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SUMMARY:Ryszard Krynicki - A Poet of suffering, a Poet of Joy
UID:https://instytutpolski.pl/newyork/2026/05/11/ryszard-krynicki-a-poet-of-suffering-a-poet-of-joy/
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DESCRIPTION:Polish Poetry Unites is a video series for anyone interested in
literature, history and reading. In each episode Edward Hirsch, a
distinguished American poet, and the president of the Guggenheim Memorial
Foundation, will introduce a celebrated Polish poet to American audiences. 
Watch the episode on YouTube channel.
This episode of Polish Poetry Unites introduces Ryszard Krynicki to
American audiences.
On June 28 2026 the poet will celebrate his 83rd birthday. 
Following the foreword by Edward Hirsch, the video features three poems
selected and read by poet himself. Two of the poems were translated from
the Polish by Joanna T. Huss and one by Claire Cavanagh.
“Ryszard Krynicki is a poet, a translator, an editor, and a publisher,"
says Edward Hirsch in his forward – “He's one of the true people of
letters in Polish literature. He's also one of the last true living heirs
to Zbigniew Herbert.
Not much will remain, Ryszard, really not much of the poetry of this insane
century Herbert writes in the “To Richard Krynicki - a Letter,”
..”certainly Rilke, Eliot, a few other distinguished shamans who knew the
secret of conjuring a form with words that resist the action of time
without which no phrase is worth remembering and speeches like sand.
Krynicki's taken Herbert's challenge and written a poetry of high
seriousness. His poems are very short and feel as if they're engraved in
stone.
The American poet Louise Bogan said about Marianne Moore, her poetry is
compactness compacted. And that's true of Krynicki's work, Edward Hirsch
continues. He's translated Paul Celan and he's probably closest to Celan in
his sensibility, in his linguistic originality and his elusiveness.
These three poems that Ryszard is reading in the film are very
characteristic of his work. They're travel poems, one in London, one in
Paris, one at home in Krakow. But underneath the travel poems is you notice
that in two of them, sort of poems on the road. What he highlights is the
suffering of an individual person, a refugee or a homeless person (that he
finds on a grate or on the street or laying on a cardboard box). And
underneath the moments that he finds: these moments in time that are really
moments out of time, is his focus on suffering.
And then in the Krakow poem, walking through the city, he highlights a
small detail, almost as if he's writing a Japanese poem of a red squirrel
scampering about. But this squirrel gives him a moment of tremendous joy.
And what I like about these three poems is they reflect the deepest aspect
of Krynicki's work, which is that he's a poet of suffering, but he's also a
poet of joy.
I was here
A flash — a fading hieroglyph of light on the wall — and the helpless
charm, repeated stubbornly, “Kilroy was here,” like carvings on rock.
In the niche of dusk, a homeless man lays out his cardboard for the night.
No one is reflected in the wall.
Translated from the Polish by Joanna Huss
Byłem tutaj
Błysk, gasnący hieroglif promienia na murze –i powtarzane z uporem
bezradne zaklęcie„Kilroy was here” jak naskalneryty. We wnęce zmroku
bezdomnyrozkłada swoje kartony na nocleg.Niktodbija się w ścianie.
Rue de Poitiers
Late afternoon, light snow.The Musee d’Orsay’s on strike, nearbya gray
lump bundled on the sidewalk’s edge:a bum curled in a ball (maybe a
refugeefrom some country caught in civil war)still lying on the grate,
packed in a quilt,a scrap-heap sleeping bag, the right to life.Yesterday
his radio was playing.Today coins cooling on a paper shape
constellation,nonexistent moons and planets. 
Translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh
Rue de Poitiers
Późne popołudnie, prószy śnieg.Nieopodal strajkującego Musée
d’Orsaywidać szary tobołek na skraju chodnika:zwinięty w kłębek
kloszard (albo uciekinierz jakiegoś ogarniętego wojną domową
kraju)nadal leży na kracie, okutany w koce,śpiwór z odzysku i prawo do
życia.Wczoraj miał jeszcze włączony tranzystor.Dziś stygnące monety
układają się na gazeciew konstelacje niebyłych planet i księżyców.
Untitled
Returning home, I saw a little red squirrelrunning across the street.It
darted away from a carand swiftly climbed an ash tree by the park.
What better thingcould have happened to me today?
Translated from the Polish by Joanna Huss
Bez tytułu
Wracając do domu zobaczyłem małą rudą wiewiórkęPrzebiegającą przez
ulicęumknęła przed samochodemI błyskawicznie wspięła się na jesion,
przy parku
Ryszard Krynicki, one of Poland’s most important contemporary poets, was
born in a labor camp in Sankt Valentin (Lower Austria) in 1943. Since the
1960s, when he became known as one of the poets of the New Wave, Krynicki
has been associated with the democratic opposition in Poland. As a result,
he was subjected to censorship and then banned completely from official
publication between 1976 and 1980, although he continued to publish with
unofficial presses and, in the case of Our Life Grows (1978), with the
Paris émigré press Kultura. After working for years as an editor in
underground publishing and running a private art gallery with his wife,
Krystyna, in their Poznań apartment, he founded the influential publishing
house a5 in 1988; from the start, the press focused on contemporary Polish
poetry, including the works of Wisława Szymborska, Adam Zagajewski, and
many younger poets. Krynicki is also renowned as a translator of
German-language poets, including Nelly Sachs and Paul Celan. A recipient of
many prestigious literary awards, he was most recently awarded the Zbigniew
Herbert International Poetry Prize in 2015. He lives in Kraków. 
(Source: The NYRB)
This episode of Polish Poetry Unites introduces Ryszard Krynicki to
American audiences was produced with additional support from: the Museum of
Literature in Warsaw and New York Women in Film & Television
Lead image: Ryszard Krynicki, photo courtesy of Ryszard KrynickiBio image:
Ryszard Krynicki, photo by Elżbieta Lempp
Moderator: Edward HirschWriter and Director: Ewa ZadrzyńskaCurator and
Executive Producer: Bartek Remisko
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