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The literary company in Łódź
Julia Hartwig Poet
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So my duties… I was never a member of the editorial team. I worked there and was exploited but in the best possible way. If there were any translations from French, people would come to me, if there were any issues… I was put in charge of the French chronicle although the publications that reached us, quarterlies or monthlies, were usually communist and not… they couldn't have any others as I recall… I used 'Europe' quite a lot and I really liked that review because it gave me a small insight into the French press as we were really quite cut off from everything there. So that was how I benefited from that sojourn in Łódź which didn't last long because, as I said, it lasted just over six months or a year, maybe, not longer but that's where I met the literary company and was somehow accepted into it, no longer as just a candidate but as an ordinary member so that… I often took part in their debates, it was very worthwhile; these were very intelligent people and there were certain differences of opinion because they included Rudnicki. Rudnicki was also associated with Kuźnica so actually they weren't so very radical. Besides, Kuźnica had a bad time when it engaged in battle with several writers. I remember that there were these skirmishes often directed at Nałakowska and Iwaszkiewicz, for instance, who were both pre-war writers and who had a wonderful collection of works; shifting them to the margins of Polish literature was very unhealthy.

Moje obowiązki w stosunku... ja nie byłam nigdy członkiem redakcji. Byłam współpracownikiem, ale dosyć takim wykorzystywanym w najlepszym sensie. Jak były jakieś tłumaczenia z francuskiego, to do mnie się zwracano, jak były jakieś sprawy... Powierzono mi tam także prowadzenie kroniki francuskiej – co prawda pisma, które przychodziły, czy nawet kwartalniki, czy miesięczniki, to były przeważnie komunistyczne i oni je właśnie mogli sprowadzać, bo innych nie. Ja pamiętam, że z 'Europe' dosyć dużo zawsze korzystałam – i bardzo lubiłam ten przegląd, dlatego że on mi dawał wgląd także trochę w prasę francuską, a byliśmy tam naprawdę tacy odcięci od wszystkiego. Taka moja była korzyść z tego pobytu łódzkiego – który był niedługi, bo tam właśnie, jak mówię, przeszło pół roku... przeszło rok, ale nie dłużej – że poznałam środowisko pisarskie, że w jakiś sposób zostałam... zostałam do niego przyjęta już nie jako członek–kandydat, tylko po prostu jako normalny członek, że jak... uczestniczyłam często w ich debatach – to było bardzo wzbogacające, to byli ludzie bardzo inteligentni i tam były pewne różnice zdań, bo tam na przykład był także Rudnicki – Rudnicki był też związany z... z „Kuźnicą” – także właściwie, no tacy bardzo... zaparci w sobie, to nie. Zresztą „Kuźnica” miała taki troszkę złą... zły taki moment, kiedy zaczęła zwalczać... niektórych pisarzy. I takie... pamiętam, że takie były wycieczki – i to bardzo częste – w stronę Nałkowskiej i Iwaszkiewicza na przykład, akurat pisarzy przedwojennych, którzy naprawdę mieli już wspaniały dorobek i jak gdyby usuwanie ich na margines literatury polskiej było czymś bardzo niezdrowym.

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: Kuźnica, Łódź, Europe, Adolf Rudnicki, Zofia Nałkowska, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz

Duration: 2 minutes

Date story recorded: June 2010

Date story went live: 27 May 2011