Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People | Adam Zagajewski - The decline of communism (33/50) @webofstories | Uploaded April 2019 | Updated October 2024, 12 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: The year was 1981. In the spring, I'd gone to the United States. It was the first time I was there. I was staying at a Creative Writing House either by accident or deliberately. There was an invitation to the state of New Hampshire – I needed a letter of recommendation. Zbigniew Herbert wrote me one which I'm very proud of. I came back from America towards the end of June and then went to Kraków at the start of September intending to stay there for a short while and then to travel to Paris to my new love since my first marriage had ended and the very real prospect of being with Maja now presented itself. So I came back to Kraków intending to stay there for a while, to put my affairs in order, see my parents, my friends, to check on my apartment and so on. When I arrived, Solidarność was already full-blown – full-blown but at the same time, a little sad because you could feel, people knew already that this wasn't going to work, that it was approaching its death throes. There were all those countless strikes, those clashes with the police. And there was no political perspective because it was obvious that this monolith, this communist monolith wasn't going to let this pass that this wasn't going to work. However, a powerful energy had been unleashed in Poland and I was fascinated to see this even though it was on the decline. That's when I noticed that my friends seemed to be replaying the enthusiasm of those first days, as if they wanted to show me what I had lost and how wonderful all of this was. I'm glad I knew that much at least because I already knew that I wasn't going to be a bard for this movement, that it wasn't something that I could support absolutely without any reservations, that I couldn't incorporate it into my writing and that it wasn't going to be the main trend that I'd be following.
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: The year was 1981. In the spring, I'd gone to the United States. It was the first time I was there. I was staying at a Creative Writing House either by accident or deliberately. There was an invitation to the state of New Hampshire – I needed a letter of recommendation. Zbigniew Herbert wrote me one which I'm very proud of. I came back from America towards the end of June and then went to Kraków at the start of September intending to stay there for a short while and then to travel to Paris to my new love since my first marriage had ended and the very real prospect of being with Maja now presented itself. So I came back to Kraków intending to stay there for a while, to put my affairs in order, see my parents, my friends, to check on my apartment and so on. When I arrived, Solidarność was already full-blown – full-blown but at the same time, a little sad because you could feel, people knew already that this wasn't going to work, that it was approaching its death throes. There were all those countless strikes, those clashes with the police. And there was no political perspective because it was obvious that this monolith, this communist monolith wasn't going to let this pass that this wasn't going to work. However, a powerful energy had been unleashed in Poland and I was fascinated to see this even though it was on the decline. That's when I noticed that my friends seemed to be replaying the enthusiasm of those first days, as if they wanted to show me what I had lost and how wonderful all of this was. I'm glad I knew that much at least because I already knew that I wasn't going to be a bard for this movement, that it wasn't something that I could support absolutely without any reservations, that I couldn't incorporate it into my writing and that it wasn't going to be the main trend that I'd be following.
