the way of the world

TRAWA

Trawo, trawo do kolan!
Podnieś mi się do czoła,
Żeby myślom nie było
Ani mnie, ani pola.

Żebym ja się uzielił,
Przekwiecił do rdzenia kości
I już się nie oddzielił
Słowami od twej świeżości.

Abym tobie i sobie
Jednym imieniem mówił:
Albo obojgu - trawa,
Albo obojgu - tuwim

Julian Tuwim

GRASS

Grass, grass up to my knees!
Grow up to the sky
So that there won't seem to be
Any you or I

So that I will turn all green
And blossom to my bones,
So that my words won't come between
Your freshness and my own.

So that for the two of us
There will be one name:
Either for both of us - grass,
Or both both of us - tuwim.

Julian Tuwim
(1894-1953)

Translated by Lawrence Davis

as with every other culture we've looked at, poland had its own 'versions' of japonisme, with its own names for it. for the poets, they were called the skamander poets after a magazine of that name that they started.

and, from wikipedia, 'Young Poland (Młoda Polska) was a modernist period in Polish art, literature and music, covering roughly the years between 1890 and 1918. It was an effect of strong opposition to the ideas of positivism and promoted the trends of decadence, neo- romanticism, symbolism, impressionism or art nouveau.

'The Polish literature of the period was based on two main concepts. The earlier was a typically modernist disil-

lusionment with bour- geoisie, its ways of life and its culture. Artists fol- lowing this concept also believed in decadence, end of all culture, conflict between humans and their civilisation and the concept of art as the highest value (art for art's sake).'

in other words, in this corner of europe, as in all the others, the fin of one siecle was the beginning of another. and constant thanks to green tea blog for keeping us aware of all this.

(see another view of irina)