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Poetry Readings: A Procession

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Poetry Readings: Victoria
Julia Hartwig Poet
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I'll read the poem Victoria now, which recalls the period following the end of the war in Poland.

 

Why didn't I dance on the Champs-Elysees

when the crowd cheered the end of the war?

Why didn't I throw myself into the arms of a sailor

who walked down the gangway with a duffel on his arm

and ran towards me through the excited crowd

raging sounds of be-bop

the Marseillaise and God Save the Queen

[blaring from all the loudspeakers?]

 

Why didn't I break out a bottle of champagne

next to the two of them still dressed in English uniforms

not guessing one day I would stand at the end of their road?

 

Why was I fated to be on the main street of Lublin

watching regiments with red stars enter the city

crying with joy I would no longer hear the hated Raus! and Halt!

but torn by sadness this was the price for a lost dream

of a hero's triumphant entry on a white horse

for the return of those who twice cheated

didn't want to come back

 

So we stood – the ones who survived –

on the streets of Warsaw transformed into a desert

and today years later find ourselves

in the fading films of old newsreels

hard to recognise

 

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

Przeczytam teraz wiersz Victoria, który jest taką reminiscencją czasu końca wojny w Polsce.

 

Dlaczego nie tańczyłam na Polach Elizejskich

kiedy tłum wiwatował na cześć końca wojny?

Dlaczego to nie ja rzuciłam się w ramiona temu marynarzowi

który schodząc z trapu z płóciennym workiem na ramieniu

biegł ku mnie przepychając się przez rozgorączkowany tłum

[gdy z wszystkich megafonów dobiegały już]

rozszalale dźwięki bebopa

na przemian z Marsylianką i hymnem Boże strzeż Królowej?

 

Dlaczego nie rozbiłam butelki szampana

W pobliżu ich obu ubranych jeszcze w angielskie mundury

i nie przeczuwających że kiedyś stanę u końca ich drogi?

 

Dlaczego pisane mi było żebym na głównej ulicy Lublina

na widok wchodzących oddziałów z czerwonymi gwiazdami

płakała z radości że nie usłyszę już znienawidzonego: Raus! i Halt!

i z szarpiącego żalu że jest to cena za utracone marzenie

o triumfalnym wjeździe bohatera na białym koniu

i o powrocie tych którzy podwójnie oszukani

tu już wracać nie chcieli

 

Stanęliśmy więc – ci co się zachowali –

na ulicach obróconej w pustynię Warszawy

i dziś po latach odnajdujemy tam siebie

trudnych do rozpoznania

na wyblakłych taśmach starych kronik filmowych

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: Victoria, Champs-Elysees, Marseillaise, God Save the Queen, Warsaw, Lublin, WWII

Duration: 1 minute, 44 seconds

Date story recorded: June 2010

Date story went live: 15 June 2011