“Thou who hast sewn together this canvas.” Adam Zagajewski’s Search for the Absolute

Bogusława Bodzioch-Bryła

doi:10.35765/pk.2021.3201.09

Abstract

Adam Zagajewski’s poetry proves how complex man’s relationship with the sacred can be. Despite the poet’s testimony of complete independence from established formations, including denominational ones, in his early work, when he described himself as “an atheist of both churches, non-partisan among party members, an unbeliever among believers, uncertain among the convinced” (Mogę mówić tylko za siebie [I can only speak for myself]; Oda do wielości [Ode to multiplicity], Zagajewski 1983), literary criticism has long emphasized the presence of a broadly conceived sphere of the sacred in his poetry. When reading Zagajewski’s poems, one has the impression that the sacred is permanently present, and that the poet is constantly brushing against the figure of the Absolute, while not being able (or sometimes not wanting) to fully see it. The reader even gets the impression that perhaps this may be a purposeful impossibility. For Zagajewski, an extremely important theme is circular movement, constant circling around the same issue, and a need for constant questioning. This article discusses these complex relations, proving that Zagajewski consistently reflects in on the figure of the Absolute, that the subject of his poems seeks the sacred, and that the question of the Absolute seems to be more than a poetic strategy for the author, but also a very personal dilemma. The poet died on March 21, 2021.

Highlights

Poezja Adama Zagajewskiego dowodzi, jak wysoce skomplikowana bywa relacja człowieka z sacrum
Sawicki points out that in the context of the history and culture of the opposition between the sacred and profane is something absolutely important and noticeable, and in a dynamic way, it explains the interpreted reality, so it can be used in research, while the very sacrum may appear in the subject field through themes, topics, threads, plots, topoi, archetypes, and symbols
The author mentions that it is possible to speak of theology in literature, and of a theology of literature – even when neither in a work itself, nor in its authorial or native context can we find a conscious acceptance of the theological message implicit in the work of literature, when we want to read its message, and to unveil its sense, the sense of specific literary phenomena in theological perspectives, for example in the perspective of the biblical history of salvation

Summary

Premonition of God

The Soviet Cosmonauts claimed they didn’t find God in outer space, but did they look? (Zagajewski, 2011, p. 4). An enumeration follows: a thicket of grass, a weave of braids, “wind entwined in the lips of the bride” (the motif of betrothal can be treated in this context as a harbinger of a future union, which is a kind of a “weave”), and a spider’s web, which in itself constitutes a structural labyrinth. All of this is framed by the sequence of enumerations: “A Fence. It begins to touch on the most important matters, but it penetrates into every crevice of the subject’s existence recalled in this poetic affirmation/afterimage of the city

For my parents

Poetic prayers

Only mysteries are immortal