THE SARMATIAN REVIEW Vol. XXIII, No. 1 January 2003
Anthony Bukoski Hard Times, Gentle Dreams
Anthony Bukoski. Photo courtesy of Anthony Bukoski Archives. 918 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW January 2003
The Sarmatian Review (ISSN 1059-5872) is From the Editor of Poland and of myself personally. . . a triannual publication of the Polish Institute of Houston. It is a pleasure to announce in this is- [Russia keeps cultivating] hostility to- The journal deals with Polish, Central, and Eastern Euro- sue that Anthony Bukoski, the author ward peoples who dare to fight for iden- pean affairs, exploring the subject of their implications tity and sovereignty. She says: we shall for the United States. We specialize in the translation of of Polonaise (reviewed in SR, XXII:3), documents. is the recipient of the 2002 Sarmatian tolerate you within our borders, but if Subscription price is $15.00 per year for individuals, $21.00 Review Literary Award. The descrip- you dare to rebel, we shall strangulate for institutions and libraries ($21.00 for individuals, $27.00 tion of the Award and Anthony you and shall cut your throats.” for libraries overseas, air mail). The views expressed by Halikowska-Smith’s article is one of the authors of articles do not necessarily represent those of the Bukoski’s response can be found on Editors or of the Polish Institute of Houston. Articles are p. 919. many proofs that Poles have moved on subject to editing. Unsolicited manuscripts and other mate- Teresa Halikowska-Smith’s article in that regard. rials are not returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed on recent Polish and German writers Professor Chodakiewicz’s review of and stamped envelope. Please submit your contribution a book on Francisco Franco’s policies electronically and send a printout by air mail. Letters and areas in Europe that experienced to the Editor can be e-mailed to
1234567890123456 1234567890123456 Rzeczpospolita (November 30–De- versities if they can deliver in English. In this issue: cember 1, 2002). Cywiƒski writes of a Zofia PtaÊnik’s Diary has become a high school textbook of Russian his- staple in SR. This historical document SARMATIAN REVIEW INDEX...... 919 tory he picked up in a Moscow book- does not yield itself easily to cuts (al- SARMATIAN REVIEW Literary Award .....921 store in November 2002. In the text- though we have done some, as indicated Teresa Halikowska-Smith, The past as pal- book, the partitions of Poland in the text), and it now appears that we impsest: the Gdaƒsk school of writers in the coengineered by Catherine the Great shall complete printing the Diary in 1980s and 1990s...... 922 are described as “enlargement of the September 2003, in a total of six install- BOOKS...... 928 ments. The published sections of the Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, Las relaciones de western frontier.” The name of Poland Franco con Europa Centro-Oriental, 1939–1955 is not mentioned, and no ethical reflec- Diary have become a part of the website (review)...... 931 tion accompanies this particularly hei- titled “The Forgotten Odyssey” Steven Clancy, Treny. The Laments of Jan nous and unprovoked aggression of (www.AForgottenOdyssey.com) docu- Kochanowski (review)...... 936 one state against another, of the kind menting the destruction of Polish life Zofia PtaÊnik, Death by a Thousand Cuts: A Pol- NATO was supposed to protect West- by the Soviets when they invaded Po- ish Woman’s Diary of Deportation, Forced La- ern Europe against. Remarks land on 17 September 1939 and de- bor and Death in Kazakhstan, April 13, 1940– Cywiƒski: ported or killed over a million Polish May 26, 1941, translated and edited by Leszek “A nation that offers such unreflective citizens in their efforts to affect an eth- Karpiƒski et al. (fourth installment)...... 939 nic and ideological cleansing of their ANNOUNCEMENTS AND NOTES.....943 history textbooks to its youth and ABOUT THE AUTHORS...... 943 praises conflicts between states in such newly acquired war bounty. ∆ a way has to be treated as an enemy January 2003 SARMATIAN REVIEW 919 The Sarmatian Review Index 9/11 Percentage of Catholics among the rescuers (firemen/women and policemen/women) who lost their lives in the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001: 85–90 percent. Source: Several top officials at the NYPD and FDNY, as reported by Cathalyst: Journal of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, vol. 29/4 (September 2002), 1. Pedophilia Number of Catholic priests in the United States in 2002: 46,000. Number of Catholic priests accused of sexual misconduct and removed from priesthood in 2002: approximately 200, or 0.4 percent. Source: Cathalyst: Journal of the Catholic League for Religious and Civili Rights, no. 29/4 (September 2002), 5. Corresponding figures for the world: 400,000 priests, approximately 300 documented cases of pedophilia, or 0.075 percent. Source: Pope John Paul II in a sermon delivered on Holy Thursday at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, as reported by AFP (Warsaw), 28 March 2002; BBC News, 15 April 2002. Chechen killings Estimated number of Chechens killed by Russian troops daily: from 30 to 50 persons. Source: Groznyi University professor to Radosław Januszewski, as reported by Radosław Januszewski, “Îycie w piwnicy,” Rzeczpospolita (www.rzeczpospolita.pl), 22–23 June 2002. Age range at which any Chechen male can presently “disappear without a trace at any moment”: between 12 and 60 years of age. Source: Anne Nivat, “The Forgotten Chechens,” The Prague Post Online (www.praguepost.com/P02/2002/20828/opin1.php), 2 September 2002. Polish economics Percentage of GDP generated by the private sector in 2001: 70 percent. Percentage of labor force employed by the private sector in 2001: 72 percent. Source: OECD, as reported by AFP, 12 July 2002. Wealth of nations Russian foreign debt as of 1 April 2002: 128.3 billion dollars. Percentage of Russia’s government revenues generated by foreign sales of oil and gas: 40 percent. Source: Henry Meyer, “Russia slashes budget,” AFP, 7 August 2002. Polish population Increase in Polish population between the two censuses (1988 and 2002): 420,000 persons. Decline in Polish population between 1999–2002: 35,000 persons. The annual average birthrate in Poland between 1988–2002: 0.08 percent. Source: Tadeusz Toczyƒski, President of the Statistical Institute GUS (Główny Urzàd Statystyczny), as reported by AFP (Warsaw), 25 November 2002. Foreign investment in Russia Percentage decline of foreign direct investment in Russia in the first half of 2002: 25.4 percent. Dollar value of foreign direct investment in Russia in the first half of 2002: 1.9 billion dollars. Total volume of foreign direct investment in Russia and China: 8.4 billion and 29.5 billion dollars, respectively. Source: State Statistics Committee, as reported by AFP (Moscow), 13 August 2002. Horsemanship Amount of money the wife of Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts paid for a horse named Elfina at an annual auction in Janów Podlaski, Poland: 120,000 dollars. Amount of money an unnamed Saudi buyer paid for a horse named Rose of the Winds: 220,000 dollars. Number of horses for sale at the 2002 auction: 30. Source: Polish Press Agency PAP, as reported by AFP (Warsaw), 11 August 2002. Tourism Amount of money the Czech Republic gained from tourism in 2001: 3.1 billion dollars, or some 5.5 percent of the country’s GDP. Source: AFP (Prague), 18 August 2002. 920 SARMATIAN REVIEW January 2003 Beatifications Names and achievements of Poles beatified by Pope John Paul II on 18 August 2002 at the Błonie Park Mass in Kraków, Poland (attendance: 2.2 million): Rev. Jan Balicki (+1948), who during the Second World War worked for the poor and needy in the Soviet-occupied part of Poland; archbishop Zygmunt Feliƒski (1822–95), the founder of the Franciscan order in Petersburg, Russia, who protested the desecration of Catholic churches by the Russian army in Warsaw after the failed rising of 1863, and was exiled by Tsar Alexander II to the outskirts of the empire; Jesuit priest Jan Beyzym (+1912) who spent his life caring for lepers in Madagascar; Sister Sancja Szymkowiak (+1942) who cared for French and British prisoners of war in Nazi-occupied Poland and died in that service. Source: AFP (Vatican city), 12 August 2002; Texas Catholic Herald, vol. 39, no. 7 (August 23, 2002); Encyklopedia Polski (Kluszczyƒski Publishers, 1996). Importance of Pope John Paul II for contemporary Poles Percentage of Poles who said that Pope John Paul II’s visit to Poland in August 2002 was the most important thing in their lives: 86 percent. Source: Poll results, as reported by AFP, 18 August 2002. Die vertriebene (the expelled ones) Percentage of Poles living today (2002) who are descendants of people expelled and dispossessed of their homes during or after the Second World War: 66 percent. Source: Teresa Bochwic, “Polubiç rodaków,” Rzeczpospolita (Plus-Minus), 3 August 2002 (www.rzeczpospolita.pl). OECD Program for International Student Assessment Year for which most recent data are available: 2000. Number of students and countries participating in 2000: 265,000 and 32. Rankings of Poland and the Russian Federation in reading literacy: 24 and 28 (out of 32). Countries that ranked highest in reading literacy: Finland, South Korea, Canada (in that order). Ranking of Poland and the Russian Federation in making sense out of a text (students were shown a diagram of a country’s working-age population, and description of the labor force status of individual workers; they had to assign each worker to a category of the diagram —the information was available in footnotes ): 25 and 28. Ranking of Poland and the Russian Federation in critical thinking and evaluation of texts: 19 and 28. Ranking of Poland and the Russian Federation in mathematical literacy: 28 and 24, respectively. Countries ranking highest in mathematical literacy: Japan, South Korea, New Zealand. Ranking of Poland and the Russian Federation on scientific literacy: 21 and 26, respectively. Countries ranking highest in scientific literacy: South Korea, Japan, Finland. Source: OECD website (www. pisa.oecd. org), 4 October 2002. Polish and Jewish demograpics in the United States Number of Polish Americans according to the 2000 U.S. Census: 9,050,122, a decline of 315,984 from 10 years earlier. Source: United States Census figures, are reported by APAC (www.apacouncil.org/about.html). Number of Jewish Americans according to the National Jewish Population Survey released 8 October 2002: 5.2 million, a decline of 300,000 from 10 years earlier. Percentage of Jewish Americans who were not born in the United States: 15 percent. Cost of survey: 6 million dollars. Source: National Jewish Population Survey, as reported by Daniel J. Wakin, New York Times, 9 October 2002. AIDS in Poland Number of people in Poland registered as HIV positive: 7,733. Estimated total number of HIV-positive persons in Poland (pop. 38.3 million): 15,000 to 20,000. Status of AIDS in Poland: contained. Worries of AIDS specialists in Poland: the explosion of HIV infections in Poland’s eastern neighbors Russia and Ukraine. Estimated number of people in Russia and Ukraine infected with HIV virus: one million and 500,000, respectively. Source: Anna Marzec-Boguslawska, Director of AIDS Prevention Office in Poland, as reported by AFP, 10 October 2002. January 2003 SARMATIAN REVIEW 921 Anthony Bukoski Receives Sarmatian Review Award
We are happy to announce that the Polish Institute of Houston, the publisher of Sarmatian Review whose Web version is distributed by Rice University, has awarded its 2002 Literary Prize in the amount of $1,000.00 to the American Polish writer Anthony Bukoski for his superb ability to transform the lives of ordinary Polish Americans into art of the highest quality.
The plaque commemorating the Prize says the following:
The 2002 Sarmatian Review Literary Award
is given to Anthony Bukoski
for artistic excellence in presenting the life of American Polish communities in the Midwest
Anthony Bukoski’s response:
I am honored to receive the first Sarmatian Review Literary Prize. Your telephone call with the good news delighted me of course. Since that morning—now that the beautiful commemorative plaque, the check, and your very kind letter have arrived, now that I see firsthand the heartfelt effort you put into this enterprise—I am even more grateful to you, to the Sarmatian Review, and to the Polish Institute of Houston, grateful and deeply touched by your generosity.
Others have influenced the stories this award recognizes. Allow me to acknowledge two of them. For his generosity, I must thank Thomas Napierkowski, Professor of English at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, who for sixteen years has encouraged me to explore in fiction the lives of American Poles in Superior, Wisconsin. For her great kindness and encouragement, I also thank Kathryn Lang, my editor at Southern Methodist University Press, who, during the decade we have worked together, has valued the Polish-American story, whereas too many other editors, I fear, would have conveniently dismissed that story out of hand. By awarding me The Sarmatian Review Literary Prize, you indirectly honor Kathryn Lang and Professor Napierkowski, who have played such important roles in this story-teller’s life.
Please know again how grateful I am to receive this Prize.
Yours truly,
Anthony Bukoski 922 SARMATIAN REVIEW January 2003 One of the preeminent ambitions of writers of that period was to be “authentic,” that is, true to life. Literature’s aim was simply to register, to take minutes, The past as palimpsest to witness, record and present “life in the raw.” Such The Gdaƒsk school of writers diverse literary offerings as the novels of Kazimierz Brandys, the prose writings of Edward Stachura, the in the 1980s and 1990s novels of Tadeusz Konwicki, and the short stories of Marek Nowakowski were frequently classified as Teresa Halikowska-Smith belonging to this category. In my opinion, it was Janusz Anderman who took this writing method to the most This article deals with the prose writing of the so-called extreme lengths.(1) Gdaƒsk school of writers considered within the context Until well into the mid-1980s, the leading writers in of the change of direction in Polish literature in the late Poland aspired (and were expected) to play a role in 1980s and early 1990s. My contention is that what links public life. They felt themselves bound by a sense of them together is an engagement, frequently on a very mission to speak the truth at a time when, to most personal level, in the ongoing process of reappraising citizens, it had become apparent that the Communist recent history expunged from the Communist system was built on a monumental lie. Marek historiography in Soviet-occupied Poland. Nowakowski in Karnawał i post (Carnival and fast, This is particularly true of the generation of writers 1989) asserts: “Taking minutes becomes the most who started their literary careers in the mid-1980s and important literary job of our epoch. . . . How to write in whose work focuses on the theme of their post-Second order to make the word express most faithfully the nature World War childhood in their native city of Gdaƒsk. of things; so that it could become a faithful representation While the official version of history insisted on of the world as it is.”(2) However, despite this statement homogeneity when dealing with the past of the region of intent, in the most important works of this period which for centuries was a contested Polish-German reality was either being bypassed or shunned altogether, borderland, writers of the younger generation have becoming “the world not represented,” to borrow the engaged in redefining the cultural identity of their phrase from the manifesto of the 1970s generation homeland by rediscovering its multicultural past. formulated by Kornhauser and Zagajewski.(3) It might be helpful to start by placing this group of Thus, truth became the measure of aesthetics. It is easy to writers in the broader context of the developments in see how this limited literature’s autonomy. The resolutely anti- Polish fiction during the two decades prior to their fictional stance became a severe limitation on the range of emergence on the literary scene. From the late 1960s artistic expression. Czapliƒski proposes the label of “anti- on, Polish literature was locked in a political struggle socialist realism” for the engagé prose of the 1970s.(4) with the ailing Communist regime. The engagement of In the 1990s, the sham which this supposed dissident writers with politics can be seen as the “authenticism” turned out to be became apparent in the continuation of a historical tradition that began in the work of the leading novelists of the time: Nowakowski nineteenth century. In this struggle, the writer’s personal and Konwicki. In 1992, it prompted one critic, Bogusław integrity was a guarantee of his trustworthiness to the Bakuła, to conclude his review of Konwicki’s “poetics reader. Przemysław Czapliƒski, the author of an award- of copying from life” with the damming verdict: “Im winning scholarly analysis of major trends and bardziej jest to prawdziwe, tym słabsze literacko” (The developments in Polish prose during the “run-up” time more real it is, the weaker it becomes artistically).(5) to the period of transition in the 1990s, suggests that it Thus, “truth” and the author’s integrity ceased to be may be for this reason that Polish literature of the 1970s literature’s guarantee of quality. and 1980s was turning away from the traditional The change came by means of a number of narrative forms of fiction. Numerous surveys of developments, the most important of which was the readership trends confirmed popularity of such genres political one: the decentralization of cultural life and the as the essay, the intimate journal, the reportage, as well cutting back of state subsidies. This coincided with a as the new hybrid genres which Czapliƒski designated major shift in the taste of the reading public which, by by the name of sylwa (as in silva rerum): all of these are that time, had grown accustomed to the imports from non-fictional. North and South America, specifically, to the postmodernist and “magical realist” offerings. These two January 2003 SARMATIAN REVIEW 923 factors finally brought about the breakthrough of the playmate. The enigmatic figure of the central character, late 1980s and early 1990s. The traditional conventions David Weiser, is constructed according to all the rules of popular fiction, principally the art of storytelling, of postmodern characterization, at the heart of which is reasserted themselves. This, however, did not signify a the programmatic rejection of the very notion of a firm return to the conventions of the realistic novel. and clearly definable identity. Indeed, in postmodernism “Kochankowie—proza i fabuła—rozstali si∏ doÊç identity is often constructed “negatively,” so as to convey dawno, a w takich wypadkach powroty nigdy nie bywajà an aching sense of absence, of “something that becomes do koƒca spontaniczne i bezrefleksyjne”(6) (The two known only in the paradoxical mixture of presence and lovers, prose writing and the plot, parted company quite absence, of proximity and remoteness.”(10) Thomas some time ago, and—as is usually the case—their Docherty suggests that postmodern characters always coming together again cannot be entirely spontaneous dramatize their own “absence from themselves”(11) in and unselfconscious). that “the ‘character’ or figure constantly differs from Thus storytelling has returned, but it has now lost its itself, denying the possession of and by a self and innocence. It has become a different kind of fiction: preferring an engagement with Otherness.”(12) It is, of more sophisticated, self-conscious, self-referential, course, hardly incidental that David Weiser is Jewish ironic, playful. It is most at home in the poetics of the and, as such, presents an archetypal image of the Other pastiche. Like the pipes and the ribs of the Pompidou in literature.(13) Center in Paris, its fictionality is made explicit, exposed The unsettling sense of mystery and Otherness to view, rather than carefully concealed. The lessons of pervading the character of David Weiser makes for many postmodernism have been assimilated. possible readings. This fact , as Marek Zaleski suggests, What, however, of the subject matter? The dead hand of is the secret of Huelle’s almost unparalleled success with politics having withered, writers were suddenly free to the critics.(14) One reading is that the narrator’s explore subjects that were hitherto taboo. High on the list persistent, but ultimately futile, effort to get at the truth were the blank spots of history and the exploration of those of what really happened can be understood symbolically aspects of the past which have been “hidden from memory.” as the author’s own struggle to invest with meaning the Where better to study this than in the area in which intriguing lacunae in his understanding of his country’s the question of identity has been a contentious issue for past, the Jewish past being just one strand in the rich most of recorded history? I have Gdaƒsk in mind. It tapestry of different ethnic and cultural traditions which really cannot be an accident that the most interesting were either suppressed under Communism or eliminated group of writers, whose interests are so convergent as to by the post-Second World War fiat of the Great Powers. legitimize referring to them as a “school” emerged from This, in the case of Gdaƒsk, included not only the Gdaƒsk, the city whose long and complicated history multicultural past of the once great Hanseatic city on left a legacy of ambiguities.(7) the Baltic, but also the memory of the atrocities The search for identity is bound up with the process of perpetrated in Soviet-occupied Poland during and after self-discovery, something which normally accompanies the the Second World War:(15) the forced evacuation of the coming of age. It cannot be accidental that the genre called German population of the city(16) and the equally by Polish critics powiesc inicjacyjna, or Entwicklungsroman traumatic resettlement in the vacated area of Poles (I shall refer to it as the coming-of-age novel) became expelled from Poland’s pre-war eastern borderlands attractive to the generation of writers who frequently refer taken away by the Soviet Union on the basis of the to themselves as “the post-Yalta generation.” agreements concluded between the Great Powers. The The first manifestation of the new self-awareness of memory of these demographic surgeries (a phrase that generation came in the writing of Paweł Huelle. borrowed from Norman Davies’s Heart of Europe and The first book of this then thirty-year-old writer (b. 1957), first applied in this context by Małgorzata Czermiƒska) Weiser Dawidek (tr. Who Was David Weiser, 1994)(8) was excised from Polish history textbooks in Soviet- appeared in 1987 to immediate critical acclaim from an occupied Poland. It burst out as the major theme for the influential critic, Jan Błoƒski, who hailed it as the best new generation of writers in the 1980s. book of the decade.(9) It was awarded the prize of the The new writing seems also to be dominated by the literary monthly Literatura, as well as the prestigious twin themes of childhood and dislocation. “The post- KoÊcielski prize. The book is a classic coming-of-age Yalta, post-war childhood takes place in a dislocated novel: the young narrator strives to make sense of the space,” says Małgorzata Czermiƒska as she defines the mysterious and inexplicable disappearance of a Jewish genre of autobiographical writing which flowered in the 924 SARMATIAN REVIEW January 2003 early 1990s.(17) In autobiographical accounts which who enchanted the young narrator with the music of appeared at that time and which are the subject of Wagner. Gdansk is now a Polish city, but the young Czermiƒska’s analysis, the sense of dislocation and loss boy learns about it from a map titled Freistadt Danzig, is a common feature. While for most people the as in the story “Winniczki, kałuÏe, deszcz” (Snails, experience of childhood is strongly tied to a sense of Puddles, Rain). The same approach continues in the place, for those born during or just after the forced second volume of short stories, Pierwsza miiłoÊç i inne migrations, the places “had shifted, as if hit by an opowiadania (First love and other stories, 1996).(24) In earthquake.”(18) this collection there is a story about Jakub, a Holocaust The childhood which is captured in these accounts, is survivor, who is helped in his desperate plight by a survivor of another Holocaust, that of the tiny A childhood on the move. Suspended between the past and community of Mennonites who were also slated for the present, the latter experienced as something provisional; destruction by the Nazis. We meet the luminous figure spent in the effort of putting down roots, or else in resisting of Gute Luisa, who introduces the twelve-year-old to this process. . . . It was the childhood marked by the trauma the secrets of life on the margins of a city which still of exile, by the refusal to put down roots.(19) bears the pockmarks of war. There is his homosexual cousin Lucjan and his vivacious aunt Ida, both survivors Sometimes the desire to put down roots anew won; the of the prewar Polish gentry class from the eastern past could be appropriated, especially where its physical borderlands, that other world which the Yalta Agreement remains were not all obliterated. In Gdaƒsk, pointers to consigned to oblivion. the German past were everywhere, waiting to be The fascination with the past is shared by many of the discovered by a youngster with an open mind and a younger generation of writers. Olga Tokarczuk, a writer sensitivity to the still visible traces of the city’s of the same generation and connected with another “otherness.” In an interview titled “The post-Yalta borderland region of Poland, Upper Silesia, was not just childhood” and conducted for the Gdaƒsk-based speaking for herself when she said, in an interview for periodical Tytuł in 1996, the participants Paweł Huelle, the Polish weekly Polityka: “It is because my generation Wojciech Konieczny, Paweł Zbierski, and Stefan Chwin, does not have any history that we try to create it for all of whom grew up in the Gdaƒsk of the 1950s, readily ourselves.”(25) The generation which felt itself robbed agreed that the formative experience of their lives was of history must find or, in a postmodernist way, invent “dzieciƒstwo na Êladach” (growing up amongst the the past for itself: traces).(20) Paweł Huelle explains: “Na podstawie drobnych okruchów ja sobie rekonstruowałem We find ourselves amongst the ruins and abandoned buildings tamto”(21) (From these small fragments I was able to which were once a playground for us. And the same mystery reconstruct that other world). lingers on, and we are still on the same journey when we ask The reconstruction of the past, so often alluded to by ourselves today who we are.(26) these writers, required a great effort of imagination: learning to read and interpret the faint traces of a past which The original impulse for all this came from the writer is constantly being eroded and overlaid by the present. Most who had first put Danzig on the map of world literature: fundamentally, it required a basic understanding that Günther Grass. The Polish translation of The Tin Drum, there is more than one story in history; an awareness of (Die Blechtrommel) first circulated in an underground the multiple pasts conjugated in the present.(22) edition in 1979, but it was not until 1991 that the first Paweł Huelle was the first to embark on the enterprise complete edition became available. This and other works of reading the multiple pasts in Weiser Davidek and of Grass, in particular Katz und Maus(27), gave strong especially in the collection of short stories Opowiadania encouragement to the young writers of Gdaƒsk. Paweł na czas przeprowadzki (Stories for the Time of Moving Huelle acknowledges this influence, while at the same House, 1991).(23) Huelle’s past is peopled with time strongly denying the accusation that the impulse characters like the elusive Mr. Polaske, a German who was imitative: took the last westward-bound train out of Danzig; or “the woman with the wrinkled face,” the last survivor I was interested in a formal experiment, that is to say in a of the “lost tribe” of the Mennonites who once settled in “dialogue between the two texts,” both focused on the Gdaƒsk the flatlands of the Vistula Delta; or Greta Hoffmann, theme which is important for both our national literatures, Polish and German. I do not imitate Grass, I continue his the widow of a German musician who stayed on in her theme.(28) flat while the city changed its identity around her and January 2003 SARMATIAN REVIEW 925 those forcibly resettled here at the arbitrary decision of He may be right. The acknowledgement of the truth the Great Dictator in the Kremlin and his Western allies), about the German past of their city allowed the Gdaƒsk seem mysterious and fascinating. They fascinate him writers to confront openly the trauma of their own by their very “otherness.” Even the most utilitarian of uprooting and forced resettlement, something which they them, like the shining brass taps in the bathroom stamped could not openly discuss before. One of the most moving with strange words in a Gothic script, become documents of that experience is the autobiographical transformed, in his eyes, into messengers from a world book Lida (1990),(29) partly a prose poem, partly a apart. This sense of magic and mystery pervading even lyrical memoir, describing the journey of the five-year- the most commonplace objects is captured in a chapter old Aleksander Jurewicz expelled in 1956 from his place titled “Things” (Rzeczy) in Chwin’s second and very of birth, Lida, in Belarus, and forced to resettle in a small successful novel Hanemann (1995). In a style reminiscent town in Pomerania. In the weeping of the boy, forced to of magical realism, the novel tries to recapture the past part from his beloved grandmother, one can hear, as through the material objects left behind. Małgorzata Czermiƒska so sensitively observes, an echo The spell of these objects is strong because they belong of another cry: that of the little Oscar in Grass’s The Tin to a past that has been deliberately erased from collective Drum, when the train with the German refugees aboard memory. Chwin said in an interview: “Najistotniejszy leaves Gdaƒsk and heads for Germany, while his Polish jest dla mnie Gdaƒsk, którego juÏ nie ma, a który ja grandmother remains at the station.(30) mam w swojej pami∏ci” (It is the Gdaƒsk which is no Searching for roots, especially when so much of the more but which I hold in my memory that is important physical evidence has been lost or purposely destroyed, for me).(31) Critic Tadeusz Komendant, commenting leads to the tendency to mythologize the past, which all on the urge to “rediscover history” experienced by his too easily can appear in the glow of a lost Arcadia. The own generation (now aged around fifty), concurs: generation which lost its homelands as a result of one of the most brutal demographic shifts in modern history It may be that this has become for us a psychological necessity. had a strong urge to carve out for themselves a new We had to live in a country whose borders were shifting like piece of territory which they could call home. The sand dunes. The generation of our parents, who had been uprooted became ready, at last, to put down new roots. subjected to the cruel experiment of being uprooted, were This is how in the late 1980s a phenomenon arose in busy erasing their tracks behind them, rather like a fox when pursued by hounds. From false shame or true fear. We have Polish writing to which the critics, always ready to attempted to read these tracks.(32) categorize, swiftly assigned the name literatura małych ojczyzn (the literature of small homelands). Gdaƒsk Chwin’s first novel: Krótka historia pewnego Ïartu (A became one of such “reclaimed territories.” It is perhaps brief history of a certain joke,1991)(33) was just such a in the nature of things that these adopted Heimats were reconstruction of the narrator’s childhood in the 1950s: to engender a passionate commitment and a sense of the young hero was confronted with the vestiges of the belonging, on a scale previously only encountered in Nazi past, but he could not escape taking part in the relation to the Kresy literature. spectacles of the fake mass loyalty to the Communist In this process (which can be seen as psychologically regime, such as the May Day parade so evocatively repossessing a space and a time), physical remnants of reconstructed in the chapter entitled “Dotyk” (The the past were invested with profound significance, rather touch).(34) Thus his childhood is trapped in-between in the manner of the archaeological remains which two lies. “make the silences of history speak.” Chwin’s next book is an ambitious attempt to recreate Stefan Chwin (b. 1949), a writer who, like Huelle, something that was beyond the author’s own experience. grew up in the peculiar atmosphere of post-war Gdaƒsk, The hero named Hanemann is a German who refuses to takes this fascination with the physical remains of flee the city in January 1945, before the advance of the another culture even farther than Huelle. For him, these Soviet army. He stays on and becomes a sort of bridge remains are silent witnesses of an historical past which between the past and the present, thus symbolically they preserve in the manner of a fossilized insect in a reconciling the two identities of his native city. piece of amber. Amidst the drabness and cultural Hanemann came out in 1995, and it has since enjoyed impoverishment of Soviet-occupied Poland of the 1950s, critical acclaim both in Poland and in Germany where it the objects left behind in the formerly comfortable has been published under the title Der Tod in Danzig.(35) German homes (now overcrowded and inhabited by Chwin seems to believe that “the invention of stories is 926 SARMATIAN REVIEW January 2003 the most important part of self-understanding and self- The central problem of the book is the nature of history, creation.”(36) in this case the history of the author’s own Heimat, the Chwin’s invention of history in Hanemann is informed northwestern region of Pomerania, “the country which by the new post-Cold War political climate in Europe appears to be a quintessence of greyness,” in creating and the desire to reach reconciliation with the “historical which “the Divine Maker simply ran out of color:” enemies” shared by many of his generation. By his own confession, the guiding spirit of the book was the wish There have been no famous battles here, no great deeds of to infuse an element of empathy and understanding into heroes which we could read about in history books. . . . But the memory of these events, a process which he terms perhaps this only seems so because here great deeds and great “dopełnienie pami∏ci oskarÏajàcej pami∏cià men, heroes and leaders, always happened to be on the losing side, and that’s why they have been ignored by historians of rozumiejàcà” (supplementing the accusing memory with the victorious side. Because written history is an account of a memory which understands).(37) In his vision, the those who have been victorious and who were able to mark emphasis falls on what we as human beings have in their victory with words. To a considerable degree, this is common rather than on what divides us. Significantly, what wars are fought about: they are fought about the Word, Hanemann is the first “good German” in Polish fiction about the question of who will write the story of “what since the Second World War.(38) happened.”(40) Thus the Gdaƒsk school of writers seems to hold to an anti-Enlightenment view that the past is hardly Jerzy Limon’s most recent novel, Koncert Wielkiej knowable, in the traditional sense, and that any account Niedêwiedzicy. Kantata na jedn ulic∏, siedem gwiazd i of it is a reconstruction and a reading of traces, and as dwa głosy. (Concerto in Ursa Major. A Cantata for One such is filtered through the imperfect human intelligence Street, Seven Stars and Two Voices, 1999)(41) takes an and anchored in a specific time and place. A book which even more extreme approach to the “Heimat literature.” explicitly proclaimed such views became something of (42) It purports to illustrate the postwar history of Poland a sensation when it came out in the summer of 1998. by telling the story of the changing identity of one street The first striking thing about it was that no author’s name in Sopot, the seaside residential suburb of Gdaƒsk. In appeared on the title page: the book purported to be a telling that story, Limon comments on the nature of collection of materials for a doctoral thesis by a certain history and the perennial struggle over the control of Helena Szymaƒska, who supposedly died in an accident memory. History is seen as a palimpsest in which one before she completed her work. Her American supervisor text is supplanted by another, according to the needs of allegedly edited Szymanska’s notes and submitted them the moment. History is being used by both the victor for publication. But the real author was Professor Jerzy and the vanquished. It serves to select what is Limon, an English scholar and a specialist in Elizabethan remembered: to either preserve memory or to erase it. theater. The book is titled Wieloryb (The Whale).(39) Its 500 Because, in effect, wars are being fought over memory. Every pages provide an anthology of texts consisting of fake day, in every conflict which occurs, the records of someone’s Biblical quotations, alleged medieval apocrypha, the memory are wiped out; they are physically destroyed. Viking sagas, prophesies of Nostradamus, imitations of Libraries and archives are burned, statues are demolished, commemorative plaques are removed, the names of countries, Boccaccio, Cervantes, Rabelais and other Renaissance regions, cities and streets are changed. Those who remember writers, excerpts from Elizabethan plays, fragments of are killed. This is what ethnic cleansing is all about. Memory unpublished novels supposedly from the pen of the great itself is being cleansed by fire to make room for a new text of masters (Joseph Conrad among them) and, finally, an history.(43) account of the events of the 1980s in Gdaƒsk. Even though the book resolutely refuses to tell a story, To conclude: the rulers of Soviet-occupied Poland a plot of sorts emerges from these fragments, and it has effectively stifled all historical debate in the country. In to do with Pomerania. The turning points in the history the realm of literature, historical novels were only of Western Pomerania (a region otherwise bypassed by allowed to deal with the safely distant historical subjects. great historical events) are announced by the mysterious The collapse of Communism has led to a reawakening appearance on the beach of the island of Wolin of the of interest in the recent and controversial past. For many body of a great whale, a mammal not usually found in writers who have been living and writing in Gdaƒsk, the waters of the Baltic sea. The first such beaching this situation provided an opportunity for a voyage of occurs in 1620, the other in 1980. discovery of their own identity. These writers have tried January 2003 SARMATIAN REVIEW 927 to position themselves in relation to the Other and to the Literature,History and Culture (Albany, NY, 1995), chapter 2, shared past. They have thus contributed to the most pp. 35–44. significant phenomenon in Polish literature of the last 11. T. Docherty, Alterities:Criticism, History, Representation two decades: the emergence of a Heimat literature, or (Oxford, 1996), p. 60. of the literature of “small homelands” (literatura małych 12. Ibid., p. 63. 13. Harold B. Segel, “The Jew in Polish and Russian literatures,” ojczyzn). This literature was born out of a passionate Sarmatian Review, 22:1 (January 2002). Professor Segel is of commitment to the specific places or regions and to a the opinion that modern representations of the Jew in Polish search for a deeper understanding of the history which literature, including Paweł Huelle’s, have “little or no made them what they are. This trend towards rebuilding resemblance to reality.” a sense of regional identity is not a uniquely Polish 14. M. Zalewski, Formy pami∏ci (Warsaw, 1996), p.136. phenomenon but parallels developments elsewhere. 15. Maciej Îakiewicz, Gdaƒsk 1945: kronika wojennej burzy Hopefully, in the future it might lead to the demise of (Gdaƒsk: Oficyna Czec, 2002). nationalism as a single unifying force cementing the 16. It took more than half a century for first publications of sense of identity in Europe and elsewhere. personal memoirs relating to these events to appear. In relation It is significant that this newly forged local identity to Gdaƒsk, the most important of them is Z. Choderny, J. Głowacka, M. Korczakowska, P. O. Loew, editors, Danzig/ first made itself felt in Gdaƒsk. It was forged by the Gdaƒsk 1945. Wspomnienie 50 lat póêniej (Gdaƒsk, 1997). generation whose post-Yalta childhood, pervaded by the 17. M. Czermiƒska,Autobiograficzny Trójkàt: Âwiadectwo, sense of loss of their homelands, was spent looking at Wyznanie i Wyzwanie (Kraków, 2000), p. 146: “Pojałtaƒskie, the traces of “Another’s culture.” It was also forged by powojenne dzieciƒstwo rozgrywa si∏ w poruszonej a generation for whom the rise of Solidarity was a przestrzeni.” formative experience of their youth. ∆ 18. M. Czermiƒska, ibid., p.147: “Miejsca poruszone, jakby dopiero po trz∏sieniu ziemi.” NOTES 19. Ibid., p. 147: “Dzieciƒstwo w przeprowadzce. Rozłamane mi∏dzy przeszłoÊcià i teraêniejszoÊcià, z tymczasowÊcià w tle, 1. Critics often referred to Anderman’s sensitive ear in w wysiłku zakorzeniania si∏ lub niech∏ci do niego. . . introducing common speech into his works, remarking that Zaznaczone traumatyzmem wygnania, odmawiajàce ” some of his dialogues sound as if they had been recorded on zakorzenienia. the tape recorder. “Poland still?” (translated by Nina Taylor) in 20.“Dzieciƒstwo po Jałcie,” Tytuł (Gdaƒsk, 1996), pp. 86–102. Teresa Halikowska and G. Hyde, The Eagle and the Crow 21. Ibid., p. 94. (London, 1996), pp.120–127. 22. M. de Certeau,“Science and Fiction,” Heterologies: 2. M. Nowakowski, Karnawał i post (Warsaw, 1989), p. 11: Discourse on the Other, translated by B. Massumi (Manchester, Protokół zaczyna byç najwaÏniejszym dokumentem literackim 1986), pp.199–221. st epoki. . . Jak pisał, aby słowo przylegało do rzeczy i zjawisk. 23. 1 Polish edition, London, 1991; English edition, Moving Ïeby mogło byç wiernym obrazem widzianego słowa. House (London, 1993). st 3. J. Kornhauser and A. Zagajewski, Âwiat nie przedstawiony 24. 1 Polish edition, London, 1996. (Kraków, 1974). 25.“Zdarzyło si∏ i juÏ: Z Olgà Tokarczuk rozmawia Mariusz 4. Nina Taylor, “Between Reality and Unreality: Social Urbanek,” Polityka-Kultura, no. 5 (43), 1995, pp. i, vi: Criticism in Polish Literature of the Seventies,” Perspectives “PoniewaÏ moje pokolenie nie ma historii, b∏dzie próbowało on Literature and Society in Eastern and Western Europe, edited jà sobie stworzyç.” by G. Hosking and G. Cushing (London:The Macmillan Press 26. K. CzyÏewski, “Jechaç do Gdaƒska, Stanisławowa,” in association with the School of Slavonic and East European Kultura (Paris), no. 5/596 (1997), p. 70.“Odnajdujemy siebie Studies, 1989), pp. 182–95. na peryferiach, poÊród ruin i opustoszałych budowli, które 5. B.Bakuła,“WieÏa z papieru,” Arkusz, no.11 (1992). Quoted kiedyÊ stanowiły wymarzony teren naszych dzieci∏cych zabaw. in Czapliƒski, 84. I kusi nas ta sama tajemnica, i w dalszym ciàgu jesteÊmy 6. Czapliƒski, 132. uczestnikami tej samej podróÏy, gdy pytamy siebie dzisiaj, kim 7. C.Tighe, Gdaƒsk: National Identity in the Polish-German jesteÊmy.” Borderlands (London, 1990). 27. G. Grass, Kot i mysz, translated by I. Naganowska and E. 8. P. Huelle, Weiser Davidek (Gdaƒsk,1987). Naganowski (Warsaw,1990). 9. J. Błoƒski, “Czarna dziura lat 80-tych,” Tygodnik 28. P. Huelle “Testament Arystotelesa: Rozmowa z Pawłem Powszechny, no.13(2127), 1 April 1990, 4–5: “Weiser Dawidek Huelle,” Gazeta Olsztyƒska, 26 July 1992: “[Z]aleÏało mi na Pawła Huelle to ksiàÏka bardzo waÏna; kto wie, czy nie b∏dzie esperymencie warsztatowym, to jest na‘rozmowie dwóch uwaÏana za najwybitniejsze osiàgni∏cie prozatorskie tych lat.” tekstów’ odnoszàcych si∏ do tematu gdaƒskiego, istotnego— 10. B. Waldenfels, “Response to the Other,” in G. Brinker- jak sie okazuje—dla dwóch narodowych kultur, polskiej i Gabler, editor, Encountering the Other(s): Studies in niemieckiej. Nie naÊladuj jednak Grassa, tylko go kontynuuj.” 29. A. Jurewicz, Lida (Lublin,1990). 928 SARMATIAN REVIEW January 2003 30. M. Czermiƒska, “Northern Borderlands: Ethnic Contacts and Conflicts in Modern Polish Prose,” Arcadia, vol. 31(1991), pp. 146–154. BOOKS and Periodicals 31. Dialog: Deutsch-Polnishes magazin, no. 1 (1997), p. 48. 32. T. Komendant: “Byç moÏe, była w tym psychologiczna Received koniecznoÊç: dano nam Ïyç w paƒstwie o ruchomych, jak Sula, by Tony Morrison. New York: Penguin USA, 1982. nadmorskie wydmy, granicach. . . . Pokolenie naszych 174 pages. Paper. $13.00. rodziców, poddane okrutnemu eksperymentowi wykorzenienia, Winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize for literature, Tony zacierało za sobà, jak lis ogonem, Êlady: z fałszywego wstydu Morrison is a writer who explains black America to white lub prawdziwego strachu. . . . MyÊmy te Êlady próbowali America. Sula is one of her early novels. First published odczytaç.” Quoted from W. Bonowicz, “Z czułoÊcià przedrzeêniajàc Êwiat: o nowej powieÊci Stefana Chwina,” in 1973 by Knopf, this short and succinctly written tale Tygodnik Powszechny, no. 38, 17 September 1995. brims with sidetracks to the lives of two main heroines, 33. S. Chwin, Krótka historia pewnego Ïartu: Sceny z Europy Nel and Sula, both of them black and poor. Morrison does Êrodkowo-wschodniej (Kraków, 1991). not shy away from the violence that permeates the lives 34. T. Halikowska and G. Hyde, The Eagle and the Crow: of African Americans and accounts for a disproportionate Modern Polish Short Stories (London, 1996), pp. 183–196. number of murders of blacks by blacks, but her tale is 35. S.Chwin, Tod in Danzig (Berlin, 1999). told against the background of unrelenting poverty and 36. Ibid., p. 128. discrimination to which African Americans have been 37. S. Chwin, “Pisarz polski i Niemcy,” Gazeta Wyborcza, 24- subjected over generations. Somehow the brutalities of 26 December 1997. black life become understandable as Morrison injects her 38. Since the time this paper was written, a parallel development to the Gdaƒsk school emerged in Szczecin, another city in the quiet anger at years and years of lack of access to jobs Polish-German borderlands. A book by Artur Daniel and social standing. One also notes that her “nigger jokes” Liskowacki, Eine, kleine (Szczecin, 2000) deals with a similar have also been told about Polish Americans. Morrison is problem but in a rather different spirit. The entire book is written a bold defender of blacks. One wonders, where are the from the perspective of the Germans left stranded in Stettin/ Polish American writers that would do the same for the Szczecin in the immediate postwar years, when the future of Chicago Poles? Somehow Polish intellectuals are given the city was still hanging in the balance. The book speaks openly to bashing their uneducated brethren, whereas black about the Polish-German antagonisms. intellectuals stand up for their weaker brethren. What a 39. Wieloryb: wypisy êródłowe (Gdaƒsk, 1998). contrast. 40. Ibid., p. 332: “Nie było tu sławnych bitew ani wielkich Poland’s Security Policy, 1989–2000, edited by Roman czynów bohaterów, o jakich czytamy w podr∏cznikach historii Kuênar. . . . . A moÏe tak si∏ złoÏyło, Ïe tutaj wielkie czyny i wielcy Warsaw: Scholar Publishing House (Krakowskie ludzie, herosi, wodzowie, naleÏeli zawsze do strony przegranej, PrzedmieÊcie 62, 00-322 Warszawa, Poland), 2001. przez co zignorowani zostali przez historyków i dziejopisów Appendices consisting of documents, index, biographical zwyci∏zców. Albowiem spisane dzieje sà tworem pami∏ci tych notes. 606 pages. Hardcover. którzy zwyci∏Ïyli i swoje zwyci∏stwo mogli równieÏ zaznaczyç A collection of essays by various authors elaborating słowem. W duÏej mierze to o słowo i o histori∏ toczà si∏ wojny, on problems of Polish security. The topics covered include o to, kto jà napisze.” relations with neighbors, relations with organizations such 41. Warsaw, 1999. as OSCE and UN, the armed forces and arms industry. 42. According to Czapliƒski, it represents “the fullest realization The essays are reasonably well documented and they yet of the palimpsest reading of the Heimat myth—an provide a fair survey of thinking and accomplishments outstandingly ambitious enterprise, sophisticated in terms of its structure and being nothing less than a private epos; it is a concerning the gigantic change of course Poland true reading of all the cultural strata whose history made one undertook when it shook off the Soviet occupation and of the streets in Gdaƒsk,” Czapliƒski, Rocznik 2001, (Warsaw, became sovereign (insofar as medium-size and 2001), p. 309. impecunious states can be sovereign in the postmodern 43. J. Limon, Koncert, p.15 :“Bo w gruncie rzeczy wojny toczy world). On the negative side, many essays represent that si∏ o pami∏ç. KaÏdego dnia w sytuacjach konfliktowych zapisy unhappy mix of propagandizing and scholarship that pami∏ci sà wymazywane, fizycznie niszczone. Pali si∏ całe entails too little scholarship and ineffective biblioteki i archiwa, burzy pomniki, zrywa pamiàtkowe tablice, propagandizing. There is too much of a self-congratulatory zmienia nazwy paƒstw, krain, miast i ulic. Zabija tych, którzy tone, and too often the obvious is belabored. This volume pami∏tajà. Na tym polegajà czystki etniczne. Ogniem oczyszcza might impress the know-nothings, but such people do not si∏ pami∏ç, by zrobiç miejsce dla nowego tekstu historii.” read books. The only target audience for the volume are the political scientists interested in Poland at English January 2003 SARMATIAN REVIEW 929 language universities—and such political scientists would “From Leo XIII Rerum Novarum to John Paul II’s not be impressed. What is lacking in this book is Centesimus Annus.” The readers may recall that inventiveness about Poland’s possibilities and candidness Centesimus Annus began with an invocation of Leo XIII’s in presenting Poland’s precarious situation vis-a-vis those famous encyclical, and it is often described as an international forces that are unfriendly to Central European endorsement by Pope John Paul II of key elements of the interests. Perhaps one of the reasons for the absence of capitalist system. such frankness is the parochialism of the Polish political Geografia ludnosci Rosji (Geography of the Russian establishment: deprived of access to real international population), by Piotr Eberhardt. Warsaw: power for generations, Poles tend to pigeonhole world Wydawnictwo Naukowe PAN (http://www.pwn.com.pl), problems into polite and simplistic categories. (jb) 2002. 307 pages. Bibliography, list of tables, list of figures. Dwuskrzydłe Êwiatło: Poezje wybrane /Dvokrile svitlo: Paper. In Polish, with some English translations. Vibrani poezii, by Janina Brzostowska. Translation into This encyclopedic tome by one of the world’s renowned Ukrainian by Irena Masalska, with assistance of Witold demographers of Russia has one drawback: it is written Brostow and Wolodymyr Donchak. Lwów/Lviv: Lviv in Polish, and not enough English summaries are provided Polytechnic Press, 2002.115 pages. Photographs. Paper. to satisfy a monolingual Anglophone. Still, even without Bilingual in Polish and Ukrainian. knowing Polish it is possible to cull a wealth of information The attractiveness of this book lies not only in the from this comprehensive book. Looking for vital statistics wonderful common sense which the poet weaves into her of the Russian population in 2000? You will find them in poetic texts, but also in the fact that it is a bilingual Polish- Table 22. Want to know about fertility of women in the Ukrainian publication. Janina Brzostowska’s Polish roots Russian Federation in 1991–99? Look at Table 26. Want in Lwów/Lviv do not make her irrelevant to Ukrainians to compare age structure in the Russian Empire a century today, let alone to Poles who should take delight in this ago with the Russian Federation of today? Compare Tables light-hearted wisdom poetry. In a moralistic poem titled 78 and 82. There are 142 tables, and the figures they “Either way,” Brzostowska thus defines the present age: reveal are significant. Particularly worthwhile are “You want to receive while offering insincere words/ historical statistics that are hard to come by. E.g., would Maneuvered so they’ll bring you profit. . . .You stare you like to know the number of people who emigrated or fascinated at your alimentary tract and your genitals. . . escaped from the newly-formed Soviet Union in the early appalling pillars to future generations.” years of its existence? You will find a discussion of it and Journal of Markets and Morality, vol. 5, no. 1 (Spring a Table in the book. Dates, the little known political ukazes 2001), edited by Stephen J. Grabill. Published by the of Russian and Soviet rulers, rural-city dynamics, and Acton Institute (http://www.acton.org) headed by the Rev. more: the book is a treasure trove for political scientists Robert A. Sirico. 308 pages. Subscription: $25.00 per year. and historians, not to speak of journalists who might find The idea behind the Acton Institute is that capitalism more material here for columns than they have ever and a Christian social system are not only compatible but imagined. in fact inseparable. Christianity can be credited with the G∏stwina (Thicket), by Bogusława Latawiec. Warsaw: invention of free trade and the modern banking system. Twój Styl, 2001. 252 pages. Hardcover. Available from The modern capitalist system was invented by the Catholic the Nowy Dziennik Bookstore in New York (tel. 212-594- city of Venice during the Renaissance. One of the 2386,
I must make ready your steps to trace, Death by a Thousand Cuts There, God willing, feel your embrace. A Polish Woman’s Diary In this particular instance, the meaning of the diminutive of Deportation, Forced Labor forms is lost altogether. The translation is too abbreviated and Death in Kazakhstan: and comes off as syntactically and tonally awkward. The April 13, 1940–May 26, 1941 first line implies the motion of following and seeking, but the second implies a location, which in actuality may never be reached. The use of must appears decisive and matter- Part Four of-fact in “I must make ready,” whereas the sense in Polish is that there is no other alternative available to the poet. Zofia Ludwika Małachowska PtaÊnik Another passage where the absence of some creative rendering of the Polish diminutive is felt occurs in Tren Translated by Leszek M. Karpinski VIII, in which the poet remembers how Orszula would play throughout the house. He refers to every corner of Edited by John D. L. McIntosh, with assistance the house, kàciki, as playful and full of life, yet after from Bogdan Czaykowski and Kenneth Baulk Orszula’s death the house is empty, grief abides in every corner, which has subsequently grown up into kàt. One (continued from the September 2002 issue) misses the diminutives and some acknowledgement of this huge semantic correlation. The missing diminutive Monday, August 28, 1940 in Tren X refers to the zmazeczka, the possible “little stain” On Friday, August 23, I returned to the work gang and of sin that Orszula may be being cleansed of in Purgatory. found everyone in dire need of food and bread. Today, as However, Czerniawski’s translation condemns the body a favor, tiny pieces of bread were distributed for 5 kopecks. and magnifies this tiny sin into the “marks of tainted flesh,” Our administrators have just sent grain to the mill. At inaccurate both with respect to the Polish text and to the present, neither flour nor bread is available here for us. theological content of the poem. All of these absences of The senseless, wasteful management of the whole diminutives in the translation make the appearance of enterprise is obvious at every level. Orszuleczka in Tren XIX all the more surprising. On Friday I had a letter from Mieczek and Marysia Czerniawski concludes the volume with a short Baum. She took him to the Ukrainian High School on interpretive essay, providing some brief background Kurkowa Street to a meeting of parents. The Baums material on Kochanowski’s life and work and a reading however are doing everything to place him in a Polish of the poems as a cycle. He asserts that the Treny’s status high school. Mieczek writes that America has sent a as a masterpiece is due to Kochanowski’s ability to delegation to the Soviet Union to negotiate the transfer of “present his personal tragedy within a framework which deportees [from the Soviet Union] to the British colonies, broadens it into the public domain” (57). This too is as rumor has it here [in Lwów], by October 15. Czerniawski’s challenge and goal as a translator, to recreate Good God, tear us away from this filth! Even if it were worse, it would be different and in a new place: maybe to 940 SARMATIAN REVIEW January 2003 Palestine or India. If I am not allowed to stay in my own easy to study feeling her presence everywhere around. home, it’s better to be on the move. My dearest boy! Hania writes about a fire in Szczepłoty in which Ivan Monday, September 2, 1940: at the Work Gang Harasym, Hryn Kiselyk, Hryn Geza and Stach Geza Starting on September 1, it has grown cold. Mornings suffered losses. All of them were sympathizers of the are so chilly that we have to wear our coats. Up to now tovarishchi [“Soviet “comrades”]. Our two carpets were we have been sleeping by the road in the fresh air, but last lost at the Kiselyk’s home. night it got so cold that I moved to a kibitka [a small hut on a wagon with a tiny window and a door, inside there Wednesday, September 11, 1940 are two tiers of bunks]. Our young people already moved Nałkowska’s House on the Meadows [Zofia Nałkowska, inside two nights ago. Only Mrs. Dobrowolska and I lasted a Polish novelist]. longer, spending the nights under the stars. My dear home! My best, holiest! My longing for you Last week I again received 200 rubles from Janek fills my eyes with tears. If it happens that I die away from [Baum]. Furniture from the Bladye’s [her niece’s] you, thoughts of my last hour will repeat those words apartment dining room and a medical cabinet set were which were fervently uttered in deepest faith: my home is sold for 4,250 rubles. The Baums could not store them any my final harbor. longer because part of their apartment where things were kept was requisitioned by the Soviet authorities and they [Note added later in the margin]: had no other place to keep them. When later a letter from Hania arrived with the Letters from the country keep telling us that we will be description of devastation of our beloved family home, I taken away from here and set free. I hope it happens soon. was ready for the news but still my heart filled with pain Living conditions on the work gang are becoming harder. and my eyes shed tears. We are required to do more work on very meagre food My heart was totally gripped by one chapter [of rations. Still I have gained 8 lbs. and now weigh almost a Nałkowska’s novel]. This small book about the life of hundred pounds. . . . simple people from a small developing suburb written in What a gypsy and paupers’ life we lead here! Three such a good style has given me the idea of publishing my times a day we beg for a 7oz. slice of bread. There was no diaries if they ever survive. bread this morning to go with our chai [tea] A new pereboi z khlebom [fight over bread]. The woman-baker has been Monday, September 11, 1940 summoned to Sarsai to account for flour and bread Four days without dinner! For breakfast we were given distribution. only chai [tea] and 10 oz. bread; in the evening at 10 p.m., For dinner and supper we get lapsha, sliced dumplings potatoes with a watery liquid without any fat for flavor in a watery liquid masquerading as broth with 3 oz. meat, and again, 10 oz. bread. or rather bone scraps, which usually are thrown out to the Wednesday, September 18, 1940: at the Work Gang dog. Later the dog stole Janka’s bread, cheese and fish The population of Warsaw has swollen to 2 million with from a jar. . . . refugees from Germany making up half of this number. Thursday, September 5, 1940 The Reds are afraid that if Germans or British win they Yesterday I received letters from Mieczek and Hania will turn against them. Poland has to wait until the next and a card from JaÊka [Janina Popiel]. JaÊka’s card informs year because America is busy electing a new president; me that Irena is working as a waitress in a diner in which Roosevelt will probably be elected. Later in November, but Mr. Lachowicz is a bartender. Irena sometimes has to cook more likely in spring, the Americans will join the war. meals herself and the whole family wonders how she can On September 2 Mieczek wrote that he is satisfied in manage to do anything on her own. Ewa, unfortunately, the new school, though he is only in grade six. He is has been sick since July 9. Now she is down with scarlet friendly with his new classmates and was admitted to the fever. JaÊka is going to attend the same Polish school as German language class. Grade six corresponds to grade Mieczek; the former Sisters of St. Benedict’s School on two of high school [gimnazium] which means that he has Strzelecki Square. It’s a ten-grade school. Mieczek has not been set back a year. He is in the Polish school and been moved back one grade to grade six with French as writes that both teachers and classmates are nice. the principal language of instruction. Mieczek is Monday, September 23, 1940: at the Work Gang apprehensive as to whether he can manage and recalls Gradually people are being moved from the gang. Mrs. how wonderful a teacher his own mother was. It was so January 2003 SARMATIAN REVIEW 941 Dobrowolska and Mrs. Brewczyƒska left today. Mrs. told by otchotchik [time -keeper]: “nado otdykhaty” [rest Orłowska and Genia are on sick leave. The overseer and time]. two Kazakhs families dismantled their round yurts [tents] and left the work gang. Only nine of us Poles, a couple of Saturday, September 28, 1940 tractor drivers and a few Kazakhs are left behind. We are It is a cloudy day; we yearn for rain so as not to have to weeding the wheat field. Yesterday my shift did not start go winnowing the wheat and rye chaff, which is a horrible until 5 p.m., so I went to the farm to wash myself more job, especially when a gale force wind blows clouds of thoroughly and launder my dress and other clothing. After dust and tiny sharp grains of sand into our eyes. Last returning I worked until 1 a.m. Today very early in the evening Mrs. Szkudłapska arrived telling us about her morning at 5 a.m. we were back working. Today the wind very upsetting adventure of the past night. Around 1 a.m. is blowing big guns. Our kibitka [hut on wheels] is rocking a drunk Russki in uniform arrived and said that he is from like a ship at sea. The day is sunny and not too cold. It the NKVD and is going to arrest her. The lonely woman looks as though we are not going to stay here much longer. was petrified, not knowing what will happen next. He lay Some time ago Mr. Îurowski, a leaseholder on the down, slept through the night, and after waking up next Kochanowki’s estate—a part of the Lachowicz estate near morning he left without repeating his ominous threats. Lwów—arrived here from the 5th Farm to collect “black” Mietek Wilczkiewicz heard in Sarsai that Poles would barley. He had been deported with his wife and daughter. be taken to India or to Canada, but Jews would stay in the His son is a POW in German hands. Their life is a bit USSR. When are we going to receive any reliable information? better than ours on this paupers’ farm; it seems that they earn more money. . . . Thursday, October 10, 1940: 1st Farm Starting October 1, nights have become colder. It was [Note in the top margin added later]: also raining and, on October 4, the first snow fell. Inside Mr. Îurowski died in March 1941 in the Aktyubinsk our kibitka the rain dripped in, water froze and snow blew Hospital from the frostbite he suffered in the buran around. Sunday October 6, using my first vykhodnoi den [blizzard], probably of gangrene. [day off] I packed up my things and left the work gang. It was a good decision: the weather turned wet and no trucks Wednesday, September 25, 1940 or carts could pass through the mud. Today Józef walked There was good news yesterday: Genia and Mrs. all the way from the work gang. He was annoyed by our Dobrowolska received letters in which we read that poor food and lack of bread for breakfast. In here life is negotiations about the departure of deportees are hard too. There is no bread delivery, only flour is brought completed and by September 29 we shall know when we occasionally and we are allowed to buy a pound or so per go to India. In the evening two of the otchotchiki [record- person daily. . . . keepers], who distribute bread, account for grain, amount of completed work, hectares etc., got into a fight near our Saturday, October 12, 1940 kibitka in which Tadzio and Janka were staying. They The earth is frozen solid. At night snow has been falling started to knock and shout: “Uezhai, bo Sovetskii Soiuz but during the day it melts in the hot sun. It is, however, vypuskaet vas v Polshchu” [Go away, the Soviet Union is hard to bear the frost and wind. Our little room is so cold letting you go back to Poland]. What joy overwhelmed that I have started to wear my valonki [felt boots]. We are us. We all dream about leaving this place as soon as they promised another room because this one has no stove. allow us. There is also no kiziak. Altogether winter misery is starting to cause us great pain; it is staring us in the faces! On top [Note in the top margin] of all these hardships, Janka has a sore armpit, I am We are forever deluding ourselves hoping that a change suffering from eczema on my chin and Józef has a painful is coming. . . . boil on his face. . . . The kindhearted Mrs. Szkudłapska gave me her This week we were lucky to have visitors: Jewish women husband’s warm sheepskin vest. During the night shift I from Niemirów who were moving to the gorod [city] of put it under Winia’s summer coat and did not feel the Aktyubinsk. Because our 1st Farm is located on a main penetrating chill of the night. It has been already three bus junction, travelers have to spend a night here. First, nights of grain cleaning. First night till 1 a.m., second on Monday, when we were already in bed, Ryfka only till 11 p.m.. because the “tryer” [grain cleaning Blumberg, on the way back from Aktyubinsk; then on machine] broke down, third night only till 12 p.m., as Thursday Mrs. Baumohlowa and Mrs. Kochowa on the again the machine did not function properly and we were way to Aktyubinsk. Because of the mud, no trucks could 942 SARMATIAN REVIEW January 2003 move around, and they had to spend the night with us. We Sarmorsa were resettled to the 5th Farm. They all stopped took down our door to the corridor and made of it a bed by with us at noon to warm up with hot coffee and milk. for them to sleep on. Luckily, next day they could continue They had to pile on top of a horse cart loaded with their on to their destination. They left behind a little dog Figa, earthly possessions. The children started to cry when a but really there is no food for her here. They told us that sack of horse fodder was thrown at them, and then when they received parcels from Poland through Kolomyja. I a Kazakh woman going to lift potatoes, and the driver will give Mieczek the address of Mrs. Kochowa’s brother climbed on the already crowded cart. When I watched to find out how he is sending those parcels. I received two this departure, I realized that it was a living picture of the letters from Mieczek. He is worried because he has misery to which the Polish nation is being subjected. received no letters from me. The Wilczkiewicz men had a quarrel with their mother The Jewish women mentioned that letters do not reach and sister and left in great anger. Last night they slept in people here. The fact of disappearance is confirmed in the stable rather than in the room. Interesting people! the letters that somehow do get through. There is information about previous letters that were never [Note at the top of the page]: received. . . . Truly, Kazakhs speak caressingly to their children: “son Perhaps Winia is still in prison on Kazimierzowska of a bitch! if only you would die.” Street—has Janek [Baum] handed in money for her and has it been accepted? My poor dear Mieczek writes that Yesterday I received a letter from Mieczek. He is worried he is glad to have so much work at school. “It takes my because he has not received any letters from me for three mind off our misery, especially that of my aunt and weeks. I write to him every week. The school keeps him very mother’s.” He is asking if he should send more money. I busy and his studies are going well. There is not a word about have strong scruples not to take more for myself as Marysia the Janek Baum’s family. He informs me that Britain and and Winia are in need, too. America are now friends with the Soviet Union. . . . Unhappily, talk about the transfer of deportees to the Yesterday Mrs. Szkudłapska received a letter from Niemirów British colonies is not heard anymore. It would be so with news about her son Marian who is a POW in the Soviet wonderful if we could be freed from this place! Marysia Union together with General Kasprzycki. As this was the first Poziombko wrote about the death of her younger son due news about him since the beginning of the war, they all are to dysentery from which she also has been suffering. She feeling very happy. Also Mieczek writes about rumors that feels very depressed. POWs are returning from the Soviet Union. News of the war concentrates on very heavy bombing I have fallen into a total disgrace with Tatarenko [the of London and reprisal air attacks on Berlin and the rest overseer]. Yesterday I was not allowed to purchase any of Germany. America has threatened to join the war, but flour. He wanted me to drive an ox cart to Sarsai, 11 miles it probably has to wait until spring. The summer in Poland one way, to bring flour and one passenger. I told him that was rainy. Crops were good but harvesting is difficult due never in my life have I driven an ox cart. I stated firmly to the rain. that I do not know the way and will not go. Instead Tadzio went. The law says “kto ne rabotaet, to ne kushaet” [one Tuesday, October 15, 1940 who does not work, does not eat]; therefore there is no Yesterday Tatarenko wanted to send me away to the 5th flour for me to buy. People say that we will be moved to Farm to work at transporting potatoes for our farm. In this Sarmorsa. At least from here it is easy to reach Rudnik for cold weather I was unwilling to travel by horse cart the distance bread and other provisions. On Thursday Mrs. of 50 miles. It would endanger my health, and also expose all Szkudłapska went there and bought some bread and 1 lb. the layers of coats and clothes on my back to wear and tear. suet for 13 rubles. She used it to flavor potato soup and Tatarenko, in extreme exasperation ordered the cash-clerk not dumplings, which we ate with such relish for dinner. For to sell me any provisions: “pust’ zdykhaet” [let her croak]. breakfast and supper we have black coffee with bread or Fool! If I get sick, I will not need his provisions. My fate flour patties. Occasionally I cook buckwheat for myself. would be totally miserable if I were to get sick here. For the time being it is doing my stomach no harm.
Saturday, October 19, 1940 Saturday, October 26, 1940 Yesterday, Mrs. Brewczyƒska with her four children (the Today Mrs. Szkudłapska went to fetch some bread. youngest Lila after a long sickness with whooping cough), Yesterday we had a little argument about money. She feels and Mieczek Wilczkiewicz and Mrs. Zielinƒska from that I reproach her for borrowing money from me. January 2003 SARMATIAN REVIEW 943 However, we quickly made peace, but for how long? person will die within a few hours in horrible pain as if During the winter, when all the inhabitants sit home getting being burned alive. The sick person screams so loudly on each other’s nerves, quarrels and squabbles are easily that everybody runs away from the house. Cases of aroused as for example among the Wilczkiewiczes. this sickness are luckily very rare. On Wednesday Alfred alone was resettled to the 5th Farm. He stayed with us all day and also spent the night. (To be continued in the April 2003 issue) We shared our food with him. It must be admitted that Mrs. Szkudłapska is immensely hospitable and resourceful. She reminds me very much of Walerka [her About the Authors cousin Waleria Schmidt]. Alfred read us a letter from his cousin in Borysław who writes about America sending to Marek Chodakiewicz is an Assistant Professor of History Britain 14,000 bombers and 40 destroyers. In Britain at the Miller Center for International Studies, University 10,000 people have been killed by German bombs. of Virginia, and author of numerous books on twentieth- Ukrainians in Jarosław and Kraków have organized a century Polish, Jewish and Russian history. legion to fight the Russkies. The Bolsheviks are taking Steven Clancy is Senior Lecturer in the Department of away and nationalizing private houses and properties. Life Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of is so difficult everywhere. Chicago. The last two days have been frosty but sunny. Seizing Teresa Halikowska-Smith received her undergraduate the opportunity of dry weather, I went walking to free degree in Polish from the University of Warsaw and did myself from the monotony of sitting in our crowded her graduate studies in Polish at Oxford. She is an lodging. independent researcher residing in Great Britain. On Monday I worked on the roof of the barn moving Zofia PtaÊnik was a Polish housewife deported by the earth around with two Kazakh women. A short job but I Soviets to Kazakhstan in 1940. She died of malnutrition had to climb up and down the roof twice with the help of and overwork in 1941. a barrel. A year ago I would have had a hard time believing Aleksandra Ziółkowska-Boehm is, most recently, the in such rejuvenation. This must be the reason why people author of PodróÏe z mojà kotkà (2002). can hardly believe that I am fifty. Indeed I have already entrusted all my earthly fate into God’s hands and am peacefully surviving all the hardships of our daily life Announcements and Notes without despair or complaints. It gives me a younger look Summer scholarship opportunity for Polish American and good sleep. students in grades 1-12 My dearest child writes to me every Sunday. He keeps In Summer 2002, Kopernik Space Education Center in Vestal, NY worrying because of the lack of news from me due to the awarded eleven summer scholarship in science to Polish American fact that letters from here do not arrive at their destination. students. They traveled to Kopernik Space Education Center (built Hania wrote to him that the mill is getting electricity. Our by the Kopernik Polish Cultural Society of Broome County, NY) room in the mill has been taken over by a new lady teacher. where they were tutored in space-related subjects. To learn more about this exciting opportunity for your kids, call Kristen Gordon, Mieczek is proud to be among the best students in the Kopernik Program Coordinator, at 888-269-5325 x208. school. Polish research libraries unite electronically Tuesday, October 29, 1940 Twenty eight Polish research libraries coordinated their holdings according to the system used by the U.S. Library of Congress. Since Sunday afternoon Mrs. Ujwaryowa and Mrs. They presented their electronic entries in three languages: Polish, Wilczkiewiczowa have been staying with us, not being English, and French. The system calls itself NUKAT (Narodowy able to continue their trip to the 5th Farm. They were Uniwersalny Katalog Centralny). The initial results are already caught in the rain and mud. Yesterday they started, but an available at
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