Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński

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Monument to Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński in Kielce

Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński ( [ˈkʂɨʂtɔf ˈkamil baˈt͡ʂɨɲskʲi] ; born January 22, 1921 in Warsaw ; † August 4, 1944 there ) was a Polish poet.

Life

Childhood and youth

Baczyński was born as the son of the well-known author, literary critic, activist of the Polish Socialist Party PPS and officer of the Polish Legion Stanisław Baczyński and the textbook author and teacher Stefania née Zielńczyk, who came from an assimilated Jewish family. His mother only became aware of her Jewish roots at the time of the persecution of the Jews ; this was reflected in the poet's work. Baczyński was born in an apartment building at 10 Bagatela and spent the first part of his life there. He was sickly - as a child he suffered from asthma, had a weak heart and was threatened with tuberculosis again and again. From 1931 he attended the Stefan Batory high school in Warsaw and acquired a profound knowledge of contemporary Polish literature as a high school student. Of course, he was fascinated by Witold Gombrowicz's Ferdydurke and he wrote a variation of this work under the title Gimnazjum imienia Boobalka . He was also quite familiar with French literature and later wrote poems in French. Some of his classmates were later active in the Warsaw storm groups of the Szare Szeregi . Baczyński was a member of the Pomarańczarni Scout Group based at Warsaw High School No. 23 . From 1937 he belonged to the independent socialist youth association Spartakus , a semi-legal high school association under the patronage of the PPS. Together with his friend Konstanty Jeleński, he sympathized with Trotskyism . Baczyński didn't like going to school, often stayed away from it and therefore had bad grades. After high school he attended the two-year humanistic class in the general education lyceum that had recently been set up in the same building. During this time he became a member of the organizing committee of the Spartakusbund and worked in the editorial office of the magazine Strzały (Shots) , which was created in February 1938 and was associated with the Spartakusbund . His pseudonym Emil comes from this phase of his life . His first publication was the poem Ein Betriebsunfall, published in this magazine . He passed his Abitur in May 1939. The beginning of the war made it impossible to study at the Academy of Fine Arts, Baczyński's original wish was to become a graphic illustrator.

In resistance

During the time of the German occupation, Baczyński lived at 3 Hołówki Street. He and his mother had stayed on the "Aryan side" of the city and had to fear that they would be shot dead if they were discovered to be Jewish. The mother's brother, Dr. Adam Zielńczyk, was killed by the Germans while fleeing the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. From autumn 1942 to 1943 Baczyński studied Polish Studies at the Warsaw Underground University . In order to earn a living, he also worked as a glazier, sign painter, in the Czerniaków coal works and took orders for plumbing work over the phone. At the same time he continued his education at a school for painting and graphics. On June 3, 1942, Baczyński married 20-year-old Barbara Drabczyńska , also a polonics student at the underground university , in the Church of the Holy Trinity in the Solec district of Warsaw .

From July 1943 Baczyński was in the rank of top rifleman in the Alek Regiment of the 2nd Rudy Company of the Zośka Battalion under the pseudonyms " Krzysztof " and " Zieliński " in the Polish Home Army . In order to be able to devote himself fully to resistance work and poetry, he gave up studying polonics, but intended to take it up again later. In his apartment he hid weapons, ammunition, manuals, maps and underground press products. He took part in the sabotage operation to derail a German train going from the Eastern Front to Berlin in the Tłuszcz - Urle section , which took place on April 27, 1944 under the code name TU and which resulted in a 26-hour break in operations. After completing an officer course at the Agricola Infantry Reserve School , he was appointed chief rifleman by the commandant " Gustaw" on May 25, 1944. In addition, he headed the literary editorial department of the magazine for social and cultural issues Der Weg ( Droga ), which only appeared underground from December 1943 to April 1944 . The commander of the 2nd company, Andrzej "Morro" Romocki, attested him "poor usefulness in the field" and released him from duty on July 1, 1944 with a request for use in the unofficial position of the head of the press company. A few days later he took over the deputy management of the 3rd regiment of the 3rd company of the Parasol Scout Battalion under the pseudonym Krzyś .

In the Warsaw Uprising

Baczyński's grave

The Warsaw Uprising surprised Krzysztof Baczyński on Theater Square in Warsaw when he was on his way to pick up military boots for his unit. As a result, he could not reach his battalion stationed in the Wola district near the Karolkowa retirement home and joined a group of volunteer fighters under the leadership of "Leszek" Lesław Kossowski . During the fighting in the area around Theaterplatz in Warsaw, he was killed as a soldier in the Parasol unit (umbrella) on August 4, 1944 at around 4 p.m. at the age of 23 - most likely by the hand of a German sniper . He was not buried until the rear of the palace; after the war his remains were transferred to the Powązki military cemetery. His grave site is A22-5-25. On September 1, Baczyński's pregnant wife Basia was also a victim of the uprising at the age of 22. She is buried next to him.

Baczyński received three prestigious awards:

  • Home Army Cross of Honor
  • Medal for services to Warsaw 1939–1945 (awarded posthumously in 1947)
  • Order of Polonia Restituta of the Komtur class (awarded posthumously in 2018)

Numerous schools, libraries, scout groups, etc. are named after K. Baczyński. On July 24th, 2009, the National Bank of Poland put a 10 zloty coin into circulation in memory of the poet.

Works

His work consists of over 500 poems, a few dozen poems and around 20 short stories. All of his work has been preserved.

As written by one of the young heroes of the Warsaw Uprising, his poems gained great popularity even after his death and after the war, especially among young people. Despite the warlike period of origin, they are often part of a romantic tradition. Baczyński remains a role model for Poland's youth to this day. His most popular pseudonym is Jan Bugaj . The important Polish author Jerzy Andrzejewski dedicated a volume of stories Die Nacht ( Noc ) to his friend Baczyński , while the Polish singer Ewa Demarczyk contributed to the setting of many of his texts. The work of no other author embodies so completely the attitude towards life of the so-called generation of the Columbus - the Poles born shortly after the First World War, for whom the consequence of the outbreak of the Second World War was the need to cope with this shock and, in this situation, their own Way to find. His poems, which are closely intertwined with the situation of war, are of universal importance in that he does not address the subject of war directly, but rather raises it to the level of general subjects such as the apocalypse, the essence and soul of man or growing up in war. Often he speaks not only in his name, but in the plural, for the whole generation. He also saw the war as a great machine for the destruction of human or moral values, which it replaces with the dictates of a brutal order. He found the poetry of the past no longer useful in the face of the suffering around him and the ongoing annihilation. He did not dramatize, but tried again and again to limit the effects of the war on his thoughts and feelings and, as if in spite of them, to contrast them with thoughts of an Arcadia not ravaged by bloodshed. He also skilfully used meters.

Works in Polish

Volumes of poetry:

  • Zamknięty echem , summer 1940
  • Dwie miłości , autumn 1940
  • Wiersze wybrane , May 1942
  • Arkusz poetycki No. 1 , 1944
  • Śpiew z pożogi , 1944

as well as many poems published in the conspiratorial journals and some in the anthologies "Pieśni niepodległej" (1942) and "Słowie prawdziwym" (1942).

Baczynski's well-known poems are Pragnienia (“Wishes”), Ten czas (“This Time”), Biała magia (“White Magic”) and Ars Poetica .

In general, Baczyński's first two volumes of poetry are counted as early works, while the subsequent ones are attested to having acquired poetic maturity at an early stage.

Baczyński's life and work are the subject of several films such as B. "The Fourth Day" ("Dzień czwarty"), in which Krzysztof Pieczyński played Baczyński under the direction of Kordian Piwowarski - Mateusz Kościukiewicz played the title role .

Works in French

Written in French: L'insurrection angélique, Le Cri Edition (2004), ISBN 2-87106-359-1 , ISBN 978-2-87106-359-9

Translations in anthologies and magazines

  • Dedecius, Karl (Ed.): Panorama of Polish Literature of the 20th Century - Poetry Volume 1, Ammann (2000) ISBN 3-250-50003-8 / ISBN 978-3-250-50003-2
  • Dedecius, Karl (Ed.): Polish Poems of the 20th Century, Insel (2008), ISBN 978-3-458-17407-3
  • Dedecius, Karl (Ed.) Polish love poems. Selected and transferred by Karl Dedecius. With drawings by Pablo Picasso (1st edition) Frankfurt am Main, Insel, 1980, ISBN 978-3-458-19008-0
  • Lang, Lothar and Hans Marquardt (eds.): 56000 - Buchenwald. Lithographs, etchings, woodcuts by Fritz Cremer, HAP Grieshaber, Herbert Sandberg. Texts by Krzysztof Kamil Baczynski, Mussa Dshalil, Paul Eluard, Margarete Hannsmann, Stephan Hermlin. With a foreword by Marcel Paul. Frankfurt Book Guild Gutenberg, 1980
  • Höllerer, Walter (Ed.) And others: Akzente. Issue 5 / 1959. Journal of Poetry. Hanser Vlg .; Munich, 1959 Sinn und Form 5/1989. Rütten & Loening Berlin, 1989

Translations

  • into English: White Magic and Other Poems (Green Integer, Volume 138) Publisher: Green Integer; Edition: Bilingual (October 1, 2004), ISBN 1-931243-81-6 , ISBN 978-1-931243-81-0
  • bilingual edition Polish and French: Le Testament de feu: Edition bilingue français-polonais; Arfuyen (2006), ISBN 2-84590-084-8

literature

  • Levine, Madeline G. Contemporary Polish Poetry , 1925–1975 (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981) Magdalena Grochowska Wezwani by umrzeć, Gazeta Wyborcza, August 6, 2004, ISBN 978-2-84590-084-4

Web links

Wikisource: Author: Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński  - Sources and full texts (Polish)
Commons : Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edward Dusza, Poet of Flaming Warsaw.
  2. ↑ Baczyński Krzysztof Kamil.
  3. ↑ Ludwik Hass, Trockizm w Polsce (do 1945 right), Oblicza lewicy. Losy idei i ludzi , Warszawa 1992, p. 208.
  4. ↑ Magdalena Grochowska Wezwani by umrzeć , Gazeta Wyborcza , 6 August 2004
  5. ^ Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński - biografia, wiersze, utwory. Retrieved April 30, 2020 (Polish).
  6. ^ Coins: 65th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising: Warsaw poets Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński and Tadeusz Gajcy. (PDF) National Bank of Poland (NBP), 2009, accessed April 30, 2010 .
  7. ^ Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński.
  8. ↑ Ewa Demarczyk sing Baczyński was poems on YouTube #invoke: TemplatePar Unknown rule ( template: YouTube ): 'link' [01]?
personal data
SURNAME Baczyński, Krzysztof Kamil
SHORT DESCRIPTION Polish poet
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Warsaw
DATE OF DEATH 4th August 1944
Place of death Warsaw