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Born at the meeting point of diagonals

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'A moment can be enjoyed, too'
Julia Hartwig Poet
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So it was at his place and he'd prepared a long table and invited quite a few guests while Artur, in order to please me, seated the guests and placed me next to Brodski and to this day, I'm still grateful to him for that, because this gave me the chance to talk with him as he could say quite a lot in Polish but actually we spoke in English because that was a transitional language for him. But he was very glad when there was something in Polish, after all he translated Polish poetry and he understood quite a lot of Polish but not enough to speak it. So we talked about all kinds of things, where he was currently living, how he'd settled down, where he was lecturing – there are plenty of things you can ask him, Brodski. And, I don't know why, we got onto the subject of music, and I suddenly asked him in relation to music, I said, 'Can I ask, do you have a favourite composer?' He said, 'Yes, of course. It's Haydn, imprevisible, he's... unpredictable, unforeseeable'. And this was for me... oh, I was so pleased, it made me really happy. As a sign of this, this kind of shared kinship, at the table only of course, he suddenly reached into his pocket – after our conversation he was a bit more relaxed with me as he was generally not very trusting – and he pulled out a photograph, saying, 'I'll show you a photo of my wife but please don't let anyone see that you're looking at it'. So I held it on my lap and there I saw a very beautiful young person, with flowing hair holding a child in her arms, and this was his little daughter. This was very moving because this is... in addition the photo was also very lovely, his wife was beautiful and I was pleased that I'd been allowed to share this small confidence, fleeting, but a momentary... a moment can be enjoyed, too.

U niego to było – on przygotował taki długi stół, było zaproszonych kilkunastu gości, a Artur żeby mi sprawić przyjemną, bo – przyjemność – rozgospodarowywał gości, posadził mnie obok niego. I dotąd ciągle jestem mu za to wdzięczna, bo to była okazja, żeby z nim porozmawiać, bo on tak sporo rozmawiał po polsku, a właściwie rozmawialiśmy po angielsku, bo to był dla niego taki język przejściowy. Ale jak było coś polskiego, to się bardzo cieszył – on jednak tłumaczył poezję polską i polski sporo rozumiał, ale nie na tyle, żeby mówić. Więc, tak rozmawialiśmy o różnych rzeczach, właśnie gdzie on teraz mieszka, jak się zadomowił, gdzie wykłada – no jest o co pytać jego, ale – Brodzkiego. I zeszliśmy – nie wiem dlaczego – zeszliśmy na muzykę, i ja nagle tak go spytałam odnośnie tej muzyki, mówię: „A czy mogę wiedzieć, czy ma Pan ulubionego... kompozytora?”. On mówi: „Tak, oczywście. To jest Haydn, imprevisible, nie do... nie do podważenia, nieprzewidziany, nieprzewidywalny”. I to była dla mnie... o ja się tak ucieszyłam, naprawdę było mi bardzo miło. Ale właśnie na znak tego takiego... takiego właśnie pobratymstwa – przy stole oczywiście tylko – on nagle sięgnął do kieszeni – bo już po rozmowie ze mną już troszkę się ze mną oswoił – on w ogóle był bardzo nieufny – i wyciagnął jakieś zdjęcie i mówi tak: „Pokażę Pani zdjęcie mojej żony, tylko proszę tak to zrobić, żeby nikt nie zauważył, że Pani to ogląda”. Więc ja to wzięłam na kolana i ukazała mi się wielkiej urody osoba z rozpuszczonymi włosami, młoda, trzymająca dzieciątko na ręce – to jego... jego córeczka – i to było ogromnie wzruszające, bo to jest... na domiar to zdjęcie było też śliczne, żona piękna, a mnie było przyjemnie, że zostałam dopuszczona do pewnej takiej drobnej poufałości – nietrwałej, ale chwilowej, chwilową... chwilą też się można cieszyć.

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: Artur Międzyrzecki, Stanisław Pruszyński, Iosif Brodski, Joseph Haydn

Duration: 2 minutes

Date story recorded: June 2010

Date story went live: 16 October 2011