Depka and Rzepka

Abstract

3 FICTION Depka and Rzepka Pawel Huelle Translator's note:PawetHuelle isa Polishwriterwho lives inGdansk,formerly the FreeCity of Danzig, wheremany Poles were resettled after WorldWar IIwhen thecountry'sborders were shifted west.Huelle's work isoftenset inand around Gdansk, and oftenreferstothehistoryof thearea.Thefishermenin thisstoryare Kashubians, a distinctethnic group that has inhabitedthesamearea of what is now north-central Polandfor centuries. They speaka dialectofPolish and have a strongcultural identity. InPoland, the main Christmascelebrationis "Wigilia," the ChristmasEve vigil supper,atwhich thetraditional main dish iscarp. "Depka and Rzepka" is froma collectioncalledCold Sea Tales, published inPolish in2008. In those days buying anything, even fish,rose to the status of a problem. There was even a joke about it thatused to do the rounds in our city. Why before thewar was itpossible tobuy fish as far inland as Drohobycz? Because in those days Poland had only justover a hundred miles of coastline.And why since the war is itimpossible tobuy fisheven ina port? Because thesedays Poland has more than threehundred miles of coastline. A second, quite accidental piece of comedy on the same subjectwas provided by an advertis ing cartoon shown on our movie theater screens at some point in the mid-1970s, after the obligatory newsreel and theso-called extra.A fishappeared on thescreen,marked with thesymbol of theCentral Fish Processing Plant, and addressed theaudience, saying: "No fish will tellyou thishimself, but eat ing them's good foryour health. Come and shop at theCFPP?!" The whole audience gathered in the movie theaterused to roarwith laughter at this ad, because the shelves in the stores?including the November-December 2009 135 FICTION fishmonger's?were glaringly empty.Why do I mention this? Because I'm thinking about Christmas Eve. And as I'm thinkingabout Christmas Eve, there's no way of avoiding the subject of fish. In my family, unanimity had reigned in this respect ever since?by decree of Stalin and the rest of theBig Three?we had been resettled inGdansk. So inmy family, as a result of our enforced emigration, a certain basic change in culi nary predilections had takenplace. Itwasn't carp (which stank of silt), or pike (whichwas awfully bony), but cod, huge and fresh, thathad become themain feature of our Christmas Eve menu. My father,who had arrived in the city on thebay in 1946,would speak with a tear in his eye of his expe ditions to Bonsack (in other words Sobiesze wo Island), where in the 1940s and '50s you could buy fresh and smoked fish from the fishermen?outside the structures of the Central Fish Process ing Plant, of course. I remember the large fillets of cod my mother used to fry,and not just for Christmas Eve, and the chunks of smoked eel, whenever Uncle Henryk?hero of the Warsaw Uprising?came to see us on my father's name day. Zander too, delicate and delicious, brought home by bus fromBonsack forall sorts of family occasions. However, we are in the 1970s, when buying fish?even at Bonsack?was harder and harder. In short, days ofwant. And Christmas Eve was approaching. I was delegated tomake the journey like a secret agent: on one piece of paper I had the address of the fishermen fromnear Jastarnia.On another I had the train timetable, thereand back, forthe linebetween Gdynia and Hel. A thirdcon tained a shopping list,eventually crossed out by my mother, who had simply added "getwhatever there is." Mr. Depka lived in a shed. It was a cross between the typicalKashubian cottage and some thing like aworkshop and a storehouse: asmuch a fishmonger's as a boatyard. He wasn't even surprised when I came inside and revealed my references: "From Mr. H. the engineer who fixed your fishing boat motors." But we didn't talk about engines. Alojz Depka was excited, and over a glass or two of vodka he and Mr. Rzepka were discussing something that had happened a few weeks ago,when J?zkKonkel, a skipper from the maszoperia?as the Kashubian fishermen call their association?had sailed out into thebay. So, first of all, it wasn't the time forfishing.Second, some thinghappened on thewater that made Depka as well as Rzepka talk...