{"id":20829,"date":"2026-05-11T19:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/?p=20829"},"modified":"2026-05-12T18:59:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T16:59:45","slug":"ryszard-krynicki-a-poet-of-suffering-a-poet-of-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/05\/11\/ryszard-krynicki-a-poet-of-suffering-a-poet-of-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryszard Krynicki – A Poet of suffering, a Poet of Joy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Polish Poetry Unites<\/em><\/strong><\/a> is\u202fa video series for anyone interested in literature, history and reading. In each episode Edward Hirsch<\/strong><\/a>, a distinguished American poet, and the president of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, will introduce a celebrated Polish poet to American audiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Watch the episode<\/a><\/strong> on YouTube<\/a><\/strong> channel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This episode of Polish Poetry Unites<\/strong><\/a> introduces Ryszard Krynicki<\/a><\/strong> to American audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


On June 28 2026 the poet will celebrate his 83rd birthday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRyszard Krynicki is a poet, a translator, an editor, and a publisher,” says Edward Hirsch in his forward \u2013 \u201cHe’s one of the true people of letters in Polish literature. He’s also one of the last true living heirs to Zbigniew Herbert<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not much will remain, Ryszard, really not much of the poetry of this insane century <\/em>Herbert<\/a><\/strong> writes in the \u201cTo Richard Krynicki – a Letter,\u201d ..\u201dcertainly Rilke<\/a><\/strong>, Eliot<\/a><\/strong>, 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.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The American poet Louise Bogan<\/a><\/strong> said about Marianne Moore<\/a><\/strong>, her poetry is compactness compacted. And that’s true of Krynicki’s work, Edward Hirsch continues. He’s translated Paul Celan<\/a><\/strong> and he’s probably closest to Celan in his sensibility, in his linguistic originality and his elusiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n

I was here<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A flash \u2014 a fading hieroglyph of light on the wall \u2014 and the helpless charm, repeated stubbornly, \u201cKilroy was here,\u201d like carvings on rock. In the niche of dusk, a homeless man lays out his cardboard for the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one is reflected in the wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated from the Polish by Joanna Huss<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

By\u0142em tutaj<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

B\u0142ysk, gasn\u0105cy hieroglif promienia na murze \u2013
i powtarzane z uporem bezradne zakl\u0119cie
\u201eKilroy was here\u201d jak naskalne
ryty. We wn\u0119ce zmroku bezdomny
rozk\u0142ada swoje kartony na nocleg.
Nikt
odbija si\u0119 w \u015bcianie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n

Rue de Poitiers<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Late afternoon, light snow.
The Musee d\u2019Orsay\u2019s on strike, nearby
a gray lump bundled on the sidewalk\u2019s edge:
a bum curled in a ball (maybe a refugee
from 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Rue de Poitiers<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

P\u00f3\u017ane popo\u0142udnie, pr\u00f3szy \u015bnieg.
Nieopodal strajkuj\u0105cego Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay
wida\u0107 szary tobo\u0142ek na skraju chodnika:
zwini\u0119ty w k\u0142\u0119bek kloszard (albo uciekinier
z jakiego\u015b ogarni\u0119tego wojn\u0105 domow\u0105 kraju)
nadal le\u017cy na kracie, okutany w koce,
\u015bpiw\u00f3r z odzysku i prawo do \u017cycia.
Wczoraj mia\u0142 jeszcze w\u0142\u0105czony tranzystor.
Dzi\u015b stygn\u0105ce monety uk\u0142adaj\u0105 si\u0119 na gazecie
w konstelacje nieby\u0142ych planet i ksi\u0119\u017cyc\u00f3w.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n

Untitled<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Returning home, I saw a little red squirrel
running across the street.
It darted away from a car
and swiftly climbed an ash tree by the park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What better thing
could have happened to me today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated from the Polish by Joanna Huss<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Bez tytu\u0142u<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wracaj\u0105c do domu zobaczy\u0142em ma\u0142\u0105 rud\u0105 wiewi\u00f3rk\u0119
Przebiegaj\u0105c\u0105 przez ulic\u0119
umkn\u0119\u0142a przed samochodem
I b\u0142yskawicznie wspi\u0119\u0142a si\u0119 na jesion, przy parku<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Ryszard Krynicki<\/strong>, one of Poland\u2019s 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 \u00e9migr\u00e9 press Kultura. After working for years as an editor in underground publishing and running a private art gallery with his wife, Krystyna, in their Pozna\u0144 apartment, he founded the influential publishing house a5 in 1988; from the start, the press focused on contemporary Polish poetry, including the works of Wis\u0142awa 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 Krak\u00f3w. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Source: The NYRB)<\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

This episode of\u00a0Polish Poetry Unites\u00a0introduces\u00a0Ryszard Krynicki\u00a0to American audiences was produced with additional support from: the Museum of Literature in Warsaw and New York Women in Film & Television<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lead image: Ryszard Krynicki, photo courtesy of Ryszard Krynicki<\/em>
Bio image: Ryszard Krynicki, photo by El\u017cbieta Lempp<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moderator: Edward Hirsch<\/em>
Writer and Director: Ewa Zadrzy<\/em>\u0144<\/em>ska
Curator and Executive Producer: Bartek Remisko<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Polish Poetry Unites is\u202fa 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":20843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-literature"],"yoast_head":"\nRyszard Krynicki - A Poet of suffering, a Poet of Joy - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/05\/11\/ryszard-krynicki-a-poet-of-suffering-a-poet-of-joy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"pl_PL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ryszard Krynicki - A Poet of suffering, a Poet of Joy - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Polish Poetry Unites is\u202fa 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 […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/05\/11\/ryszard-krynicki-a-poet-of-suffering-a-poet-of-joy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-11T17:05:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-12T16:59:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/05\/RKrynicki_400x400-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"stypulkowskaa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Napisane przez\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"stypulkowskaa\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Szacowany czas czytania\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minut\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"event\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/05\/11\/ryszard-krynicki-a-poet-of-suffering-a-poet-of-joy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/05\/11\/ryszard-krynicki-a-poet-of-suffering-a-poet-of-joy\/\",\"name\":\"Ryszard Krynicki - A Poet of suffering, a Poet of Joy\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/05\/11\/ryszard-krynicki-a-poet-of-suffering-a-poet-of-joy\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":[\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/05\/RKrynicki_400x400-1.jpg\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/05\/RKrynicki_400x400-1-300x300.jpg\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/05\/RKrynicki_400x400-1.jpg\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/05\/RKrynicki_400x400-1.jpg\"],\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/05\/RKrynicki_400x400-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-11T17:05:11+02:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-12T16:59:45+02:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/c732b2695ee92026d080eec35471c7f1\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/05\/11\/ryszard-krynicki-a-poet-of-suffering-a-poet-of-joy\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/05\/11\/ryszard-krynicki-a-poet-of-suffering-a-poet-of-joy\/\"]}],\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"startDate\":\"2026-02-25\",\"endDate\":\"2026-05-25\",\"eventStatus\":\"EventScheduled\",\"eventAttendanceMode\":\"OfflineEventAttendanceMode\",\"location\":{\"@type\":\"place\",\"name\":\"\",\"address\":\"\",\"geo\":{\"@type\":\"GeoCoordinates\",\"latitude\":\"\",\"longitude\":\"\"}},\"description\":\"Polish Poetry Unites is\u202fa 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. \\nWatch the episode on YouTube channel.\\nThis episode of Polish Poetry Unites introduces Ryszard Krynicki to American audiences.\\nOn June 28 2026 the poet will celebrate his 83rd birthday. \\nFollowing 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.\\n\u201cRyszard Krynicki is a poet, a translator, an editor, and a publisher,\\\" says Edward Hirsch in his forward \u2013 \u201cHe's one of the true people of letters in Polish literature. He's also one of the last true living heirs to Zbigniew Herbert.\\nNot much will remain, Ryszard, really not much of the poetry of this insane century Herbert writes in the \u201cTo Richard Krynicki - a Letter,\u201d ..\u201dcertainly 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.\\nKrynicki'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.\\nThe 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.\\nThese 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.\\nAnd 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.\\nAnd 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.\\nI was here\\nA flash \u2014 a fading hieroglyph of light on the wall \u2014 and the helpless charm, repeated stubbornly, \u201cKilroy was here,\u201d like carvings on rock. In the niche of dusk, a homeless man lays out his cardboard for the night.\\nNo one is reflected in the wall.\\nTranslated from the Polish by Joanna Huss\\nBy\u0142em tutaj\\nB\u0142ysk, gasn\u0105cy hieroglif promienia na murze \u2013i powtarzane z uporem bezradne zakl\u0119cie\u201eKilroy was here\u201d jak naskalneryty. We wn\u0119ce zmroku bezdomnyrozk\u0142ada swoje kartony na nocleg.Niktodbija si\u0119 w \u015bcianie.\\nRue de Poitiers\\nLate afternoon, light snow.The Musee d\u2019Orsay\u2019s on strike, nearbya gray lump bundled on the sidewalk\u2019s 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. \\nTranslated from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh\\nRue de Poitiers\\nP\u00f3\u017ane popo\u0142udnie, pr\u00f3szy \u015bnieg.Nieopodal strajkuj\u0105cego Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsaywida\u0107 szary tobo\u0142ek na skraju chodnika:zwini\u0119ty w k\u0142\u0119bek kloszard (albo uciekinierz jakiego\u015b ogarni\u0119tego wojn\u0105 domow\u0105 kraju)nadal le\u017cy na kracie, okutany w koce,\u015bpiw\u00f3r z odzysku i prawo do \u017cycia.Wczoraj mia\u0142 jeszcze w\u0142\u0105czony tranzystor.Dzi\u015b stygn\u0105ce monety uk\u0142adaj\u0105 si\u0119 na gazeciew konstelacje nieby\u0142ych planet i ksi\u0119\u017cyc\u00f3w.\\nUntitled\\nReturning home, I saw a little red squirrelrunning across the street.It darted away from a carand swiftly climbed an ash tree by the park.\\nWhat better thingcould have happened to me today?\\nTranslated from the Polish by Joanna Huss\\nBez tytu\u0142u\\nWracaj\u0105c do domu zobaczy\u0142em ma\u0142\u0105 rud\u0105 wiewi\u00f3rk\u0119Przebiegaj\u0105c\u0105 przez ulic\u0119umkn\u0119\u0142a przed samochodemI b\u0142yskawicznie wspi\u0119\u0142a si\u0119 na jesion, przy parku\\nRyszard Krynicki, one of Poland\u2019s 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 \u00e9migr\u00e9 press Kultura. After working for years as an editor in underground publishing and running a private art gallery with his wife, Krystyna, in their Pozna\u0144 apartment, he founded the influential publishing house a5 in 1988; from the start, the press focused on contemporary Polish poetry, including the works of Wis\u0142awa 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 Krak\u00f3w. \\n(Source: The NYRB)\\nThis episode of\u00a0Polish Poetry Unites\u00a0introduces\u00a0Ryszard Krynicki\u00a0to American audiences was produced with additional support from: the Museum of Literature in Warsaw and New York Women in Film & Television\\nLead image: Ryszard Krynicki, photo courtesy of Ryszard KrynickiBio image: Ryszard Krynicki, photo by El\u017cbieta Lempp\\nModerator: Edward HirschWriter and Director: Ewa Zadrzy\u0144skaCurator and Executive Producer: Bartek Remisko\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/05\/11\/ryszard-krynicki-a-poet-of-suffering-a-poet-of-joy\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/05\/RKrynicki_400x400-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/05\/RKrynicki_400x400-1.jpg\",\"width\":400,\"height\":400},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/05\/11\/ryszard-krynicki-a-poet-of-suffering-a-poet-of-joy\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ryszard Krynicki – A Poet of suffering, a Poet of Joy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/\",\"name\":\"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku\",\"description\":\"Instytuty Polskie\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/c732b2695ee92026d080eec35471c7f1\",\"name\":\"stypulkowskaa\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a29bb1802c91e057084d5d112dd59dc4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a29bb1802c91e057084d5d112dd59dc4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"stypulkowskaa\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/author\/stypulkowskaa-2\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ryszard Krynicki - A Poet of suffering, a Poet of Joy - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/05\/11\/ryszard-krynicki-a-poet-of-suffering-a-poet-of-joy\/","og_locale":"pl_PL","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ryszard Krynicki - A Poet of suffering, a Poet of Joy - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","og_description":"Polish Poetry Unites is\u202fa 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 […]","og_url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/05\/11\/ryszard-krynicki-a-poet-of-suffering-a-poet-of-joy\/","og_site_name":"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","article_published_time":"2026-05-11T17:05:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-05-12T16:59:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":400,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/05\/RKrynicki_400x400-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"stypulkowskaa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Napisane przez":"stypulkowskaa","Szacowany czas czytania":"7 minut"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"event","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/05\/11\/ryszard-krynicki-a-poet-of-suffering-a-poet-of-joy\/","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/05\/11\/ryszard-krynicki-a-poet-of-suffering-a-poet-of-joy\/","name":"Ryszard Krynicki - A Poet of suffering, a Poet of Joy","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/05\/11\/ryszard-krynicki-a-poet-of-suffering-a-poet-of-joy\/#primaryimage"},"image":["https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/05\/RKrynicki_400x400-1.jpg","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/05\/RKrynicki_400x400-1-300x300.jpg","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/05\/RKrynicki_400x400-1.jpg","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/05\/RKrynicki_400x400-1.jpg"],"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/05\/RKrynicki_400x400-1.jpg","datePublished":"2026-05-11T17:05:11+02:00","dateModified":"2026-05-12T16:59:45+02:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/c732b2695ee92026d080eec35471c7f1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/05\/11\/ryszard-krynicki-a-poet-of-suffering-a-poet-of-joy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"pl-PL","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/05\/11\/ryszard-krynicki-a-poet-of-suffering-a-poet-of-joy\/"]}],"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","startDate":"2026-02-25","endDate":"2026-05-25","eventStatus":"EventScheduled","eventAttendanceMode":"OfflineEventAttendanceMode","location":{"@type":"place","name":"","address":"","geo":{"@type":"GeoCoordinates","latitude":"","longitude":""}},"description":"Polish Poetry Unites is\u202fa 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. \nWatch the episode on YouTube channel.\nThis episode of Polish Poetry Unites introduces Ryszard Krynicki to American audiences.\nOn June 28 2026 the poet will celebrate his 83rd birthday. \nFollowing 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.\n\u201cRyszard Krynicki is a poet, a translator, an editor, and a publisher,\" says Edward Hirsch in his forward \u2013 \u201cHe's one of the true people of letters in Polish literature. He's also one of the last true living heirs to Zbigniew Herbert.\nNot much will remain, Ryszard, really not much of the poetry of this insane century Herbert writes in the \u201cTo Richard Krynicki - a Letter,\u201d ..\u201dcertainly 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.\nKrynicki'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.\nThe 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.\nThese 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.\nAnd 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.\nAnd 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.\nI was here\nA flash \u2014 a fading hieroglyph of light on the wall \u2014 and the helpless charm, repeated stubbornly, \u201cKilroy was here,\u201d like carvings on rock. In the niche of dusk, a homeless man lays out his cardboard for the night.\nNo one is reflected in the wall.\nTranslated from the Polish by Joanna Huss\nBy\u0142em tutaj\nB\u0142ysk, gasn\u0105cy hieroglif promienia na murze \u2013i powtarzane z uporem bezradne zakl\u0119cie\u201eKilroy was here\u201d jak naskalneryty. We wn\u0119ce zmroku bezdomnyrozk\u0142ada swoje kartony na nocleg.Niktodbija si\u0119 w \u015bcianie.\nRue de Poitiers\nLate afternoon, light snow.The Musee d\u2019Orsay\u2019s on strike, nearbya gray lump bundled on the sidewalk\u2019s 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. \nTranslated from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh\nRue de Poitiers\nP\u00f3\u017ane popo\u0142udnie, pr\u00f3szy \u015bnieg.Nieopodal strajkuj\u0105cego Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsaywida\u0107 szary tobo\u0142ek na skraju chodnika:zwini\u0119ty w k\u0142\u0119bek kloszard (albo uciekinierz jakiego\u015b ogarni\u0119tego wojn\u0105 domow\u0105 kraju)nadal le\u017cy na kracie, okutany w koce,\u015bpiw\u00f3r z odzysku i prawo do \u017cycia.Wczoraj mia\u0142 jeszcze w\u0142\u0105czony tranzystor.Dzi\u015b stygn\u0105ce monety uk\u0142adaj\u0105 si\u0119 na gazeciew konstelacje nieby\u0142ych planet i ksi\u0119\u017cyc\u00f3w.\nUntitled\nReturning home, I saw a little red squirrelrunning across the street.It darted away from a carand swiftly climbed an ash tree by the park.\nWhat better thingcould have happened to me today?\nTranslated from the Polish by Joanna Huss\nBez tytu\u0142u\nWracaj\u0105c do domu zobaczy\u0142em ma\u0142\u0105 rud\u0105 wiewi\u00f3rk\u0119Przebiegaj\u0105c\u0105 przez ulic\u0119umkn\u0119\u0142a przed samochodemI b\u0142yskawicznie wspi\u0119\u0142a si\u0119 na jesion, przy parku\nRyszard Krynicki, one of Poland\u2019s 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 \u00e9migr\u00e9 press Kultura. After working for years as an editor in underground publishing and running a private art gallery with his wife, Krystyna, in their Pozna\u0144 apartment, he founded the influential publishing house a5 in 1988; from the start, the press focused on contemporary Polish poetry, including the works of Wis\u0142awa 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 Krak\u00f3w. \n(Source: The NYRB)\nThis episode of\u00a0Polish Poetry Unites\u00a0introduces\u00a0Ryszard Krynicki\u00a0to American audiences was produced with additional support from: the Museum of Literature in Warsaw and New York Women in Film & Television\nLead image: Ryszard Krynicki, photo courtesy of Ryszard KrynickiBio image: Ryszard Krynicki, photo by El\u017cbieta Lempp\nModerator: Edward HirschWriter and Director: Ewa Zadrzy\u0144skaCurator and Executive Producer: Bartek Remisko"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"pl-PL","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/05\/11\/ryszard-krynicki-a-poet-of-suffering-a-poet-of-joy\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/05\/RKrynicki_400x400-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/05\/RKrynicki_400x400-1.jpg","width":400,"height":400},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/05\/11\/ryszard-krynicki-a-poet-of-suffering-a-poet-of-joy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ryszard Krynicki – A Poet of suffering, a Poet of Joy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/","name":"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","description":"Instytuty Polskie","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"pl-PL"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/c732b2695ee92026d080eec35471c7f1","name":"stypulkowskaa","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"pl-PL","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a29bb1802c91e057084d5d112dd59dc4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a29bb1802c91e057084d5d112dd59dc4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"stypulkowskaa"},"url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/author\/stypulkowskaa-2\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20829"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20874,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20829\/revisions\/20874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}