The mutilated world

Adam Zagajewski was considered one of the Polish candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Unfortunately it will never be awarded to him. He passed away on March 21st 2021. Photo: Udoweier (CC) commons.wikimedia.org

Coincidentally, however, a few months prior to the September events, editor Alice Quinn, who was in charge of the magazine’s poetry section, had received the newest collection of poems by the Polish poet, Adam Zagajewski. It was sent to her by Zagajewski’s American publisher. In this collection, Quinn found a poem titled Try to praise the mutilated world. Although written a few years earlier, the poem has become a symbol of the WTC attack, or – more precisely – how to react towards such a tragedy. It soon became a popular literary piece in the United States and throughout the world. It is still recognised as a prime example of “healing” poetry.

From Lviv to Kraków

Zagajewski, born in Lviv, when asked about his early life said: “I was born on June 21st 1945, on the longest day of the year. In fact this is the most beautiful day of the year. A moment of triumph, short but nonetheless, of light over darkness.” He then added that, at the time of his birth, many Lviv residents had no choice but to pack up their belongings and – with tears in their eyes – leave their beloved city for good. It was the end of the Second World War and, the changes to the political map of Europe, which forced many to depart and never return again. This contradiction of triumph and ecstasy, on the one hand, and despair and shadow, on the other, defined the poet’s life and work.

Zagajewski was born in the house of his grandfather. The family had, for generations, lived in Lviv’s Lychakiv district. His father, an engineer, worked at the Lviv Polytechnic Institute, while his mother, a lawyer by profession, did not work for long. The decision to leave their beloved Lviv behind took a huge toll on the whole family, a fate many other families shared.

The Zagajewski family moved to Gliwice (an industrial town in Silesia, Poland) where Adam’s father got a job at the Silesian Polytechnic University. Their week-long journey in a cargo train wagon, which took them to their destination, was quite refined: each wagon carried two families and their belongings. During the journey, however, Adam (a few months old at the time) got very sick and nearly died.

Zagajewski lived in Gliwice until he finished secondary school. By then he would rarely leave the city. Overall, the family led a rather modest life, although were respected by the local community. It was in Gliwice where politics first entered Adam’s life. More specifically, it was the coming to power of the communist leader Władysław Gomułka, which took place after the October protests of 1956 during the political thaw that followed Joseph Stalin’s death in 1953. All these events had quite an impact on society, regardless of their area of residence or age. Zagajewski, although affected by them (just like others), never turned into a “political animal”. His memories of this politically stormy period were more of a still calm and carefree life, away from big politics.

“I had a good family,” Zagajewski said after many years explaining that he did not need to leave his parents. And yet he knew he had to move. He felt that in order to achieve something, he had to leave. Pursuing his dream, he moved to Kraków – a city that indeed is magical and legendary. He was deeply attracted to scholars, men of letters and, most importantly, the poets. Kraków was the city he eventually settled in. This historic capital of Poland has long been a city of literature and a place where theatrical life is vibrant and inspiring. Kraków, for Zagajewski, was a city where, as he had imagined in his teenage years, “the greatest masters live”.

To find them he explored the old streets, peeking into people’s windows in the hope that he would spot some genius living there: a writer or a composer. Although he was interested in literature and art history, he pursued psychology at the university. But that did not matter. What mattered was that he lived in the city of his dreams, where he could feel the breath of great artists such as the poet Wisława Szymborska or the playwright Tadeusz Kantor. As a university student Zagajewski started writing poetry, but never published them. He was shy and for a while stayed anonymous.

In Kraków, Zagajewski was not alone. He had family there but they did not see each other often. He was already becoming quite critical of the Catholic clergy while his uncle was friends with Karol Wojtyła, the future Pope John Paul II, who at that time lived and worked in Kraków. Instead, the young poet spent most of his time enjoying Kraków’s cultural life – making visits to museums, attending the philharmonic and jazz concerts – while his university studies were less of interest.

Nobody cared if I stayed

In March 1968 Poland was shaken by a wave of political manifestations. They were caused by an aggressive antisemitic policy of the communist authorities which aimed to eliminate Polish Jews from public life. Zagajewski, who by then already had a few of his literary works published, took part in the manifestations. Years afterwards Zagajewski admitted that while he experienced some pain from the tear gas, he was not one of the most active participants. As a result, he did not experience any oppression at the hands of the secret police. The repressions passed, but the sense of bitterness stayed. Poland was haunted by antisemitism which, for Zagajewski, was a huge shame. With great sorrow in his heart he witnessed the forced migration of Jewish Poles.

A new chapter in Zagajewski’s life started in early 1975 when he became one of the signatories of the open letter of 59, also known as the Memorandum of 59. Led by the oppositionist Jacek Kuroń, this public appeal, written by a group of prominent intellectuals, to the communist authorities was an expression of their plight to ensure respect for human rights in Poland. In the spirit of the Helsinki Accords, the signatories were calling for freedom of conscience and religious practice, labour freedom, freedom of speech and academic freedom. “When there is no freedom,” they wrote, “there is no peace or security.”

In that period Zagajewski discovered Warsaw’s vibrant intellectual life. Specifically, he was in awe of Barbara Toruńczyk and Adam Michnik, two legendary opposition activists. He was fascinated by their courage and beautiful minds. Getting to know them helped Zagajewski fall in love with Warsaw, a city which later became the centre for political change in Poland. As the capital, Warsaw was clearly the place where more things were happening and everything had a faster pace there. Due to his close ties with the opposition, Zagajewski’s name was soon on the list of authors banned by the communist authorities. This meant he could only publish his works underground. There his main publisher became Zeszyty Literackie – a literary journal edited by Toruńczyk. Established in Paris, this magazine (published in Warsaw) was, in a way, an offspring of the Paris-based Kultura. The latter was the famous émigré journal edited by Jerzy Giedroyc. Zagajewski wrote for Zeszyty Literackie until 2018, when the journal ceased its operations in Warsaw.

In December 1981 the communist authorities, faced with increased social unrest and pressure from the Kremlin, introduced martial law in Poland. As a result of this decision as well as the repressions that followed, many activists and writers left Poland. Zagajewski stayed though. After many years he bluntly said: “In fact nobody cared if I left or stayed”. He expressed his pain in poetry and dreamt of migration. In communist Poland getting a passport was not an easy task. It took Zagajewski almost a year before he received his travel documents and he set off for Paris to reunite with his fiancée, Maja Wodecka.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, Paris was home to many Polish émigrés. For Zagejewski it was a city of “bizarre happiness”. He was taken in by his love for Wodecka and the city’s vibrant life. After a short break, Zagajewski started to write again. In Paris he penned many of his most important works, including the poem To go to Lvov. This poem is often regarded as his most distinguished piece of work – a story of death and destruction, but also about life.         

Paradoxically, while Zagajewski felt he found his new home in France, his poetry did not find many recipients there. Two collections of poems he released in Paris did not appeal to the French audience who were used to a very different style of poetry – one that had high aesthetic aims and was created in a different context. Despite that, Zagajewski never stopped admiring Paris. He loved the city and continued to explore it. He earned a living by translating texts from French to Polish. A change – a miracle in a way – happened when the prestigious American publisher, Ferrar, Straus and Giroux, offered to publish his poems in English. The publication received wide acclaim, and a new chapter started in his life.

Life on two continents

Zagajewski’s first success with Ferrar, Straus and Giroux was soon followed by another financially attractive proposal. As a respected and widely recognised poet, he was offered to teach creative writing at the University of Houston. With a limited command of English, Zagajewski did not feel comfortable taking this assignment. Yet as he got more integrated into the local academic community, his English got much better and he became attached to Houston, a city he found both beautiful and ugly. He spent 18 years in Texas. In 2002, together with his wife, he relocated to Kraków. From then on, he divided his time between both homes.

Houston was not the only American city in Zagajewski’s life. For a few years, starting in 2007, he gave lectures at the University of Chicago, where he taught literature. At that moment his life was organised on two continents and it brought him professional successes. The culminating point came with the publication of his poem Try to praise the mutilated world in the historical edition of The New Yorker.

Even though Adam and Maja returned to Kraków in 2002, their process of returning lasted longer. Their presence in this magical city, the one Zagajewski dreamt about so much in his youth, became quite visible again. Zagajewski integrated himself anew with the city and became one of its icons. He was one of its most beautiful minds. In that esteemed group there were also artists such as Czesław Miłosz, Wisława Szybmorska, Julian Kornhauser and Ryszard Krynicki – his literary fellows. Many places in the city, be it the Old Town or the Jewish district, are now marked by his presence, and as such they are remembered by Cracovians. Just like when Zagajewski was a student at Jagiellonian University and making modest steps towards a literary life – searching the streets to encounter the great Wisława Szymborska or Tadeusz Kantor – young writers and artists until very recently were coming to Kraków in their quest to meet this great poet of our time.

RIP

            Adam Zagajewski was considered one of the Polish candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Unfortunately it will never be awarded to him. He passed away on March 21st 2021, a day which is both recognised as the first day of spring and International Poetry Day.    

Try to praise the mutilated world

Adam Zagajewski

[…]

Remember the moments when we were together

in a white room and the curtain fluttered.

Return in thought to the concert where music flared.

You gathered acorns in the park in autumn

and leaves eddied over the earth’s scars.

Praise the mutilated world

and the gray feather a thrush lost,

and the gentle light that strays and vanishes

and returns.

Translated, from the Polish, by Clare Cavanagh. Published first in the print edition of the New Yorker, September 24th 2001.

Translated by Iwona Reichardt

Jacek Hajduk is a Polish writer and associate professor at the Institute of Classical Philology at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.