Rafal Wojaczek Poetry

Rafal Wojaczek (spelled: voyachek) is one of the greatest Polish poets of the 20th century. He was born in 1945 and died by his own hand in 1971. He lived in Wroclaw. Whenever I visit the city, I think of him a lot. The spots mentioned in his poems have a poignant charm for me. A few years ago, on All Saints' Day, I had the urge to put flowers on his grave, but could not locate it. The nun who, apparently, was in some kind of charge of the cemetery murmured sternly she did not know where the grave was. I inquired with a few people from the dense crowd filling the cemetery (many Poles still piously celebrate All Saints' Day), but some of them did not know, whereas others pointed the wrong spot. Eventually, I placed the flowers on a desolate grave. I'm sure there are many people who know where Wojaczek's grave is, but I was not fortunate to hit upon them. Below one of Wojaczek's poems where the narrator is a woman.

CROSS

I am level
You are vertical
You are the mountain
I am the valley
I am the Earth
You are the Sun
I am the shield
You are the sword
I am the wound
You are the pain
I am the night
You are God
You are fire
I am water
I am naked
You are in me
I am level
But not always
You are vertical
But not forever
I am the vertical
Mountain of orgasm
You are level
Near me

Ah yeahhhhh
Wojaczek - a forbidden poet
im gonna talk about him on my graduation (not only about him, my topic is 'Functions of the ugliness in various parts of art'. i choose it to make a contrast with my beauty ^^)

Anyway the cross is kinda great, did u read 'Rape'? I could translate it but actually have no time hehe. Maybe next time if someone would be interested.

I know he used to live in Mikolow for some time. There is a museum in his old flat in this small town.
I recommend You movie about him - Wojaczek. Quiet good, especially for someone who felt in love with his poems.

- 'A forbidden poet'? Do you actually mean the Polish expression 'poeta przeklety' (condemned poet)? - He seems to be a much ignored poet, especially by fellow poets. If my memory serves me right, Milosz doesn't mention him at all in his (bad) history of Polish literature. Baranczak has written unfavourably about Wojaczek in his book on the Polish poetry in the 60s/70s. Both Milosz and Baranczak are incomparably worse poets than Wojaczek. Do they 'condemn' him out of envy?

Yes, I have read 'Rape' (Gwalt). I've met women who thought that in his poems written from the viewpoint of a woman, Wojaczek shows an immense intimate knowledge of female psyche.


- Are you going to mention the current in Polish poetry called 'turpizm' (e.g. Grochowiak)?

One of the most beautiful poems about ugliness is, ahem, Wyspianski's 'Wiosna' (The Spring). It begins with: 'Swiat - gnoj' (The world - muck). Do you happen to know the piece?

:)


- I might visit the museum one day. I haven't seen the film yet. I know a bit about Wojaczek from people who knew him personally.

Oh, Wyspianska. Also, an excellent poem about ugliness is Baudelaire's The Carcass (Une Charogne; in Polish: Padlina). There's a fine Polish translation in the volume of Baudelaire's poetry published, during communism, in a series called in Polish the 'celofanowa seria.' I forgot the name of the translator. Miedzyrzecki perhaps, or Jastrun? Also, some of Rimbaud's poems may be pertinent, notably 'L’Orgie parisienne

ou Paris se repeuple' (translated, brillantly, by Tuwim, as 'Paryz sie budzi;' Tuwim translated a few of Rimbaud's pieces; you might want to check out the one titled 'Zasiedziali'). Also, some of Tuwim's poems may be useful, e.g. the series about barbers ('Fryzjerzy').