{"id":5985,"date":"2022-05-10T22:40:25","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T20:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/?p=5985"},"modified":"2024-09-24T14:57:29","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T12:57:29","slug":"tadeusz-rozewicz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2022\/05\/10\/tadeusz-rozewicz\/","title":{"rendered":"Tadeusz R\u00f3\u017cewicz, the Poet of Dark Refusal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Polish Poetry Unites<\/a><\/em><\/strong> is a new video series for anyone interested in literature, history and reading. In each episode Edward Hirsch<\/a><\/strong>, a distinguished American poet, and the president of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, will introduce a celebrated Polish poet to American audiences. Among the three poets featured in the first season of Polish Poetry Unites, the best known in the USA is probably Tadeusz R\u00f3\u017cewicz<\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/1JzbnKiea0Y\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTadeusz R\u00f3\u017cewicz is a poet of dark refusals, hard negations. I would call him a naked or impure poet.  He doesn\u2019t really have time for the grand floridity,\u201d <\/em>says Edward Hirsch, poet himself and promoter of poetry, host of the video series bringing Polish poetry to American audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then he continues:  „He\u2019s an absolutely crucial figure in a generation of Polish Poets who are sometimes called New Columbuses. This is the generation of Zbigniew Herbert<\/strong><\/a> and Wislawa Szymborska<\/strong><\/a>, who are now somewhat more famous around the world.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s crucial about them is that they grew up in a period of time when Poland was experiencing one of its few moments of independence, but they came of age during World War Two and that stripped them of all illusions.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hirsh discovered R\u00f3\u017cewicz in the 1970s, when he was in his twenties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll never forget my first experience of a poem of his, which was called \u201cIn the midst of Life,\u201d <\/em>says Hirsch, and then quotes a part of the poem, which really changed him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter the end of the world, after death I found myself in the midst of life,<\/em>
creating myself, building life, people, animals, landscapes\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>
This is a table, I said, this is a table.\u00a0\u00a0On the table is bread, a knife. A knife is to cut bread. People live off of bread.<\/em><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I just can\u2019t tell you, this just went through me, as a way to rethink poetry from the ground up.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The poem addresses the question: is poetry possible after the Holocaust, after the horrific years of the war that took the lives and dignity of millions of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo me he\u2019s the, kind of, Samuel Beckett<\/strong><\/a> of Polish Poetry, because he absolutely refuses to look away, there\u2019s something relentless, and honest, and deeply truthful in his work\u201d<\/em> says Hirsch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the second part of this episode, 19 year old Piotr Wo\u0142ukanis from Sejny, Poland, talks about his life in the context of his favorite poem byR\u00f3\u017cewicz, Posthumous Exoneration<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This episode features two poems by Tadeusz R\u00f3\u017cewicz<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In The Middle\/Midst of Life<\/em>, and Posthumous Exoneration<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

In The Middle\/Midst of Life<\/em>  <\/strong>
translated by Joanna Trzeciak<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the end of the world
after my death
I found myself in the middle of life creating myself
building a life
people animals landscapes <\/p>\n\n\n\n

this is a table I kept saying
this is a table
on the table are bread knife
the knife is used for cutting bread people feed on bread <\/p>\n\n\n\n

man should be loved
I learned by night by day what should one love
I answered man <\/p>\n\n\n\n

this is a window I kept saying this is a window
beyond the window is a garden in the garden I see an apple tree the apple tree blossoms <\/p>\n\n\n\n

the blossoms fall off fruit forms
ripens <\/p>\n\n\n\n

my father picks an apple the man picking the apple is my father <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was sitting on the front steps of the house that old woman
pulling a goat on a rope
is more needed <\/p>\n\n\n\n

is worth more
than the seven wonders of the world anyone who thinks or feels
she isn’t needed
is guilty of genocide <\/p>\n\n\n\n

this is a man
this is a tree this is bread <\/p>\n\n\n\n

people eat to live <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I kept repeating to myself human life is important
human life has great importance the value of life <\/p>\n\n\n\n

exceeds the value of every object man has made
man is a great treasure
I kept repeating stubbornly <\/p>\n\n\n\n

this is water I kept saying stroking the waves with my hand talking to the river
water I said
kind water
it is I <\/p>\n\n\n\n

the man talked to the water talked to the moon
to the flowers to the rain he talked to the earth <\/p>\n\n\n\n

to the birds to the sky <\/p>\n\n\n\n

the sky was silent the earth was silent if he heard a voice flowing <\/p>\n\n\n\n

from the earth the water the sky it was the voice of another man <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1955 <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Posthumous Exoneration<\/strong><\/em>
translated by Joanna Trzeciak<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dead 
recall our indifference
the dead 
recall our silence
the dead 
recall our words
The dead see our smiles 
stretching from ear to ear
the dead see our bodies
rubbing against each other
the dead hear our lips
smacking
The dead read our books
listen to our speeches
delivered so long ago
the dead study our essays
take part in discussions
already over
the dead see our hands
converging in applause
The dead see stadiums
choirs bands chanting
all of the living are guilty
guilty are the small children 
bearing flowers
guilty are the lovers
guilty are
those who fled are guilty
and those who stayed
those who said yes
and those who said no
those who said nothing
The dead are reckoning the living
the dead will not exonerate us<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Tadeusz R\u00f3\u017cewicz<\/strong>, (born October 9, 1921, Radomsko, Poland\u2014died April 24, 2014, Wroc\u0142aw), Polish poet and playwright, one of the leading writers of the post-World War II period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having seen service during World War II<\/a> in the underground Polish Home Army, R\u00f3\u017cewicz used his experiences as inspiration for two of his early volumes of poems, Niepok\u00f3j<\/em> (1947; Faces of Anxiety<\/em>) and Czerwona r\u0119kawiczka<\/em> (1948; \u201cThe Red Glove\u201d). Those works were notable for their lack of traditional poetic devices such as metre, stanza, and rhyme. Later volumes include Srebrny k\u0142os<\/em> (1955; \u201cSilver Ear of Corn\u201d), Twarz trzecia<\/em> (1968; \u201cThe Third Face\u201d), Na powierzchni poematu i w \u015brodku<\/em>(1983; \u201cOn the Surface and Inside a Poem\u201d), and Wyj\u015bcie<\/em> (2004; \u201cExit\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1960s R\u00f3\u1e93ewicz began writing plays, among them Kartoteka<\/em> (1960; The Card Index<\/em>) and \u015awiadkowie; albo, nasza ma\u0142a stabilizacja<\/em> (1962; \u201cThe Witnesses; or, Our Little Stabilization\u201d; Eng. trans. The Witnesses, and Other Plays<\/em>). In a later play, Stara kobieta wysiaduje<\/em> (1968; The Old Woman Broods<\/em>, in The Witnesses, and Other Plays<\/em>), the title character speaks her monologues from her seat on a growing pile of garbage. The Survivor, and Other Poems<\/em> appeared in 1976; it was translated and introduced by Magnus J. Krynski and Robert A. Maguire. In addition to his plays and poetry<\/a>, R\u00f3\u017cewicz was the author of novels, short stories, and works of nonfiction, notably Matka odchodzi<\/em> (1999), which won Poland\u2019s Nike Prize in 2000. He was the recipient of the 2007 European Prize for Literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dealing with solitude, estrangement, and the existential<\/a> situation of a poet, R\u00f3\u017cewicz\u2019s poetry, in particular, gradually evolves toward values whose implications<\/a> go beyond the contemporary to the universal. Ultimately, it expresses, in a simple, often metaphoric form, a concern with the moral<\/a> issues inherent<\/a> in the preoccupations and attitudes of modern society. In its simplicity the poetry is unlike R\u00f3\u017cewicz\u2019s dramas, which are filled with a sense of the absurd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biography source: Britannica
More about Tadeusz R\u00f3\u017cewicz<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Moderator: Edward Hirsch<\/em>
Writer and Director: Ewa Zadrzy\u0144ska
Cinematography: Jacek Mieros\u0142awski
Editor: Anna J\u0119drzejewska
Curator and Executive Producer: Bartek Remisko<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Edward Hirsch<\/a><\/strong> is an American poet and critic who wrote a national bestseller about reading poetry entitled How to Read A Poem And Fall In Love With Poetry<\/strong><\/a> <\/em>published in 2014. He has published nine books of poems, including The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems<\/em> (2010) and Gabriel: A Poem<\/em> (2014), a book-length elegy for his son that The New Yorker called \u201ca masterpiece of sorrow.\u201d He has also published five prose books about poetry.  His latest book of essays, 100 Poems to Break your Heart<\/strong><\/a><\/em> was published in 2021.  He is president of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in New York City. Currently he is finishing a book of essays called The Heart of American Poetry<\/strong><\/a>. <\/em>It will be published in April to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Library of America.  The book consists of deeply personal readings of forty essential American poems. It rethinks the American tradition in poetry.  Ed Hirsch lives in New York City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lead image: Tadeusz R\u00f3\u017cewicz, 2003, photo: Krzysztof Wojciechowski \/ Forum<\/em>. Image source: Culture.pl<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Polish Poetry Unites is a new 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. Among the three poets featured in the first season of Polish Poetry Unites, the best known […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":5992,"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":[5,15,204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-literature","category-polish-jewish"],"yoast_head":"\nTadeusz R\u00f3\u017cewicz, the Poet of Dark Refusal - 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\/2022\/05\/10\/tadeusz-rozewicz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"pl_PL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tadeusz R\u00f3\u017cewicz, the Poet of Dark Refusal - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Polish Poetry Unites is a new 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. Among the three poets featured in the first season of Polish Poetry Unites, the best known […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2022\/05\/10\/tadeusz-rozewicz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-05-10T20:40:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-09-24T12:57:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/05\/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-4.42.20-PM.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1290\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"858\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"klaudia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Napisane przez\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"klaudia\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Szacowany czas czytania\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minut\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"event\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2022\/05\/10\/tadeusz-rozewicz\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2022\/05\/10\/tadeusz-rozewicz\/\",\"name\":\"Tadeusz R\u00f3\u017cewicz, the Poet of Dark Refusal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2022\/05\/10\/tadeusz-rozewicz\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":[\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/05\/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-4.42.20-PM.png\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/05\/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-4.42.20-PM-300x200.png\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/05\/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-4.42.20-PM-1024x681.png\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/05\/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-4.42.20-PM.png\"],\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/05\/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-4.42.20-PM.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-10T20:40:25+02:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-09-24T12:57:29+02:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/04d40cd80c1729a7f440613bee4073b6\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2022\/05\/10\/tadeusz-rozewicz\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2022\/05\/10\/tadeusz-rozewicz\/\"]}],\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"startDate\":\"2022-05-10\",\"endDate\":\"2022-05-10\",\"eventStatus\":\"EventScheduled\",\"eventAttendanceMode\":\"OfflineEventAttendanceMode\",\"location\":{\"@type\":\"place\",\"name\":\"\",\"address\":\"\",\"geo\":{\"@type\":\"GeoCoordinates\",\"latitude\":\"\",\"longitude\":\"\"}},\"description\":\"Polish Poetry Unites is a new 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. Among the three poets featured in the first season of Polish Poetry Unites, the best known in the USA is probably Tadeusz R\u00f3\u017cewicz. \\n\u201cTadeusz R\u00f3\u017cewicz is a poet of dark refusals, hard negations. I would call him a naked or impure poet. He doesn\u2019t really have time for the grand floridity,\u201d says Edward Hirsch, poet himself and promoter of poetry, host of the video series bringing Polish poetry to American audiences.\\nAnd then he continues: \\\"He\u2019s an absolutely crucial figure in a generation of Polish Poets who are sometimes called New Columbuses. This is the generation of Zbigniew Herbert and Wislawa Szymborska, who are now somewhat more famous around the world.\\nWhat\u2019s crucial about them is that they grew up in a period of time when Poland was experiencing one of its few moments of independence, but they came of age during World War Two and that stripped them of all illusions.\u201d\\nHirsh discovered R\u00f3\u017cewicz in the 1970s, when he was in his twenties.\\n\u201cI\u2019ll never forget my first experience of a poem of his, which was called \u201cIn the midst of Life,\u201d says Hirsch, and then quotes a part of the poem, which really changed him.\\n\u201cAfter the end of the world, after death I found myself in the midst of life,creating myself, building life, people, animals, landscapes\u00a0\u00a0This is a table, I said, this is a table.\u00a0\u00a0On the table is bread, a knife. A knife is to cut bread. People live off of bread.\\nI just can\u2019t tell you, this just went through me, as a way to rethink poetry from the ground up.\u201d\\nThe poem addresses the question: is poetry possible after the Holocaust, after the horrific years of the war that took the lives and dignity of millions of people.\\n\u201cTo me he\u2019s the, kind of, Samuel Beckett of Polish Poetry, because he absolutely refuses to look away, there\u2019s something relentless, and honest, and deeply truthful in his work\u201d says Hirsch.\\nIn the second part of this episode, 19 year old Piotr Wo\u0142ukanis from Sejny, Poland, talks about his life in the context of his favorite poem byR\u00f3\u017cewicz, Posthumous Exoneration.\\nThis episode features two poems by Tadeusz R\u00f3\u017cewicz\\nIn The Middle\/Midst of Life, and Posthumous Exoneration\\nIn The Middle\/Midst of Life translated by Joanna Trzeciak\\nAfter the end of the worldafter my deathI found myself in the middle of life creating myselfbuilding a lifepeople animals landscapes \\nthis is a table I kept sayingthis is a tableon the table are bread knifethe knife is used for cutting bread people feed on bread \\nman should be lovedI learned by night by day what should one loveI answered man \\nthis is a window I kept saying this is a windowbeyond the window is a garden in the garden I see an apple tree the apple tree blossoms \\nthe blossoms fall off fruit formsripens \\nmy father picks an apple the man picking the apple is my father \\nI was sitting on the front steps of the house that old womanpulling a goat on a ropeis more needed \\nis worth morethan the seven wonders of the world anyone who thinks or feelsshe isn't neededis guilty of genocide \\nthis is a manthis is a tree this is bread \\npeople eat to live \\nI kept repeating to myself human life is importanthuman life has great importance the value of life \\nexceeds the value of every object man has mademan is a great treasureI kept repeating stubbornly \\nthis is water I kept saying stroking the waves with my hand talking to the riverwater I saidkind waterit is I \\nthe man talked to the water talked to the moonto the flowers to the rain he talked to the earth \\nto the birds to the sky \\nthe sky was silent the earth was silent if he heard a voice flowing \\nfrom the earth the water the sky it was the voice of another man \\n1955 \\nPosthumous Exonerationtranslated by Joanna Trzeciak\\nThe dead recall our indifferencethe dead recall our silencethe dead recall our wordsThe dead see our smiles stretching from ear to earthe dead see our bodiesrubbing against each otherthe dead hear our lipssmackingThe dead read our bookslisten to our speechesdelivered so long agothe dead study our essaystake part in discussionsalready overthe dead see our handsconverging in applauseThe dead see stadiumschoirs bands chantingall of the living are guiltyguilty are the small children bearing flowersguilty are the loversguilty arethose who fled are guiltyand those who stayedthose who said yesand those who said nothose who said nothingThe dead are reckoning the livingthe dead will not exonerate us\\nTadeusz R\u00f3\u017cewicz, (born October 9, 1921, Radomsko, Poland\u2014died April 24, 2014, Wroc\u0142aw), Polish poet and playwright, one of the leading writers of the post-World War II period.\\nHaving seen service during World War II in the underground Polish Home Army, R\u00f3\u017cewicz used his experiences as inspiration for two of his early volumes of poems, Niepok\u00f3j (1947; Faces of Anxiety) and Czerwona r\u0119kawiczka (1948; \u201cThe Red Glove\u201d). Those works were notable for their lack of traditional poetic devices such as metre, stanza, and rhyme. Later volumes include Srebrny k\u0142os (1955; \u201cSilver Ear of Corn\u201d), Twarz trzecia (1968; \u201cThe Third Face\u201d), Na powierzchni poematu i w \u015brodku(1983; \u201cOn the Surface and Inside a Poem\u201d), and Wyj\u015bcie (2004; \u201cExit\u201d).\\nIn the 1960s R\u00f3\u1e93ewicz began writing plays, among them Kartoteka (1960; The Card Index) and \u015awiadkowie; albo, nasza ma\u0142a stabilizacja (1962; \u201cThe Witnesses; or, Our Little Stabilization\u201d; Eng. trans. The Witnesses, and Other Plays). In a later play, Stara kobieta wysiaduje (1968; The Old Woman Broods, in The Witnesses, and Other Plays), the title character speaks her monologues from her seat on a growing pile of garbage. The Survivor, and Other Poems appeared in 1976; it was translated and introduced by Magnus J. Krynski and Robert A. Maguire. In addition to his plays and poetry, R\u00f3\u017cewicz was the author of novels, short stories, and works of nonfiction, notably Matka odchodzi (1999), which won Poland\u2019s Nike Prize in 2000. He was the recipient of the 2007 European Prize for Literature.\\nDealing with solitude, estrangement, and the existential situation of a poet, R\u00f3\u017cewicz\u2019s poetry, in particular, gradually evolves toward values whose implications go beyond the contemporary to the universal. Ultimately, it expresses, in a simple, often metaphoric form, a concern with the moral issues inherent in the preoccupations and attitudes of modern society. In its simplicity the poetry is unlike R\u00f3\u017cewicz\u2019s dramas, which are filled with a sense of the absurd.\\nBiography source: BritannicaMore about Tadeusz R\u00f3\u017cewicz\\nModerator: Edward HirschWriter and Director: Ewa Zadrzy\u0144skaCinematography: Jacek Mieros\u0142awskiEditor: Anna J\u0119drzejewskaCurator and Executive Producer: Bartek Remisko\\nEdward Hirsch is an American poet and critic who wrote a national bestseller about reading poetry entitled How to Read A Poem And Fall In Love With Poetry published in 2014. He has published nine books of poems, including The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems (2010) and Gabriel: A Poem (2014), a book-length elegy for his son that The New Yorker called \u201ca masterpiece of sorrow.\u201d He has also published five prose books about poetry. His latest book of essays, 100 Poems to Break your Heart was published in 2021. He is president of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in New York City. Currently he is finishing a book of essays called The Heart of American Poetry. It will be published in April to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Library of America. The book consists of deeply personal readings of forty essential American poems. It rethinks the American tradition in poetry. Ed Hirsch lives in New York City.\\nLead image: Tadeusz R\u00f3\u017cewicz, 2003, photo: Krzysztof Wojciechowski \/ Forum. 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Among the three poets featured in the first season of Polish Poetry Unites, the best known […]","og_url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2022\/05\/10\/tadeusz-rozewicz\/","og_site_name":"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","article_published_time":"2022-05-10T20:40:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-09-24T12:57:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1290,"height":858,"url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/05\/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-4.42.20-PM.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"klaudia","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Napisane przez":"klaudia","Szacowany czas czytania":"9 minut"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"event","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2022\/05\/10\/tadeusz-rozewicz\/","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2022\/05\/10\/tadeusz-rozewicz\/","name":"Tadeusz R\u00f3\u017cewicz, the Poet of Dark Refusal","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2022\/05\/10\/tadeusz-rozewicz\/#primaryimage"},"image":["https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/05\/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-4.42.20-PM.png","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/05\/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-4.42.20-PM-300x200.png","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/05\/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-4.42.20-PM-1024x681.png","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/05\/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-4.42.20-PM.png"],"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/05\/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-4.42.20-PM.png","datePublished":"2022-05-10T20:40:25+02:00","dateModified":"2024-09-24T12:57:29+02:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/04d40cd80c1729a7f440613bee4073b6"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2022\/05\/10\/tadeusz-rozewicz\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"pl-PL","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2022\/05\/10\/tadeusz-rozewicz\/"]}],"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","startDate":"2022-05-10","endDate":"2022-05-10","eventStatus":"EventScheduled","eventAttendanceMode":"OfflineEventAttendanceMode","location":{"@type":"place","name":"","address":"","geo":{"@type":"GeoCoordinates","latitude":"","longitude":""}},"description":"Polish Poetry Unites is a new 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. Among the three poets featured in the first season of Polish Poetry Unites, the best known in the USA is probably Tadeusz R\u00f3\u017cewicz. \n\u201cTadeusz R\u00f3\u017cewicz is a poet of dark refusals, hard negations. I would call him a naked or impure poet. He doesn\u2019t really have time for the grand floridity,\u201d says Edward Hirsch, poet himself and promoter of poetry, host of the video series bringing Polish poetry to American audiences.\nAnd then he continues: \"He\u2019s an absolutely crucial figure in a generation of Polish Poets who are sometimes called New Columbuses. This is the generation of Zbigniew Herbert and Wislawa Szymborska, who are now somewhat more famous around the world.\nWhat\u2019s crucial about them is that they grew up in a period of time when Poland was experiencing one of its few moments of independence, but they came of age during World War Two and that stripped them of all illusions.\u201d\nHirsh discovered R\u00f3\u017cewicz in the 1970s, when he was in his twenties.\n\u201cI\u2019ll never forget my first experience of a poem of his, which was called \u201cIn the midst of Life,\u201d says Hirsch, and then quotes a part of the poem, which really changed him.\n\u201cAfter the end of the world, after death I found myself in the midst of life,creating myself, building life, people, animals, landscapes\u00a0\u00a0This is a table, I said, this is a table.\u00a0\u00a0On the table is bread, a knife. A knife is to cut bread. People live off of bread.\nI just can\u2019t tell you, this just went through me, as a way to rethink poetry from the ground up.\u201d\nThe poem addresses the question: is poetry possible after the Holocaust, after the horrific years of the war that took the lives and dignity of millions of people.\n\u201cTo me he\u2019s the, kind of, Samuel Beckett of Polish Poetry, because he absolutely refuses to look away, there\u2019s something relentless, and honest, and deeply truthful in his work\u201d says Hirsch.\nIn the second part of this episode, 19 year old Piotr Wo\u0142ukanis from Sejny, Poland, talks about his life in the context of his favorite poem byR\u00f3\u017cewicz, Posthumous Exoneration.\nThis episode features two poems by Tadeusz R\u00f3\u017cewicz\nIn The Middle\/Midst of Life, and Posthumous Exoneration\nIn The Middle\/Midst of Life translated by Joanna Trzeciak\nAfter the end of the worldafter my deathI found myself in the middle of life creating myselfbuilding a lifepeople animals landscapes \nthis is a table I kept sayingthis is a tableon the table are bread knifethe knife is used for cutting bread people feed on bread \nman should be lovedI learned by night by day what should one loveI answered man \nthis is a window I kept saying this is a windowbeyond the window is a garden in the garden I see an apple tree the apple tree blossoms \nthe blossoms fall off fruit formsripens \nmy father picks an apple the man picking the apple is my father \nI was sitting on the front steps of the house that old womanpulling a goat on a ropeis more needed \nis worth morethan the seven wonders of the world anyone who thinks or feelsshe isn't neededis guilty of genocide \nthis is a manthis is a tree this is bread \npeople eat to live \nI kept repeating to myself human life is importanthuman life has great importance the value of life \nexceeds the value of every object man has mademan is a great treasureI kept repeating stubbornly \nthis is water I kept saying stroking the waves with my hand talking to the riverwater I saidkind waterit is I \nthe man talked to the water talked to the moonto the flowers to the rain he talked to the earth \nto the birds to the sky \nthe sky was silent the earth was silent if he heard a voice flowing \nfrom the earth the water the sky it was the voice of another man \n1955 \nPosthumous Exonerationtranslated by Joanna Trzeciak\nThe dead recall our indifferencethe dead recall our silencethe dead recall our wordsThe dead see our smiles stretching from ear to earthe dead see our bodiesrubbing against each otherthe dead hear our lipssmackingThe dead read our bookslisten to our speechesdelivered so long agothe dead study our essaystake part in discussionsalready overthe dead see our handsconverging in applauseThe dead see stadiumschoirs bands chantingall of the living are guiltyguilty are the small children bearing flowersguilty are the loversguilty arethose who fled are guiltyand those who stayedthose who said yesand those who said nothose who said nothingThe dead are reckoning the livingthe dead will not exonerate us\nTadeusz R\u00f3\u017cewicz, (born October 9, 1921, Radomsko, Poland\u2014died April 24, 2014, Wroc\u0142aw), Polish poet and playwright, one of the leading writers of the post-World War II period.\nHaving seen service during World War II in the underground Polish Home Army, R\u00f3\u017cewicz used his experiences as inspiration for two of his early volumes of poems, Niepok\u00f3j (1947; Faces of Anxiety) and Czerwona r\u0119kawiczka (1948; \u201cThe Red Glove\u201d). Those works were notable for their lack of traditional poetic devices such as metre, stanza, and rhyme. Later volumes include Srebrny k\u0142os (1955; \u201cSilver Ear of Corn\u201d), Twarz trzecia (1968; \u201cThe Third Face\u201d), Na powierzchni poematu i w \u015brodku(1983; \u201cOn the Surface and Inside a Poem\u201d), and Wyj\u015bcie (2004; \u201cExit\u201d).\nIn the 1960s R\u00f3\u1e93ewicz began writing plays, among them Kartoteka (1960; The Card Index) and \u015awiadkowie; albo, nasza ma\u0142a stabilizacja (1962; \u201cThe Witnesses; or, Our Little Stabilization\u201d; Eng. trans. The Witnesses, and Other Plays). In a later play, Stara kobieta wysiaduje (1968; The Old Woman Broods, in The Witnesses, and Other Plays), the title character speaks her monologues from her seat on a growing pile of garbage. The Survivor, and Other Poems appeared in 1976; it was translated and introduced by Magnus J. Krynski and Robert A. Maguire. In addition to his plays and poetry, R\u00f3\u017cewicz was the author of novels, short stories, and works of nonfiction, notably Matka odchodzi (1999), which won Poland\u2019s Nike Prize in 2000. He was the recipient of the 2007 European Prize for Literature.\nDealing with solitude, estrangement, and the existential situation of a poet, R\u00f3\u017cewicz\u2019s poetry, in particular, gradually evolves toward values whose implications go beyond the contemporary to the universal. Ultimately, it expresses, in a simple, often metaphoric form, a concern with the moral issues inherent in the preoccupations and attitudes of modern society. In its simplicity the poetry is unlike R\u00f3\u017cewicz\u2019s dramas, which are filled with a sense of the absurd.\nBiography source: BritannicaMore about Tadeusz R\u00f3\u017cewicz\nModerator: Edward HirschWriter and Director: Ewa Zadrzy\u0144skaCinematography: Jacek Mieros\u0142awskiEditor: Anna J\u0119drzejewskaCurator and Executive Producer: Bartek Remisko\nEdward Hirsch is an American poet and critic who wrote a national bestseller about reading poetry entitled How to Read A Poem And Fall In Love With Poetry published in 2014. He has published nine books of poems, including The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems (2010) and Gabriel: A Poem (2014), a book-length elegy for his son that The New Yorker called \u201ca masterpiece of sorrow.\u201d He has also published five prose books about poetry. His latest book of essays, 100 Poems to Break your Heart was published in 2021. He is president of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in New York City. Currently he is finishing a book of essays called The Heart of American Poetry. It will be published in April to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Library of America. The book consists of deeply personal readings of forty essential American poems. It rethinks the American tradition in poetry. Ed Hirsch lives in New York City.\nLead image: Tadeusz R\u00f3\u017cewicz, 2003, photo: Krzysztof Wojciechowski \/ Forum. 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