NILAVRONILL TALKING WITH
POET OF THE MONTH
KAZIMIERZ BURNAT
January 2025
NILAVRONILL: Welcome to Our Poetry Archive, dear poet. I would like to know your personal views on literature or poetry in general.
KAZIMIERZ BURNAT: I believe that each valuable literary work stimulates thinking, and a poem created from semantically rich words inspires us to internal concentration and interpretive diversity. That is conversation with domestic readers, and rendered into other languages—with the world. Reading books triggers imagination, enriches vocabulary, knowledge... In a word, by communing with literature, we become wiser.
NILAVRONILL: What are the factors that have influenced you immensely in the growing phase of your literary life? When, most probably, you were not certain of your future as a poet or writer. Is there anyone in your life who influenced you personally to develop your literary skills? Or inspired you to become a poet? Do you think society as a whole is the key factor in shaping up you as a poet, or your poetry altogether?
KAZIMIERZ BURNAT: My literary growth was influenced by the multitude of poetic books I read. Sensitivity to the beauty of artistically interwoven words intensified the hunger for next stanzas of authors from various countries. Experiences connected with parachute jumps also played a great role. However, a decisive influence had the encounter with the universal works of Rabindranath Tagore; his philosophy, poetry, prose...
NilavroNill: Is it possible to put into words everything that as a poet you wish to express literarily? If not, why?
KAZIMIERZ BURNAT: Unfortunately, not eveything. Human spirituality is richer than the word-creation abilities.
NilavroNill: Do you agree with John Keats (1795-1821) on his ardent belief, “Truth is beauty, beauty is truth”? Even if we take for instance the wars especially in Europe or the fallout of the Second World War in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, how can we manage to reconcile between those truths with beauty as promulgated by Keats?
KAZIMIERZ BURNAT: No, I do not agree with Keats. Not every thruth is an expression of beauty and not every perceived beauty is true. All wars are truth and a negation of beauty at the same time.
NilavroNill: Too many writers believe imagery is an essential part of poetry. Do you agree on this notion? Even if we consider Leonardo da Vinci’s words that poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.
KAZIMIERZ BURNAT: Imagery in poetry can be its essential part only when these are abstract, polysemous, not fully painted images...
NilavroNill: Do you believe, passionately falling in love with a particular language is essential to excel in poetical ventures? And is it possible to write poems in multiple languages preserving the same literary quality? We would like to know your own experiences.
KAZIMIERZ BURNAT: Yes, I believe, as only when you cherish a given language you can open the floodgates of your imagination in literary works. Nonetheless, one can achieve the highest artistry only in their mother tongues.
NilavroNill: Do you consider poetry as emotional outbursts of a poet’s personal sentiments? Or is it a long journey to realize and express the universal sentiments beyond all personal limitations? Again, we want to understand your views through your personal experiences of your literary life as a poet.
KAZIMIERZ BURNAT: In a poet’s creativity, emotions are of great significance, but they must be recollected from a distance, in tranquility. An emotional outburst tends to be self-annihilating. Poetry is rather a longer journey. A poet, as a word-giver, is, after all, a traveler across spiritual and existential spaces; a master in an ascetic portraying of the reflections and sensations of that voyage.
NilavroNill: I would like to quote T. S. Eliot, “No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists. You cannot value him alone; you must set him for contrast and comparison among the dead.” We would like to know your views in details on Eliot’s comments.
KAZIMIERZ BURNAT: I agree with Elliot. Hence one of my mottos is: Remembering the dead—the source of longevity (here: of the creative kind). All the more so since “death is not so much the end of life as a new beginning” (M. Gandhi). After all, Elliot himself said, “We fear not death but what after death is not death.” Very close to me is also his thought, “The most important thing for poets is to write as little as possible.”
NilavroNill: Would you consider it should be the goal of a poet to enlighten the readers towards much greater apprehension as well as appreciation of life and eternity in general? Or is it better to write poems only to console the poet’s soul? Do you believe, literature can eventually help people to uplift human conscience?
KAZIMIERZ BURNAT: A poet cannot write with the intention of enlightening anyone, if anything, then rather themselves. Nevertheless, their works should take account of life values and fathom eternity. I am not a malcontent, therefore I do not think that human conscience has fallen so much that a mission of a person of letters should be its uplifting… Poetry, however, may allow for the role of conscience in mutual coexistence on the globe. After all, poetry tends to be a wound of conscience, unhealing one because not materialized.
NilavroNill: According to Tagore, poetry is essentially something to enjoy and not to comprehend mere meanings. What are your thoughts in this regard? What do you expect from your readers, should they enjoy your poems more than comprehend the essential meanings or both?
KAZIMIERZ BURNAT: It is a great art to write in such a way so that poetry is pleasing. I do not think, however, Tagore believed that it may give joy without comprehending the meanings of particular stanzas. Rabindranath has been accompanying me since I was 17 years old. He is my spiritual guide. And from my readers I expect mutual experiencing the values contained in the poems, and I wait with hope for some of the messages to be of service to them.
NILAVRONILL: Humanity suffered immensely in the past, and is still suffering around the world. We all know it well. As a poet or even as a literary person, how do you foresee the future of mankind?
KAZIMIERZ BURNAT: Humanity needs calm and peace. Nonetheless, there are still wars, for this is what the leaders of some countries are eager for. But let us look around ourselves as well. People argue among themselves; at home, in the neighborhood, literary milieux… then how can there be peace? We must learn the art of compromise, living in harmony, from family to various communities. And governments of countries between themselves. National and international institutions established to stand guard over the world order are frequently powerless. This must change. Otherwise it will lead to a global catastrophe. What creatures will replace us?! Let us begin a successful battle for peace!
(The Poet’s responses translated into English by Anna Maria Stępień)
KAZIMIERZ BURNAT: (POLAND) Kazimierz Burnat was born in Szczepanowice on the Dunajec River. He graduated from the University of Wrocław and the University of Economics in Wrocław. Long-time director of the ZZSD "Polar" in the city and president of the Polar Sports Club. Creator of scouting for difficult youth as part of the Nieprzetarty Szlak (Untrodden Trail). Paratrooper, former soldier of the Red Berets. Guardian of Places of National Remembrance. His life mottos are: remembering the dead—the source of longevity; doing good—the path to humanity. Polish poet, essayist, translator of Slavic literature, journalist, literary critic, culture animator. Author of 23 books of poetry, including 6 reissues and 7 translations from Czech and Ukrainian, and over 60 collective books with translations of works from these languages, as well as Belarusian, Russian, Slovenian and Hungarian. He edited and provided an afterword or introduction to over 90 different books. Co-author of approximately 370 anthologies and monographs. Translated into over 44 foreign languages. Instructor of literary workshops, juror of competitions. Organizer or co-organizer and active participant of numerous national and international festivals and literary meetings. For years, organizer of the International Poetry Festival "Poets Without Borders" in Polanica-Zdrój. Initiator and organizer of cultural cooperation with the National Union of Writers of Ukraine. Awarded with several Ukrainian Literary Awards for translation activity and popularization of Ukrainian literature abroad, as well as for his own literary output and significant contribution to the revival of spirituality and culture of the Ukrainian nation. He received state, ministerial and regional awards. Honored with the Silver Medal "For Merit to Culture Gloria Artis". Winner of the Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz Award (2019), the Marshal of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship Award for outstanding achievements in the field of culture (2022), the Minister of Culture and National Heritage Award for creative achievements (2023) and Shabdaguchha International Poetry Award for significant contribution to world poetry (the U.S./Bangladesh 2023), among others. Honorary Citizen of Polanica-Zdrój. In the years 1995-2004 vice-president, and from 2004-2015 president of the Literary Group "Dysonans"; 2006-2011 editor-in-chief of the social and cultural magazine "Bez kurtyny"; 2007-2015 chairman of the Main Court of Peers of the Polish Writers’ Union (ZLP); 2011-2014 vice-president, and since 2015 president of the Lower Silesian Branch of the ZLP in Wrocław. From 2015-2023 member of the Presidium of the Main Board of the ZLP—chairman of the Qualification Committee. Member of the European Society of Culture, the Social Council for Culture to the Marshal of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship and the Journalists’ Association of the Republic of Poland.
No comments :
Post a Comment