Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People | Adam Zagajewski - A new climate dawns (10/50) @webofstories | Uploaded April 2019 | Updated October 2024, 16 hours ago.
To listen to more of Adam Zagajewski’s stories, go to the playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzyCHpawMfzZc5HzhP38Qz7
Adam Zagajewski (1945-2021) was a Polish poet, novelist, translator and essayist. He is considered as one of the leading poets of the Generation of '68 or the Polish New Wave (Polish: Nowa fala) and is one of Poland's most prominent contemporary poets. [Listener: Andrzej Wolski; date recorded: 2018]
TRANSCRIPT: Well, for a child, which is what I still was, these political issues didn't yet figure. Following the October eruption, which it was impossible not to notice because it was on such a grand scale and was so important, every conversation between adults reflected this. The radio changed, we'd listen to 'Music and News' which became ever more interesting. And so life became more interesting after that October. Of course, I was too small to... too small and also that Silesian provincialism played a part. If we – I mean my family – if we had lived in Warsaw I would probably have seen these things sooner. And if, like Adam Michnik, I had been the son of politically-minded and politically active parents, that would have accelerated my civic development even more.
But this isn't how it was. There were books, there was school where I got on pretty well. In both schools, I mean in my primary and my secondary schools – by then we had a two-step system of education as we have now, we've reverted to it thanks to positive changes – in neither of these schools was there a single teacher whom I could have admired. I mean later... because at first, you don't think about things like that. I had no master at school, no one who could have... because I've read about, well, quite a few people who later in life did something, wrote something or recorded something who often recalled someone even from their schooldays, a teacher, who prompted them to follow a particular direction. For example, in a book I recently read of conversations with Wiesław Juszczak, an eminent art historian, philosopher of art, he speaks extensively about a secondary school teacher who was crucial in forming his mind, in arousing his curiosity. I had nothing of the kind, no one at school like that. My grandfather, who studied humanities and German, was a little like that, but even he wasn't... I mean my grandfather didn't talk to his grandson about humanities, only about everyday family things, or only to the point where I knew there was such a thing as... that there were these mysterious things that attracted me.
For instance, my grandfather had a tiny reproduction at home of the painting by Rembrandt, 'The Night Watch' as it was called then – now, it has a new title because historians came to the conclusion that it no longer depicts 'The Night Watch' moving out. In any case, the painting has remained the same, only the title has changed. And this drew me in. I knew that my grandfather knew something about art, he'd occasionally tell me things, not much. I knew that before the war, he'd been a modest collector of art, that he had a few Polish paintings and that he'd sold them all, or almost all of them, when our family had had to leave Lwów. And I never understood whether it was an economic necessity or – surely it wasn't economic because he must have sold those paintings for pennies – this moment leading up to their departure, when thousands of people were leaving Lwów the price of everything must have dropped because a great many people were selling off their belongings. So this... aura of humanities is a little from my grandfather's side although mostly, it's from reading books.
To listen to more of Adam Zagajewski’s stories, go to the playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzyCHpawMfzZc5HzhP38Qz7
Adam Zagajewski (1945-2021) was a Polish poet, novelist, translator and essayist. He is considered as one of the leading poets of the Generation of '68 or the Polish New Wave (Polish: Nowa fala) and is one of Poland's most prominent contemporary poets. [Listener: Andrzej Wolski; date recorded: 2018]
TRANSCRIPT: Well, for a child, which is what I still was, these political issues didn't yet figure. Following the October eruption, which it was impossible not to notice because it was on such a grand scale and was so important, every conversation between adults reflected this. The radio changed, we'd listen to 'Music and News' which became ever more interesting. And so life became more interesting after that October. Of course, I was too small to... too small and also that Silesian provincialism played a part. If we – I mean my family – if we had lived in Warsaw I would probably have seen these things sooner. And if, like Adam Michnik, I had been the son of politically-minded and politically active parents, that would have accelerated my civic development even more.
But this isn't how it was. There were books, there was school where I got on pretty well. In both schools, I mean in my primary and my secondary schools – by then we had a two-step system of education as we have now, we've reverted to it thanks to positive changes – in neither of these schools was there a single teacher whom I could have admired. I mean later... because at first, you don't think about things like that. I had no master at school, no one who could have... because I've read about, well, quite a few people who later in life did something, wrote something or recorded something who often recalled someone even from their schooldays, a teacher, who prompted them to follow a particular direction. For example, in a book I recently read of conversations with Wiesław Juszczak, an eminent art historian, philosopher of art, he speaks extensively about a secondary school teacher who was crucial in forming his mind, in arousing his curiosity. I had nothing of the kind, no one at school like that. My grandfather, who studied humanities and German, was a little like that, but even he wasn't... I mean my grandfather didn't talk to his grandson about humanities, only about everyday family things, or only to the point where I knew there was such a thing as... that there were these mysterious things that attracted me.
For instance, my grandfather had a tiny reproduction at home of the painting by Rembrandt, 'The Night Watch' as it was called then – now, it has a new title because historians came to the conclusion that it no longer depicts 'The Night Watch' moving out. In any case, the painting has remained the same, only the title has changed. And this drew me in. I knew that my grandfather knew something about art, he'd occasionally tell me things, not much. I knew that before the war, he'd been a modest collector of art, that he had a few Polish paintings and that he'd sold them all, or almost all of them, when our family had had to leave Lwów. And I never understood whether it was an economic necessity or – surely it wasn't economic because he must have sold those paintings for pennies – this moment leading up to their departure, when thousands of people were leaving Lwów the price of everything must have dropped because a great many people were selling off their belongings. So this... aura of humanities is a little from my grandfather's side although mostly, it's from reading books.
