MARIAN DZIWISZ

 

MARIAN DZIWISZ

 

TO THE POETS OF MY COUNTRY 

To you who have preached truth, beauty

and concern for the fate of every human being

upholding FREEDOM, EQUALITY,

FRATERNITY, COMMUNITY

a lasting memory,

writing in the relay of generations.

  

Miłosz's "It"[1]

On The 110th Anniversary Of His Birth

"It" is taboo - a sacred place.

It hides in the depths of us.

Like the flame in the depths of a candle,

which a spark brings out.

 

"It" - the sensation of our senses,

"It" - there are images in our memory,

which are there, but you keep silent about them,

because you lack the courage

to expose yourself to the world,

to show "that" which torments you,

Well, because it's not appropriate,

Well, because it's not appropriate,

because of political correctness

or the "conscience clause"

forbid talking about "it",

which you are ashamed to hide.

 

About the fact that you love the earth too much,

the one that has always been close to you:

the rivers, the footbridges and the valley,

where the frogs leap;

That you made love to a girl

although you did not marry her;

that you saw your own people

- During the war, they cornered a Jew in town

and handed him over to the gendarmes.

 

But when the frost covered your head,

when you gained fame in the world,

you broke through the "wall of silence"

and as in a holy confession

"It" like a bone, hidden in the flesh,

you brought out from the depths of yourself

You threw it to them to devour,

who neither plough nor sow,

But for the "THAT" they absolve.

[1] in response to Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek's criticism of the content of the volume of Czesław Miłosz's poems "TO", published by "ZNAK" in 2000.

  

Awakening Conscience

 

Cyprian Kamil Norwid

On The 300th Anniversary Of His Birth

 

You loved that which is not just a thought

nor a phantom, but abides in the living flesh,

or in cold stone

and above all, the simple man,

who bends down at the workshop or in the field

in the fruits of his labour seeing the resurrection.

 

You had the courage to proclaim bitter truths

- to proclaim them and, living in poverty, not to beg or ask.

In spite of the philosophers who claim

that wisdom and beauty are born of wonder

- to reign and play,

You boldly said:

 "The core of the world is the world - and that's it",

It is born of longing for what is loved

and in poetry, music, wood or stone

finds a home

hence you perceived, in what Chopin played farewell:

- everything he longed for, because he loved:

"...Poland, from the zenith

of the perfection of history

Taken, with a rainbow of rapture - -

Poland - of all the world's great shadows'.

 

Concerned about the fate of humanity, you knew,

 that "the work of History is not yet finished,

The globe not yet burned with conscience".

and still some tyrant from the path of freedom

Turns us all back - does not feed us with bread

but with fear - fenced off

- by a wall of words and stones.

 

To those who were concerned

- for the salvation of the soul, you also challenged,

to:

"Not behind yourself with the Saviour's cross,

but to follow the Saviour with the cross". - to follow,

For "This is the secret of the righteous movement..."

And after though centuries have passed still alive is

- your teaching. 

 

Answer To 'The Message Of Mr Cogito’

Zbigniew Herbert

 

I do as you command:

Every day I look in the mirror

my clownish face

and I see nothing in it

of Gilgamesh, Hector or Roland.

Indeed, I have not been chosen.

I have been classed as "inferior",

because I don't take your word for it,

because I can't applaud,

get down on my knees and face.

I love the spring of dawn,

flowers in the meadow and people

- without distinction, though it happens

I don't accept their words

or actions.

I do not wait for punishment or reward,

but for a kind smile

and perhaps still -

for a small trace in my memory.

Is this too much!

I go on thinking to love, work and live

and if you have to shout in the streets.

 

Enough?

 

In memory of Wisława Szymborska   

        

I was just walking

Through the paths of the cemetery

and standing by the grave

I took out an electronic brain from my briefcase,

to reflect on Szymborska's fate

- for a moment [1}.  

I understood

You died as much as necessary, without measure

 leaving a broken whisper - poetry [2].

 

Although the days of creation have passed

of a world in which you bound time

with a chain of signs

whatever has been created exists

by Your constant command[3] 

and its laws are clear

though sometimes hidden behind a cloud of irony

or melancholic reverie

shone through with the sun of good-naturedness,

where joy, though not joy

almost does not fall down.

 

Having swallowed fish in the river of Heraclitus

you fed them with the bread of words

and you released them into the same river, no longer the same.

And now you are resting, happy with the happiness

of the questions you asked.

©Copyright by Marian Dziwisz

 

[1] Wisława Szymborska: Tombstone [from the volume Salt 1962].

[2] Autonomy

3] The Joy of Writing [from the volume Wiersze wybrane [Selected Poems] 1964].

MARIAN DZIWISZ

 

MARIAN DZIWISZ b. 1943 in the village of Michałowice near Kraków. He graduated from the Primary School in Wola Zachariaszowska; Little Theological Seminary of the XX Missionaries in Krakow (1961). He completed his Polish studies at the Pedagogical University in Krakow (1966, currently the Pedagogical University) and a PhD in philosophy in the field of philosophy (1980). He was the editor and secretary of the editorial board of: socio-cultural monthly magazines: "ZDANIE"; "LITERARY AND ARTISTIC WRITING" and "FORMUM OF THOUGHT FREE" in Krakow; assistant professor at the Institute of Teacher Education of ODN in Krakow; a Polish language teacher in high schools and technical schools; lecturer of philosophy at Krakow universities. He debuted with poems in Nowa Wieś (1978). He published his poems, among others in the pages of: "Zdania", "Okolic", "Pisma Literacko-Artystyczny" until 1990. His output includes volumes of poetry, among others "Ergo sum" 2007, "Madonna" 2011, "Categorical Imperative" 2014 [available at the Jagiellonian Library], in the years 2015 - 2017 three volumes of the story "Semper in altum - Always up" at LSW. He has published: a series of articles in scientific and socio-cultural journals. Since 2020, at the invitation of Thadddeus Hutyra, Konrad Stawiarski and Marija Najhefer, Popov has been publishing his poems and essays on the websites of national and international Poetry Groups.