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Artur's influence on the PEN Club

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The resurrection of Polish society
Julia Hartwig Poet
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This life... in so-called, not only so-called but truly free Poland finally gave a great deal of satisfaction, simply a feeling that none of us were locked up, that we can behave more or less the way we want and that we can work normally. So we... we worked very hard because we had to resurrect all of those... teams, I mean societies that had been disbanded. Being disbanded is a disaster for every society. Continuity is interrupted, people change, in addition everyone who was there seems to be suspect, and it went so far that even the Ethnographic Society was disbanded. The aim was for the nation to disintegrate. If people are communicating and working together, this is very bad for the government because the government probably knew very well what society's attitude towards it was like – that's the only explanation I can think of.

To, to życie po... w tak zwanej – już nie tyle w nazwanej, ale naprawdę wolnej Polsce, nareszcie, dostarczało wielu, wielu satysfakcji – po prostu poczucie, że... że nikt na nas nie dybie, że możemy się zachowywać mniej więcej jak chcemy i można było prowadzić normalną pracę. Także myśmy... właściwie bardzo pracowali, bo byliśmy... trzeba było wskrzeszać wszystkie te... zespoły, znaczy stowarzyszenia, które zostały rozwiązane. Dla każdego stowarzyszenia rozwiązanie to jest klęska. Po prostu urywa się ciągłość, zmieniają się ludzie, są jeszcze do tego... podejrzani się wydają wszyscy, którzy tam byli, a to były do tego stopnia, że nawet Towarzystwo Etnograficzne rozwiązywano – tego rodzaju. W ogóle chodziło o to, żeby... żeby ten naród był w kompletnym rozproszeniu, żeby... Jeżeli się komunikują i współpracują, to jest bardzo dla rządu niedobrze, bo prawdopodobnie ten rząd sobie świetnie zdawał sprawę jak niechętne jest społeczeństwo w stosunku do rządu – to można tylko tym wytłumaczyć.

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: Poland, Ethnographic Society

Duration: 1 minute, 9 seconds

Date story recorded: June 2010

Date story went live: 11 October 2011