Plays, films, musical renderings of her poems and poems dedicated to Ginczanka continue to appear. Her work and personality have reached far beyond the boundaries of Poland. A Polish-Italian edition of her poetry was prepared by Alessandro Ament, encouraged by letters from Jarosław Mikołajewski, a Polish poet who has maintained a passionate interest in Zuzanna. Mary Mirka Milo produced the Italian documentary The Interrupted Verse: Zuzanna Ginczanka (1917-1944). The translation of her work into Ukrainian was undertaken by Jarosław Poliszczuk, resulting in a bilingual collection with illustrations by Krystyna Piotrowska.
And we mustn’t forget the Polish editions of Ginczanka’s work published by Izolda Kiec, Agata Araszkiewicz and Tadeusz Dąbrowski. We can only second the words of Araszkewicz in Mądrość jak Rozkosz (Wisdom as Luxury):
Let us hope that this beautiful, swarthy face ultimately finds its home in the memory of our literary history and does not end up forever concealed by the shadows of history.
Trans. YR
What will be
This four-page poem was inspired by the Song of Songs. Ginczanka enjoyed reading that biblical book, as Józef Łobodowski noted in his volume of poems dedicated to Ginczanka. In his afterword to Pamięci Sulamity (In Memory of Shulamith, 1987), he wrote:
[…] at first glance, it [the Song of Songs] gives the impression of being a beautiful erotic ode, and that is how Zuzanna understood it, far removed from any theological interpretation.
Trans. YR
Ginczanska confirmed this view in Canticum Cantorum in her collection Of Centaurs. It is evident that it inspired her on numerous occasions. A previously unknown Ginczanka manuscript was also discovered by Izolda Kiec amongst the papers of Roman Wilkanowicz while she was editing his poems of the Uprising.
Where else might Zuzanna be hiding?
Originally written in Polish by Agnieszka Warnke, Jul 2019; translations from Ukrainian into Polish in the original text by Natalka Rymska, Jul 2019; translated from Polish into English by Yale Reisner, Aug 2019
Sources: www.ginczanka.org, ‘The Second Century of Sana’ by Marek Kazmierski (Off Press, 2017): https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/a6647a_4fa895e1711342f8a13222a2db5c17b9.pdf; ‘Wypowiadam wam moje życie. Melancholia Zuzanny Ginczanki’ by A. Araszkiewicz (Warszawa 2001); ‘Ginczanka: na stulecie poetki’, ed. by K. Kuczyńskiej-Koschany, K. Szymańskiej (Kraków 2018); ‘Mądrość jak rozkosz. Wiersze wybrane’ by Z. Ginczanka, ed. by A. Araszkiewicz (Warszawa 2017); ‘O centaurach’ by Z. Ginczanka (Warszawa 1936); ‘Wiersze zebrane’ by Z. Ginczanka, ed. by I. Kiec (Sejny 2014); ‘Poeci i Szoa. Obraz Zagłady Żydów w poezji polskiej’ by N. Gross (Sosnowiec 1993); ‘”jak burgund pod światło…”: szkice o Zuzannie Ginczance’, ed. by K. Koprowska K., S. Papier, R. Sendyka (Krakow 2018); ‘Zuzanna Ginczanka. Życie i twórczość’ by I. Kiec (Poznań 1994); ‘Szoszana znaczy Niewinna. O poezji i biografii Zuzanny Ginczanki’ by I. Kiec (being published); ‘Pamiętniki’ by E. Lipiński (Warszawa 2016); ‘Pamięci Sulamity’ by J. Łobodowski (Toronto 1987); ‘Notes Zuzanny Ginczanki’, ed. by J. Mikołajewski (Kraków/Budapeszt 2016); ‘Pieśń ujdzie cało… Antologia wierszy o Żydach pod okupacją niemiecką’, ed. by M. Borwicz (Warszawa 1947); ‘Portrety i Zapiski’ by S. Piętak (Warszawa 1963); ‘Musisz tam wrócić. Historia przyjaźni Lusi Gelmont i Zuzanny Ginczanki’ by M. Stauber (Warszawa 2018); ‘Gombrowicz. Ja, geniusz’ vol. 1 by Klementyna Suchanow (Wołowiec 2017); ‘Przyjaźnie i animozje’ by J. Śpiewak (Warszawa 1965); ‘Ostatnia cyganeria’ by T. Wittlin (Warszawa 1989); ‘Zuzanna Ginczanka. Tylko szczęście jest prawdziwym życiem’, exhibition catalogue (Warszawa 2016); articles by Jarosława Mikołajewskiego from ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ and ‘Tygodnik Powszechny’; ‘Kijowska czarownico, Sulamito…’ webpage by Natalia Belczenko; www.culture.pl/ru/article/kiyivska-charivnice-sulamito