Introduction Agata Brajerska-Mazur and Edyta Chlebowska - 9783631782781 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/26/2021 10:40:59AM via free access Agata Brajerska-Mazur and Edyta Chlebowska - 9783631782781 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/26/2021 10:40:59AM via free access Agata Brajerska-Mazur A Starry Diamond Cyprian Norwid (1821–1883) was described by the following words in an obit- uary notice written by Józef Tokarzewicz in 1884: There lived in Paris… a Polish writer little known in his own country, an artist known even less, a strange poet, a hieroglyph-stylist, whose every poem has to be read syl- lable by syllable ten times over… His ideas, despite his profound learning and detailed familiarity with the achievements of contemporary knowledge, move in a diametrically opposite direction to that of the modern philosophical current. But he was not a dilettante, and certainly not a visionary, a mystic, or a lunatic… He knew how to uncover in every thing such a relation of it to other things that it would become so original as to appear almost unrecognizable… He carried his soul around with him as if it were some kind of numismatic rarity, unknown to anyone, unwanted, useless. Of less than middle height, lean, though shapely, with intelligent eyes… he had in his manner the assurance and suavity of someone who had been in good society, and in his thoughts and words the roughness of ore burning with an inner fire. He resembled a stone salvaged from some marvellous edifice, which somewhere, sometime had burnt down completely.1 Tokarzewicz gives a very accurate characterisation of the poet: unknown, obscure, moving in an opposite direction to fashionable trends in art and philos- ophy. His description is also appropriate, because in the eyes of his contemporaries Norwid was indeed strange, obscure, ill-understood and rejected. This exceptional Romantic poet, novelist, playwright, sculptor, painter, engraver and draftsman was born in 1821. Orphaned in his early childhood, he was raised by his grandmother Hilaria Zdziechowska, née Sobieska.2 Norwid spent his youth studying painting but in 1840 he made his poetic debut on the pages of Warsaw newspapers. As a result, he enjoyed a brief spell of fame and recognition. Unfortunately, it soon ended in rejection and bitterness because it became clear that his works had little to do with the poetry of the second gen- eration of Polish Romantics and his views did not fit the programs of emigré 1 English translation by Bogdan Czaykowski, “The Poet as ‘Christian Socrates,’ ” in: Cyprian Kamil Norwid, Selected Poems, transl. by Adam Czerniawski (London: Anvil Press, 2004), p. 7. 2 Norwid was very proud of his noble origin; despite impoverishment, he often boasted of his close relations to the family of King John III Sobieski. Agata Brajerska-Mazur and Edyta Chlebowska - 9783631782781 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/26/2021 10:40:59AM via free access 12 Agata Brajerska-Mazur political parties,3 nor did they have much in common with the manifestoes of Polish Positivism. They were too difficult, too precursory to be understood by the readers of that time. As one of the poet’s critics stated – he was an “underap- preciated genius […] born one hundred years too soon.”4 Norwid died in poverty and oblivion in France, in Saint Casimir’s Poorhouse for impoverished Polish war veterans and orphans, which was run by nuns. He was first buried at Ivry, and then moved to a mass grave in the Polish cemetery at Montmorency. A hundred and thirty-five years after Norwid’s death nobody accuses him of 5 6 “obscure speech,” “negligent form” or “tormenting, distorting sounds without thinking”7 or vows “not to toil over his words like over the Talmud.”8 The “future grandsons” consider the structural complexities of Norwid’s works and the depth of thought contained therein to be an advantage rather than a fault. “Future: the Eternal Editor” replaced the verdict that Norwid’s texts follow “a pattern of fluffy nothingness where the absurdity of thought matches the absurdity of 9 language” with the conviction that Cyprian Norwid is a “creative figure equal to 10 the trinity of the greatest romantic poets” and that “poring over the hieroglyphs of his art is rewarding work which generously pays off.”11 Norwid’s genius surpassed his epoch by over hundred years, so it is no wonder that his contemporaries did not understand him. He is better understood and appreciated by later generations, though they, too, maintain the opinion that 3 Because of censorship and the invaders’ oppression (Poland was then under colonial partition), many Polish intellectuals, Norwid among them, lived and worked abroad, particularly in France where in the hope of regaining independence they created soci- eties and parties. 4 All the quotations documented in footnotes 4–11 originate from: “Wybór głosów o twórczości pisarskiej Cypriana Norwida. 1840–1918,” in: Cyprian Norwid, Pisma wybrane, ed. J. W. Gomulicki (Warszawa: PIW, 1983), Vol. I, p. 94–139 (further short- ened as PW) and the bibliographic information is given in the following order: the full name of the author of the quoted opinion, year of pronouncement and page in PW. This commentary was made by Aleksander Jełowicki, 1853, PW, p. 107. 5 Zygmunt Krasiński, 1849, PW, p. 101. 6 Jan Koźmian, 1850, PW, p. 102. 7 Andrzej Edward Koźmian, 1851, PW, p. 105. 8 Władysław Bentkowski, 1849, PW, p. 101. 9 Julian Klaczko, 1858, PW, p. 109. 10 Stefan Żeromski, 1915, PW, p. 138. 11 Kazimierz Bereżyński, 1911, PW, p. 136. Agata Brajerska-Mazur and Edyta Chlebowska - 9783631782781 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/26/2021 10:40:59AM via free access A Starry Diamond 13 Norwid is a difficult writer.12 Difficult, because he requires his readers’ coop- eration in deciphering the multitude of meanings contained in single words, phrases and complete literary texts. Difficult, because in creating multi-level layers of meanings he resorts, inter alia, to wordplay, going back to the words’ sources, reinterpreting concepts, introducing tensions between them, seeking out polysemy, using the techniques of silence and understatement, creating new meanings, stratifying synonyms, applying paradox, semantic contrast, parable, allegory, symbol or concept.13 Difficult, because he dismantles the structural constraints governing specific literary forms and experiments with rhythm and rhyme. Difficult, because the construction of his verses (which are subordinated to meanings, but purposefully strange and liberated from the rules of traditional metrics14) always serves the thoughts they express. Difficult, because the utili- tarianism of his poetry, its moral service to “incarnating goodness and illumi- nating truths” is manifested in all aspects of his writings – “the prosaicised meter of verse, the absence of conventional caesura, the monostich of autonomous meaning, even the series of full stops signifying understatement.”15 Difficult, 12 Cf. Tadeusz Sinko, “Poeta trudny,” Kurier Literacko-Naukowy, 1933, No. 21, pp. I–II; Wacław Borowy, Norwid poeta, in: Pamięci Cypriana Norwida. Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie (w 125 rocznicę urodzin artysty) (Warszawa: Muzeum Narodowe, 1946), pp. 32–49; Jan Błoński, “Norwid wśród prawnuków,” Twórczość, 1967, No. 5, p. 68; Józef Bujnowski, “Glasgow, 21–22 stycznia 1984,” Studia Norwidiana, 1985–1986, 3–4, p. 299; Kazimierz Wyka, Pochwała niejasności Norwida, in: Studia, artykuły, recenzje (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1989), p. 193; Trudny Norwid, ed. Piotr Chlebowski (Lublin: TN KUL, 2013). 13 The semantic techniques applied by Norwid were discussed, among others, by: Ignacy Fik, Uwagi nad językiem Cypriana Norwida (Kraków: Druk W. L. Anczyca i Spółki, 1930); Błoński, “Norwid wśród prawnuków,” pp. 67–94; Zbigniew Łapiński, Norwid (Kraków: Znak, 1971), pp. 9–49; Stefan Sawicki, Z zagadnień semantyki poetyckiej Norwida, in: Sawicki, Norwida walka z formą (Warszawa: PIW, 1986), pp. 29–71. 14 Maria Grzędzielska, “Wiersz Norwida w okresie Vade-mecum,”Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie Skłodowska, 1960, vol. XV, No. 5, pp. 113–145; Aleksandra Okopień- Sławińska, Wiersz nieregularny i wolny Mickiewicza, Słowackiego i Norwida, in: Z przemian wiersza polskiego. Antologia, ed. R. Lubas (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Naukowe WSP, 1972), pp. 5–22; Lubas, “Jak formy osobowe grają w teatrze mowy,” in: Tekst i fabuła, ed. Cz. Niedzielski, J. Sławiński (Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, 1979), pp. 9–32; Teresa Kostkiewiczowa, Oda w poezji polskiej. Dzieje gatunku (Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, 1996), pp. 257–270; Lucylla Pszczołowska, Wiersz polski. Zarys historyczny (Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, 1997), pp. 195–270, 305–327. 15 Juliusz Wiktor Gomulicki, Uwagi o poezji Cypriana Norwida, PW, Vol. I, p. 42. Agata Brajerska-Mazur and Edyta Chlebowska - 9783631782781 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/26/2021 10:40:59AM via free access 14 Agata Brajerska-Mazur because original – in language, style and thought, at least a century ahead of his time. Finally, difficult, because he has no counterpart in all of Romantic European literature. 16 17 Today Norwid is described as “a Christian sage,” “a poet of conscience” or “a 18 19 20 poet of dialogue.” He is called a philosopher and a “poet-thinker,” an ironist, a romanticist,21 a moralist22 and an “ironic moralist.”23 In his works one can see not only “a reflection of architecture,” “a reflection of 24 25 sculpture” and “the tenderness of light” , but also his “producing hand.” Such categories as “picturesqueness”26 or “musicality”27 are used to describe some 16 Alina Merdas, Łuk przymierza. Biblia w poezji Norwida (Lublin: RW KUL, 1983); Antoni Dunajski, Chrześcijańska interpretacja dziejów w pismach Cypriana Norwida (Lublin: RW KUL, 1985); Dunajski, Teologiczne czytanie Norwida (Pelplin: “Bernardinum,” 1996); Dunajski, SŁOWO stało się SIŁĄ. Zarys Norwidowej teologii słowa (Pelplin: “Bernardinum,” 1996); Stefan Sawicki, Wartość – sacrum – Norwid (Lublin: RW KUL, 1994), pp. 241–254; Norwid a chrześcijaństwo, ed. J. Fert and P. Chlebowski (Lublin: TN KUL, 2002); Czaykowski, “The Poet as ‘Christian Socrates,’ ” pp.