Polish Poetry Research Articles

Сборник польской поэзии в русских переводах, составленный Юзефом Чапским в 1942 году: история возникновения, анализ переводов

“An Anthology of Polish Poetry in Russian Translations”, edited by Józef czapski in 1942, circumstances Surrounding the publication of this Anthology and an Analysis of the TranslationsThis paper deals with An Anthology of Polish Poets edited by Józef Czapski in 1942 in Tashkent, which has not been published yet. The tools of Translation Studies applied here have allowed to analyse the basic translation problems facing the Russian poets when they, on Czapski’s request, translated selected examples of Polish poetry

Alegorie i symbole proletariatu. Retoryka odpodmiotowienia i upodmiotowienia klasy robotniczej w tekstach poetyckich drugiej połowy XIX wieku

The article describes two models of representing proletariat in the Polish poetry of the second half of the 19th century. The first model relates to the image of misery, poverty and weakness and focuses on the frail beings (children, orphans, paupers) faced with the state apparatus or lack of any help from the environment. Various forms of allegories appear in this model very frequently. The second model can be seen in the so called revolutionary poetry. Here, the image of poverty and weakness starts to fulfill a completely different role − the misery of the proletariat is perceived not through the eyes of an outside observer, but by the proletariat itself, although only to see the strength of the weak coming from their number. The same reality is thus depicted in an absolutely different manner − in the first case the image confirms the misery and weakness of the proletariat which can only be changed by an outside philanthropist; in the second case the image induces the sense of empowerment in the proletariat, which − although weak, exploited and humiliated – possesses an inner power to recover from its position.

Wyzwania wersyfikacyjne w przekładach poezji arabskiej na polski i polskiej na arabski

Versification Challenges in Arabic-to-Polish and Polish-to-Arabic Translations of Poetry As it is widely known, a poem is not just semantics, metaphors, similes and sophisticated vocabulary. It is also a particular prosodic structure through which it is possible at all to determine whether one deals with verse or prose. Besides, the form of a given poem, and especially the way the poem is divided into verses, always remains in some relationship with its semantic content. Therefore, it seems obvious that the formal structure of a poem should not be ignored.The paper analyses to what extent translations of Arabic poetry into Polish as well as Polish poetry into Arabic include the prosodic structure of the original works.

„Trudne” wiersze. Wokół lingwistycznej poezji kobiet

The article addresses the problem of absence of women’s poetry in the linguistic current of 20th-century Polish poetry. It analyses its causes, amongst which the pivotal role is played by the stereotypical vision of women’s poetry, deeply ingrained in general awareness. The vision in question does not admit “difficult” forms and thus places women’s poetic work outside the avant-garde tendencies, linguistic experiment and metareflection. The authoress calls for inclusion of the omitted or forgotten poetesses who play with language in their poems and she articulates the need to redefine our understanding of linguistic poetry.

Niepowtarzalne doświadczenie świata (O Stanisławie Jaworskim – wspomnienia i lektury)

This article is composed of three main parts: the first part briefly presents Prof. Jaworski’s professional and creative accomplishments, the second part provides a description of the most important research questions addressed by Prof. Jaworski in his scholarly work, while the last section of the article is devoted to personal recollections by the present writer, highlighting the profiles and roles of Professor Jaworski as a lecturer, scholar, intellectual, editor, science organiser and discourse partner. Stanisław Jaworski was a prominent expert in the Kraków Avantgarde group and the subsequent history of this avant-garde movement in Polish poetry in Poland as well as on changes and literary recurrences in modern Polish and European literature. His literary research techniques include a comparative perspective as an important element, whereas interpretations of poems still play a substantial part. Prof. Jaworski has written a groundbreaking work Piszę, więc jestem? [I write therefore I am?] introducing new ideas and methods in genetic criticism, the approach to the study of literature Prof.Jaworski adopted and developed. The present article identifies common ideas and ways of thinking in research and poetical creative work.

Introduction: Polish Poetry in Translation: Bridging the Frontiers of Language

Introduction: Polish Poetry in Translation: Bridging the Frontiers of Language

Zwierzęce zaangażowanie najnowszej poezji polskiej

The article starts with a summary of discussion that erupted after the publication of the Zebrało się śliny anthology with regard to the phenomenon of “engaged poetry.” According to the author, there has emerged a group of poets who directly and actively refer in their works to current discourses, including new animal theories. This “animal” engagement of new Polish poetry is realized within three basic conceptual frameworks: connections with capitalism, analogies between animal exploitation and the patriarchal system, as well as the process of technocratization.

СИМВОЛІЗМ У ПОЕЗІЇ ОЛЕКСАНДРА ОЛЕСЯ І ТВОРЧОСТІ ПОЛЬСЬКИХ МОДЕРНІСТІВ

This article has investigated the development of Ukrainian symbolism, argued the reception of the aesthetic and conceptual foundations of the Polish symbolists in Oleksandr Oles’s works. Oleksandr Oles, as well as Polish symbolists, was affected with emotionally unstable atmosphere of national and revo- lutionary renaissance, which explains the pessimism, feeling of weakness and helplessness in their philosophy – on one hand, and vital, extremely optimistic point of view – on the other. This article is devoted to analyze an aesthetic heritage of European symbolists and it’s reflection in Oleksandr Oles’ s individual interpretation. Reaching of this research goal demands a comparative study of poetry of Oleksandr Oles and rep- resentatives of Polish symbolism – in particular, the analysis of symbolic concepts formed in Western European tradition. The changes of scientific paradigm in modern philology, free choices of tools lets us to delineate the tasks of the research – among them are to describe the mechanisms of establishment of Oleksandr Oles’s symbolic outlook, which determined his adapta- tions of artistic and stylistic features of this aesthetic model. The new generation of artist who came instead of the apologists has noted the disadvantages of social involvement of literature. The views of European symbolists have been transformed on Ukrainian national ground and undergone the modifications caused by specific social and political contradictions over the history of society. It has directly determined the way of Ukrainian symbolism basing it on artistic dialogue between the new ideas in European literature and the national background. The influences of Polish symbolic poetry, in particular works of Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer, can be noted in Oleksandr Oles’s – „Ukrainian Heine’s”, as Khrystia Alchevska called him – artistic mindset.

Sentymentalizm – sielanka – długie trwanie. O nawiązaniach do sentymentalnych podstaw gatunku w poezji XX wieku

The study presents major assumptions of the Polish sentimentalism as a historical phenomenon. Its basic anthropological ideas are: the recognition of sensitivity as the prime disposition of a human being, the need of sensibility to circumstances of another individual and the need of emphatic ability. These universal assumptions – in the first place expressed in pastorals – are referred to by Polish poets of the 19th and 20th centuries. In Maria Jasnorzewska-Pawlikowska’s, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz’ and Józef Czechowicz’ verses – references to sentimental pastoral convention serve criticism of the world being the denial of sensitivity. These references also become an expression of longing for the lost aura of interpersonal intimacy. Evocations of pastorals in the 20th century’s poetry (Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, Czesław Miłosz, among others) have a specific image, where the need for emphatic ability comes into collision with ghastliness of war, destruction and negating the value of an individual. The latest poetry (Piotr Sommer, among others) – by a reference to sentimental aura of idyllic life – poses a question about chances of making use of the tongue of empathy and of communicating with another person (‘I’). With regards to the Polish poetry – rather than about ‘recurrences’ of sentimentalism – one might speak about the ‘long lasting’ of its fundamental anthropological ideas of universal nature.

Sentymentalizm – sielanka – długie trwanie. O nawiązaniach do sentymentalnych podstaw gatunku w poezji XX wieku

The study presents major assumptions of the Polish sentimentalism as a historical phenomenon. Its basic anthropological ideas are: the recognition of sensitivity as the prime disposition of a human being, the need of sensibility to circumstances of another individual and the need of emphatic ability. These universal assumptions – in the first place expressed in pastorals – are referred to by Polish poets of the 19th and 20th centuries. In Maria Jasnorzewska-Pawlikowska’s, Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz’ and Jozef Czechowicz’ verses – references to sentimental pastoral convention serve criticism of the world being the denial of sensitivity. These references also become an expression of longing for the lost aura of interpersonal intimacy. Evocations of pastorals in the 20th century’s poetry (Krzysztof Kamil Baczynski, Czeslaw Milosz, among others) have a specific image, where the need for emphatic ability comes into collision with ghastliness of war, destruction and negating the value of an individual. The latest poetry (Piotr Sommer, among others) – by a reference to sentimental aura of idyllic life – poses a question about chances of making use of the tongue of empathy and of communicating with another person (‘I’). With regards to the Polish poetry – rather than about ‘recurrences’ of sentimentalism – one might speak about the ‘long lasting’ of its fundamental anthropological ideas of universal nature.

The American West as a Space of Re-Inscription: Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz's Polish Adaptation of Mayne Reid's The Headless Horseman

The American West as a Space of Re-InscriptionJarosław Iwaszkiewicz's Polish Adaptation of Mayne Reid's The Headless Horseman Marek Paryz (bio) The Polish literary fascination with the American West dates back to the second half of the nineteenth century, which saw, among others, the publication of Władysław Anczyc's adaptation of Robert Montgomery Bird's Nick of the Woods under the title Duch Puszczy [Forest Ghost] (1872) and Maria Julia Zaleska's adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales in one volume under the title Mieszkaniec puszczy [The Man of the Wilderness] (1884). Individual works from Cooper's cycle, especially The Last of the Mohicans, were subsequently adapted for Polish readers by several other authors (cf. Paryz 224-28). At the close of the nineteenth century adventure stories set in the American West began to appear in Polish virtually on a mass scale, attesting that the imaginary West was becoming a local cultural phenomenon. Exemplary titles from that time include: Marcin Mizera's Do Ameryki po złoto. Z opowiadań wędrowca [To America in Search of Gold: A Traveller's Tales] (1888), Teresa Prażmowska's W dziewiczych lasach Ameryki. Powieści dla młodzieży [In America's Primeval Forests: Tales for Young Readers] (1894), Artur Lubicz's W lasach dziewiczych Ameryki [In America's Primeval Forests] (1898), Kazimierz Kalinowski's Wielki Orzeł. Przygody myśliwego w Ameryce [Great Eagle: A Hunter's Adventures in America] (1902) (Bobowski 22). At the same time, a number of anonymous novels on analogous topics came out, often based on foreign sources (22). The publication of the translations of the major novels from Karl May's Winnetou cycle—Winnetou in 1909-10, Old Surehand in 1910, and The Treasure of the Silver Lake in 1925—further boosted [End Page 141] the demand for literary Westerns in Polish. The popularity of such novels in interwar Poland can be described in terms of a craze; Halina Skrobiszewska writes, "It was a mass-scale production. In the interwar years, bookshop shelves bent under the weight of 'Indian novels.' Educators lamented, critics laughed, and literary heroes lost their scalps in one chapter only to punish the victimizer by a torture tree in the next" (300).1 The Polish variety of the literary Western, analogically to some of its European counterparts, was thus established as a genre of juvenile literature, relying on the sensational adventure formula and exploiting the exoticism of the depicted places and peoples. More serious narrative representations of the American West, for example travel accounts of the United States containing extended descriptions of the region and its inhabitants, were too rare to influence the reading public's imaginings about the West and expectations as to its literary portrayal. For obvious reasons, writers who considered themselves serious and ambitious literary artists ignored the Western; however, there was one notable exception—Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, whose flirtation with the genre resulted in the publication of his adaptation of Mayne Reid's The Headless Horseman (1866) in 1928. Iwaszkiewicz belongs to the most prominent Polish writers of the twentieth century; he was prolific as much as versatile and produced poems, novels, short stories, plays, essays, biographies, and travel books. He wrote the libretto for Karol Szymanowski's King Roger (1926), an internationally recognized masterpiece of modern opera. Iwaszkiewicz (1894-1980) was born in the countryside near Kiev, now the capital of Ukraine, in a family that cultivated the tradition of the Polish landed gentry. In 1918 he moved to Warsaw and quickly established connections with the local literary circles, becoming one of the leading members of the poetic group Skamander, beside Julian Tuwim, Antoni Słonimski, Kazimierz Wierzyński, and Jan Lechoń. The Skamander poets helped define some of the key directions in modern Polish poetry. Iwaszkiewicz published his first book, a collection of poems, in 1919 and his first novel four years later. After World War II he became a celebrated and influential man of letters. He served as the chief editor of the literary monthly Twórczość for two and a half [End Page 142] decades and as the president of the Polish Writers' Association for several terms. He...

Notre Dame

Notre Dame Julian Przyboś (bio) From a million fingers folded in prayer, the space ascends!The Interior pried me from the spire’s hook—in terror.Mocked and spat upon by gargoyles spewing rain,I know my worth: I, animate, so near the pillars.These walls, sheared-off cliffs, like heads above meresurrect from the sarcophagus. Who roused this darkness, formedand comprehended it? I know. Crosses, burdened with Jesuses,one must hone into the rails of builders’ ladders;and one’s will—made equal to unfathomed azure—and one’s death,from the Gothic archstrike(there at the vault’s keystonetrembles the notched flight of arrows);and endure the roar of hewn stones lifted ever higher,till they, unending, by a sudden vertigoare toppled, as twin towers, from a height—inverted depths. Who imagined this abyss and flung it upwards!? [End Page 48] Julian Przyboś Julian Przyboś (1901–1970) is credited with the initiation in 1922 of the first Vanguard movement in Kraków (Awangarda Krakowska) that promoted the idea of a poetry characterized by concision, autobiographical restraint, and expression through images, and is understood to be a significant theoretician in the history of Polish poetry. During World War II his poems were circulated clandestinely. After the war he served for some years as a diplomat for the Polish People’s Republic in Switzerland, but broke with the party after 1956. He died in Kraków. Copyright © 2019 Middlebury College Publications

Poetic Musicology among Musical Discourses: The Poet as a Listener

This paper analyses selected examples of Polish poetry from the 20th century devoted to music (poems by Adam Zagajewski and Julia Hartwig), placing them in the context of the musicological discourses that exist today, particularly the auditive discourse. Poems devoted to music are treated as cultural statements – evidence of the reception of music. The concept of “poetic musicology” elaborated by Anna Baranczak in the 1970s, still one of the most valid and important strategies for speaking about music, has been updated and revitalised, placed in the space of culture, particularly in the area of Polish human sciences, where there is an exceptionally rich and diverse poetic output related to music.

CARRYING COALS TO NEWCASTLE COULD ONE SAY IT IN A DIFFERENT MANNER?

The article’s starting point is the necessity to alter the paradigm of Polish poetry, which is declared in the ‘contemporary Polish lyric poetry’ anthology Powiedziec to inaczej [To say it in a different manner]. The author attempts to assess the chance of the project’s success.

Gość/inność dyskursu posthumanistycznego. Recenzja książki Anny Filipowicz, „(Prze)zwierzęcenia. Poetyckie drogi do postantropocentryzmu”, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego, Gdańsk 2017

Recenzowana książka Anny Filipowicz (Prze)zwierzęcenia. Poetyckie drogi do postantropocentryzmu jest jedną z kluczowych rozpraw badających związki ludzko-zwierzęce na materiale poezji polskiej XX i XXI wieku. Autorka w sposób innowacyjny odczytuje wiersze poetów uznanych za kanoniczych (Anny Świrszczyńskiej, Tadeusza Różewicza, Marcina Świetlickiego, Ryszarda Krynickiego, Tomasza Różyckiego, Jarosława Marka Rymkiewicza i Juliana Tuwima), wykorzystując wiedzę etologiczną i przyrodoznawczą. Największym atutem rozprawy, zdaniem recenzenta, jest mikrologiczna analiza poszczególnych utworów, dowartościowująca szczegół, dzięki czemu czytelnik otrzymuje kompendium podstawowych problemów związanych z emancypacją zwierząt w dwóch planach czasowych (podczas powstania warszawskiego i w czasach współczesnych). Filipowicz postuluje odrzucenie stereotypów, które do tej pory wzmacniały szowinizm gatunkowy i hierarchiczność w ramach akcydentalnych spotkań (casus zwierząt zamieszkujących ogrody zoologiczne i przestrzenie niezurbanizowane) i wypracowanie wrażliwości międzygatunkowej. Jej przejawami mogłyby być m.in. troska o dostrzeżenie indywidualnych biografii zwierząt w trakcie konfliktów zbrojnych lub zapobieganie niszczeniu biotopów. Rozprawa Filipowicz jest nie tylko przykładem zręcznego aplikowania metodologii z pogranicza humanistyki ekologicznej, animal studies, affective studies, lecz również ważnym głosem w debacie o budowaniu ładu ekologicznego i miejscu/roli zwierząt w życiu człowieka.

»Within the four walls of my pain«

Abstract The article explores the experience of physical and mental illness in the works of two 20th-century Polish poets, Aleksander Wat and Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki. Wat’s writing concentrates around his neurological disorder and the feeling of isolation it induces. Dycki, on the other hand, constructs the speaking persona of his poems around schizophrenia. He creates his own characteristic poetic diction, full of obsessive repetitions, which is meant to embody mental illness in a textual form. The article looks at how different aspects of suffering are expressed in modern Polish poetry, based on the example of two representative and well-known authors dealing with illness.

Bir Başkahramanın Şiirler Arası Yolculuğu: Zbigniew Herbert ve “Bay Cogito”

1974 yılında yayımlanan “Bay Cogito” şiir kitabı, yirminci yüzyıl Polonya şiirinin en önemli isimleri arasında yer alan Zbigniew Herbert'in şiir sanatında bir dönüm noktası olarak kabul edilir. Aynı isimle ortaya çıkan kitabın kurgusal karakteri Bay Cogito aracılığıyla şair daha kişisel ve aktüel konuları ele alır. Bu bağlamda Bay Cogito hakkında Herbert'in lirik maskesi ya da alter egosu yakıştırılması yapılır. İlk defa Herbert'in beşinci kitabında ortaya çıkan bu lirik özne şairin son şiir cildine kadar varlığını sürdürür. Okur zaman içerisinde Bay Cogito'nun değişimlerine tanıklık yapar. Sıradan konulara ilgisi, gülünç yönleri, ironik yaklaşımları ve varoşlar arasında gezen görüntüsüyle bir Everymanı çağrıştırırken, diğer taraftan felsefe, sanat ve estetik konusundaki derin düşünceleriyle adeta modern bir filozof görüntüsü çizer. Hem pop kültürle hem de klasik sanatla yakından ilgili olan, düşünen, gözlemleyen, merak eden Bay Cogito, aynı zamanda Herbert'in çok yönlü kişiliğini de gözler önüne serer. Bu çalışmada Herbert'in kurgusal başkahramanı Bay Cogito'nun ortaya çıktığı ilk kitap Bay Cogito'dan başlayarak farklı yönleriyle incelenecek, şairin kendisiyle olan ilişkisi ortaya konmaya çalışılacaktır.

Visit My Dreams, Please!

Prominent Russian author Liudmila Ulitskaia has gathered testimonies about the life of Natalia Gorbanevskaya (1936-2013), poet, prose writer, human rights activist and journalist, editor, publisher, and translator (especially of Polish poetry). Ulitskaia intersperses her own comments and reminiscences of her long-time friend (in italics) with the comments and reminiscences of a number of other friends and relations, providing background for a better understanding of Gorbanevskaya’s life and deeds.1

„Więc naprzód pies poczciwy kundel, który nas nigdy nie opuścił…” Wątki kynologiczne w wybranych wierszach polskich poetów XX w.

„First of all, there is, and always will be, our good old mongrel...” Dog motifs in chosen Polish poems from the 20th centuryThe aim of this paper is to discuss the motif of the dog occurring in the twentieth century Polish poetry. This will entail two research outlooks: 1. the dog as the author of alyrical monologue, per­ceiving the world from an animal’s point of view Monologue of a dog ensnared in history by Szymborska and A dog’s dream by Gałczyński; 2. the dog as the source of interest for the subject of a poem First of all, the dog by Herbert, Dogs by Baczyński, and Stroking a dog by Pawlikowska-Jasnorzew­ska. The paper serves the role of an introductory article, touching upon the most important issues, foundations and literary devices used in depicting the dog motif in the above-mentioned poems.

За „българските мозайки” и княгиня Венцислава-Виола в полската литературна и културна памет

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