Poetry Readings: "On the Road"

Video URL

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

Poetry Readings: Classmates

RELATED STORIES

Poetry Readings: On the Road

Julia Hartwig Poet

	Views	Duration
61. After martial law	33	02:45
62. Our admiration of Iwaszkiewicz	43	06:42
63. Friends in the opposition	40	02:53
64. International connections	28	04:20
65. My prose poetry	31	03:35
66. Poetry Readings: Victoria	81	01:44
67. Poetry Readings: A Procession	39	00:49
68. Poetry Readings: On the Road	35	01:03
69. Poetry Readings: Classmates	53	00:50
70. Poetry Readings: Yet we desire it above all	68	01:00

Comments (0) Please sign in or register to add comments

English | Polish

I'd like to read two poems which are linked to the Holocaust. The first poem is called On the Road.

The oldest trees

are in the Jewish cemetery

A crow

cantor struck speechless

does not sing

In a heavy autumn cloud

they pass by the thousands

over the treetops

You who are shut in the palaces of memorials

come out to met them

through lashing rain

through lightning

you must go together

Those who don't have their own place

who are themselves fire and rain

unite now with you

Because it is not yet

the end of their end

it is not the end

Taken from 'In Praise of the Unfinished: Selected Poems' (2008) translated, from the Polish, by John and Bogdana Carpenter.

Teraz bym chciała przeczytać dwa wiersze, które są związane tematycznie z Holocaustem. Pierwszy wiersz nazywa się W drodze.

Na cmentarzu żydowskim

są najstarsze drzewa

Kruk

kantor oniemiały

nie śpiewa

Nad drzew wierzchołkami

ciężką jesienną chmurą

przechodzą tysiącami

Wychodźcie im na spotkanie

zamknięci w pałacach pomników

Razem przez deszcz siekący

przez błyskawice

iść wam dziś trzeba

Ci którzy miejsca swojego nie mają

którzy sami są ogniem i deszczem

Teraz się z wami bratają

Bo jeszcze

nie koniec ich końca

nie koniec

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.

Title: Poetry Readings: "On the Road"

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: On the Road, Holocaust

Duration: 1 minute, 3 seconds

Date story recorded: June 2010

Date story went live: 15 June 2011