literally toPolish results in
Widz / Nic, the syntactically unusual construction discussed above. PP]
Skrendo, A. Tadeusz Rewicz . 138.
See: A. van Gennep Obrzdy przejcia. Systematyczne studium ceremonii. [The Rites of
Passage] Translated by B. Biay, introduction J. Tokarska-Bakir, PIW, Warszawa:
2006, especially chapter: Przejcie fizyczne [The Territorial Passage].
209
23
24
210
25
26
Poetics, in which death in the text is against the death of the texts, in the case of
texts dedicated tolate writers and poets, is realized as dynamization and internal
dialogization of the text by use of quotations, allusions and paraphrases of their
works. Its goal is tocomplement the work of the deceased, as it becomes not only
an expression of mourning, but also an attempt tokeep alive the memory and the
interpretation of one's way of existence, the existence through ones work
(A. Lubaszewska, mier wtekcie przeciw mierci tekstu, Ruch Literacki 1996 Vol.
5. 588, 586, 577.)
In this case the disappearance is literal: when we compare the manuscript tothe
printed work we can observe consistent reduction of forms of expression and
proliferation of the whiteness of the blank page. Cf. P. 18-19.
Lefebve, M.- J. Limage fascinante et le surrel. qtd. in M. Guiomar. Zasady estetyki mierci
(transl. T. Swoboda). Wymiary mierci, ed. S. Rosiek. sowo/obraz terytoria: Gdask.
2002. 82.
Lubaszewska, A. mier wtekcie przeciw mierci tekstu, Ruch Literacki 1996 Vol. 5.
579
27
28
29
211
51).27 Driven by the imperative toexpress pure negativity, the author of Monuments creates forms which are rather inverted, hollow, double-negated (Kunz 117).28
One such negative strategy of representation seems tobe the theme of the silent
seed and the inner poem.
Dying of loved ones is thus experienced by the poet as adepletion of existence,
the ontic weakening of reality. The posthumous Nothing is apenetrating force,
breaking up existence from the inside: The space where Ilive is diminished not
only by the passing of the years of my life, but also by the faces of those who leave.
At first going away slowly, reluctantly, one at atime, then faster, more numerous,
almost en masse. Sometimes it seems to me that Im floating on an ice floe. Its
surface cracks, becomes ever smaller (Identity (memory of Karol Kuryluk),
Pr3 78). This experience translates into the use of narrative archetype of death,
one of the anthropological structures of imagination, constituted by the image
of breaking, tearing...extraction, separation, farewell, departure, disappearance,
transitions, distance .... In this way, death as atheme begins toappear tobe one
of the semiotic-narrative structures, involving the collapse of syntactic and logical
coherence of the text by means of disjunction of the relation between subject P and
an object Othat is life (Lubaszewska 577-8).29 Its equivalent on the level of poetic
imaging become the themes are loss, degradation and erosion: Ifeel tired. Constantly crumbling. Something is crumbling, collapsing. (M 99) notes Rewicz in
Dziennik gliwicki [Gliwice diary], written during the illness and death of his mother.
Similarly in That Rustle:
Nothing is no longer aradical antithesis of something, it seems rather adestructive force, ever present within reality. There is acontinuous osmosis between
the two, death is no longer alimit which crowns abusy life; death is an internal
vacuum, which dilutes the density of becoming, ameontic component diminishing
the ontic substance of life (Janklvitch 344-5). 30 Life is thus still present in the
posthumous void as atrace.
At this point, Ishould clarify the categories of form and emptiness which are
used here. Idefine form, following Ewa Rewers understanding, as contribution of
the mind tothe object of study. Thanks toform, amind can perceive and comprehend an experience in aunique and specific way. Experience is thus the opposite
of form understood as such (Rewers 309).31 As emptiness Iunderstand something
ontologically indeterminate, aliminal space between being and not being. Irefer
toPlato, who defined this space as admitting not of destruction, an undifferentiated ground providing aseat for all that has birth, which should be outside of
all forms (Plato 82, 84).32 Thus understood, emptiness is amorphous and invisible,
and as aconsequence, unimaginable and inexpressible. Emmanuel Levinas seems
torefer tothis tradition of thought when he writes:
Let us imagine all things, beings and persons, returning tonothingness. What remains
after this imaginary destruction of everything is not something, but the fact that there is [il
y a]. The absence of everything returns as apresence, as the place where the bottom has
dropped out of everything, an atmospheric density, aplenitude of the void, or the murmur
of silence. There is, after this destruction of things and beings, the impersonal field of
forces of existingExisting returns no matter with what negation one dismisses it. There
is, as the irremissibility of pure existing.
(Lvinas 46-7)33
30
31
212
32
33
34
35
36
213
These traces, when embedded in the memory and consciousness of the living,
transform their mental space into posthumous space, where the dead not so much
persist as static, reified images, but actually live. They are granted the attributes
of presence and vitality: The dead are still with me. Isee them alive. They perform
agesture, their faces...They are as present as the living. But my ties with them are
somehow stronger than with the living. Death. Locked in my memory (Pages torn
from Gliwice diary, Pr3, 317).
Despite being an inalienable part of the world of the living, the dead are silent.
They are able toperform movements and gestures, their faces are clear and able
toexpress, but the life they lead in the space of memory is asilent life. Communication with them is always an illusory communication, amonologue or prosopopoeia:
Isit on the bench, and talk toStaff and Przybo. The dead are silent, and Itell
them what has happened tome since they left...Staff is smilingIremember that
smile, youthful, roguish even. Iremember that smile. (Tale of Staff, Tuwim and
the Roses Pr3, p 52-53).
In Rewiczs poetry the concepts of non-being and diminishing as internalized
and indelibly present components of existence are also illustrated by the theme of
silent seed: Oh how it sprouts and grows in me/ the silent seed/ of dead fruit/ rises
tothe light/ punctures the blind clay/ of my body/ breaks wooden tongue (P1 364).
It is ashocking image of aliving human body becoming atomb; one of Rewiczs
visions of afterlife: my mother was walking towards me/ Dontbe afraid, Isaid,
you are in the ground/ no one can harm you, hurt you, touch you...you are in me
no one can touch you/ humiliate you hurt you (M, 69, emphasis mine H.M.).
As an interiorized empty signifier functioning without phenomenal
subject...apresence, which refers tothe absence, the dead exist in the body and the
consciousness of man, disintegrating them by placing them on the border between
life and death (Thomas 43).38 They are the source of excruciating memory, painful
like athorn: Iam the pit full of memories/ one on top of another (P1 280), Ihouse
the dead/ it is where they found/ the last refuge (P2 209) . Death is an integral part
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37
38
39
40
41
ukowski, T. Zagada ajzyk poetycki Tadeusza Rewicza. In: Literatura polska wobec
Zagady, ed. A. Brodzka-Wald, D. Krawczyska, J. Leociak, iH: Warszawa 2000. 150.
This difference is crucial tothe poet. See Afterword...
Oimplozji poezji , A. Czerniawskis conversation with T. Rewicz, Poezja 1989. Vol.
2. 10.
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In the commentary to the sketch Rewicz ponders how to bring out from the
depths and tothe surface the silent, hidden inner poem. The act of uncovering
Can something that has death as its constitutive meontic core be asalvation from
death? The poetic word is amortal word, not only due tothe lack of asacred archetype, but also because it designates death and, as such, is the lack of words. And
yet, the omnipotent mortality, while leading tothe erosion of language and paralysis
42
43
216
44
45
Cichowicz. S. mier: gwat na idei lub reakcja ycia. Wstp Antropologia mierci. Myl
francuska, trans. S. Cichowicz, J.M. Godzimirski. PIW: Warszawa 1993. 8.
Lacoue-Labarthe. P. Poetry as Experience, trans. A. Tarnowski. Stanford University
Press: Stanford Cal. 2004. 23.
Czapliski. P. Szczeliny mierci. Mikrologi ze mierci. Motywy tanatyczne we wspczesnej
literaturze polskiej, Poznaskie Studia Polonistyczne. Seria Literaturoznawcza: 2001.
9.
Aris. P. mier odwrcona. trans. J. M. Godzimirski, In: Antropologia mierci .
243.
46
49
47
48
50
51
Legeyska, A. Gest poegnania. Szkice opoetyckiej wiadomoci elegijnoironicznej, Poznaskie Studia Polonistyczne. Seria Literaturoznawcza 1999. 129.
Nycz, R. Tadeusza Rewicza. 200.
Stankowska, A. Inne stany arcypoezji Kwartalnik Artystyczny. 2006 Vol. 2. 122.
Tokarska-Bakir, JZanik dowiadczenia: diagnoza antropologiczna. In: Nowoczesno
jako dowiadczenie, ed. R. Nycz, A. Zeidler-Janiszewska, Universitas, Krakw: 2006.
According tothe author rituals are tools toensure the continuity of experience
'(Przemiany, in: A. van Gennep Obrzdy przejcia13), and the modern suspicion of
ritual is one of the causes of loss of experience, loss of asense of continuity and the
possibility of identifying with the experience of ancestors and others. Contemporary
death is de-ritualized, not experienced by the community, prohibited. The
indecent drama of natural death is not culturally processed, but repressed and
tabooed (.M. di Nola Triumf mierci. Antropologia aoby, ed. M. Woniak, trans.
J. Kornecka et al. Universitas, Krakw: 2006. 100.)
Baraski, J. Anestetyzacja tanatyczna, czyli ostrategii ponowoczesnej kultury wobec
mierci, In: Tanatos. Problemy wspczesnej tanatologii. Vol. 7. ed. J. Kolbuszewski.
WTN, Wrocaw: 2003. 45.
Writing about the experience of death, Imean only the death of another human
being. Death of oneself abolishes, along with subjectivity, the category of
experience.
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of imagination, at the same time stimulates the evolution of consciousness of the subject.
Paradoxically, therefore, it can be said that Rewiczs poetry grows, continues
thanks toobsession with dying. Death keeps this poetry alive (Legeyska 129).46
Understood both literally and metaphorically, the multi-dimensional experience of death becomes the archetype of the poet's various experiences of liminality.
Conversely, the liminal experience is in Rewiczs poetic anthropology usually an
experience of death, and more precisely, atraumatic experience of disintegration
dissolution of matter, annihilation of real reality, destruction and scattering of
meaning (Nycz 200).47 At the same time, however, the death is tothe poet aparadigmatic and fundamental experience of the prior, and only reality (Stankowska
122).48 In adegraded and aesthetically anesthetized world where not only the value
of experience, but its very category has disappeared,49 and where death was rejected
and made meaningless because it is only the negation life and cannot be accompanied by anything more than an empty denial of life (Baraski 45),50 the experience
of universal mortality and inevitable disappearance may become the only form of
authentic experience of reality.51
The unusual frequency of imagery associated with stone, sculptures and monuments is typical of Rewiczs funeral texts, as he often compared writing of funeral
poetry toputting up tombstones, engraving epitaphs, or carving cemetery monuments. In Closure he writes: The graveyard of poems is growing, poetic tombstones for the dead. They grow next toone another like fresh graves (Pr3, 96). In
Zraniony poeta [...Wounded poet], memories of the dead are called tombstone
inscriptions. Ihave buried too many loved ones, friends and acquaintances, too
many enemies Memories as grave stones rest on my mind, my emotions, he says
(Pr3, 386).
52
53
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54
55
56
57
58
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Anna Nasiowska, professor works at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish
Academy of Sciences, member of the research group Literature and Gender. Editor
of the academic journal Teksty Drugie. Published numerous academic works as
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Bogdana Carpenter professor Emerita of Slavic Languages & Literatures and Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan. She is the author of The Poetic
Avant-Garde in Poland 19181939 and Monumenta Polonica: The First Four Centuries
of Polish Poetry. She translates the contemporary Polish poetry. She was also the
editor and translator (with Madeline G. Levine) of Czesaw Mioszs selected essays
ToBegin Where IAm.
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Cezary Zalewski, professor in the Department of Literary Theory at the Jagiellonian University. Author of the following books Powracajca fala. Mityczne konteksty
wybranych powieci Bolesawa Prusa iElizy Orzeszkowej (2005) and Pragnienie, poznanie,
przemijanie. Fotograficzne reprezentacje wliteraturze polskiej (2010). He published numerous articles in Pamitnik Literackim, Ruch Literacki and Teksty Drugie.