a story lives forever
Register
Sign in
Form submission failed!

Stay signed in

Recover your password?
Register
Form submission failed!

Web of Stories Ltd would like to keep you informed about our products and services.

Please tick here if you would like us to keep you informed about our products and services.

I have read and accepted the Terms & Conditions.

Please note: Your email and any private information provided at registration will not be passed on to other individuals or organisations without your specific approval.

Video URL

You must be registered to use this feature. Sign in or register.

NEXT STORY

New life in the new Polish reality

RELATED STORIES

Making friends with Jerzy Turowicz
Julia Hartwig Poet
Comments (0) Please sign in or register to add comments

So that's how my part of this ended... my plans which turned out to be impossible to fulfill. Several years went by, several rather sad years for me because I was lonely although I can't complain of a lack of friends because I always had friends who were prepared to show me kindness. And that's when I made friends with him... made friends with Jerzy Turowicz who was very, very good to me and who decided that they would be my friends. I have just found – correspondence between Turowicz, me and Artur are about to be published – and I've just found three more letters here in this drawer, dating back to the early period when we were still on formal terms, in which they say they'd like to meet me in order to draw me away from all the very sad unavoidable thoughts. After that, my life changed, I met Artur Międzyrzecki – and that's a separate chapter.

No więc tak się skończyła moja część takiego... takich moich planów życiowych, które się okazały... niemożliwe do spełnienia. No upłynęło potem kilka lat – kilka lat właściwie no dosyć smutnych dla mnie, bo dosyć takich samotnych, mimo że... że nie narzekam na brak przyjaciół, bo zawsze miałam przyjaciół, którzy jakoś mi udzielali swego serca. I wtedy ja się z nim... ja się zaprzyjaźniłam z Jerzym Turowiczem, który okazał mi ogromnie, ogromnie dużo serca i który postanowił, że oni się... będą się ze mną przyjaźnić. I teraz odnalazłam – ponieważ mają wyjść listy między Turowiczami a mną i Arturem, to odnalazłam jeszcze jakieś trzy listy tutaj w szufladzie mojej, dotyczące pierwszego okresu, kiedy jeszcze byliśmy na `Pan i Pani` i kiedy oni chcieli się zobaczyć po to, żeby mnie oderwać jakoś od bardzo smutnych w końcu myśli – nieuniknione. No a potem się już zmieniło życie, poznałam Artura Międzyrzeckiego – i to jest już osobny rozdział.

Born to a Polish father and a Russian mother, Julia Hartwig (1921-2017) was a Polish poet, essayist, translator and author of children's books. She studied at the University of Warsaw, the Catholic University in Lublin and the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Czesław Miłosz called her 'the grande dame of Polish poetry'. Julia Hartwig was one of the few poets in Poland who made masterly use of poetic prose. She translated poems by Apollinaire, Rimbaud, Max Jacob, Cendrars and Supervielle, and published monographs on Apollinaire and Gerard de Nerval. She also translated from English, and published a large anthology of American poetry which she co-edited in 1992 with her late husband, the poet Artur Międzyrzecki.

Listeners: Andrzej Wolski

Film director and documentary maker, Andrzej Wolski has made around 40 films since 1982 for French television, the BBC, TVP and other TV networks. He specializes in portraits and in historical films. Films that he has directed or written the screenplay for include Kultura, which he co-directed with Agnieszka Holland, and KOR which presents the history of the Worker’s Defence Committee as told by its members. Andrzej Wolski has received many awards for his work, including the UNESCO Grand Prix at the Festival du Film d’Art.

Tags: Jerzy Turowicz, Artur Międzyrzecki

Duration: 1 minute, 18 seconds

Date story recorded: June 2010

Date story went live: 14 June 2011