It's a long time since anyone wrote about poetry like this: with vigour and expertise, with deep faith in its sense and its mission in times rather unfavourable for poets. Few people know so much and write so well about the latest poetry, at the same time speaking up for rejected and ignored poets. In its time, Zwierze na J / An Animal Starting with J caused a lot of controversy and a stir in the community. Will this be the case with Rozproszone glosy / Scattered voices? Quite possibly, because these sketches are branded with the mark of a distinctive critical personality.
Karol Maliszewski was born in 1960 in Nowa Ruda, where he still lives today and works as a primary school teacher. He also teaches contemporary Polish literature at the Karkonosze College in Jelenia Gora and runs poetry workshops at the Literary and Artistic School affiliated with Jagiellonian University. A graduate in philosophy, with a PhD in the humanities, he is a poet, prose writer, literary critic. He was an editor of Imiona istnienia / Names of Existence, an anthology of young Lower Silesian poetry. He has published seven books of poetry (including Rocznik szescdziesiaty grzebie w papierach / Those Born in 1960 Rummage Through the Documents, Rok w drodze / A Year on the Road, Inwazja / Invasion), and three books of prose - Dziennik pozorny / Ostensible Journal, Proby zycia / Tests of Life, Faramucha. 1999 saw the publication of his first book of literary criticism - Nasi klasycysci, nasi barbarzyncy / Our Classicists, Our Barbarians, followed by another, Zwierze na J. Szkice o wierszach i ludziach / An Animal Starting with J. Sketches about Poems and People in 2001. He has recently published Nowa poezja polska 1989-1999. Rozwazania i uwagi / New Polish Poetry 1989-1999. Reflections and Remarks.
Source of Polish version: www.proszynski.pl
- Karol Maliszewski
Rozproszone glosy. Notatki krytyka / Scattered voices. Critic's Notes
series: Punkt Krytyczny / Critical point
Wydawnictwo Proszynski i S-ka, Warszawa 2006
130 x 200, 360 pages, hardcover
ISBN 83-7469-186-7
www.proszynski.pl
The book has been nominated for the 2007 Nike Literary Award.
PLAYING ON THE POETS' TEAM
[Excerpts from the described book are translations made for the purpose of this article; for the original text go to the
link*Polish version*http://www.culture.pl/pl/culture/artykuly/dz_maliszewski_rozproszone_glosy**]**Karol Maliszewski's book is a collection of poetical reviews written, with a few exceptions, over the past few years. It includes texts about the youngest poets: Tobiasz Melanowski, Tadeusz Dabrowski, Jacek Dehnel, the generation older by about a decade - Dariusz Suska, Adam Wiedemann, Marcin Baran, Tomasz Rozycki, and finally, poets of the older generation, including Krystyna Milobedzka, Jaroslaw Marek Rymkiewicz.
Rozproszone glosy / Scattered voices forms a panorama of the latest Polish poetry. Whoever at some point in the future may seek a review of Polish poetry from the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, will be able to use this book as a reliable guide. At the same time, though the volume discusses many great poets, it would be easy to list titles and names that Maliszewski has left out, for example the last poetic volumes of Czeslaw Milosz - Tr / It, Druga przestrzen / The Second Space, Orfeusz i Eurydyka / Orpheus and Eurydice. These absences are most likely not coincidental. Actually, the list is longer.
A book presenting an extensive critical output speaks volumes not only about the object of study, but also about the critic himself, his tastes and expectations, which also change sometimes, because the critic's life and reviewing experience are different, and the circumstances change too. All the more so when you realize Maliszewski is not a critic observing the course of events coldly and from afar. This is a committed critic, a fervent fan and participant. A critic like this does not pretend to be coolly distant and is not afraid to express delight if he is sure of a work's value.
This is how the critic-participant describes the poetry of Marcin Swietlicki, with whom he has not just an aesthetic but also a generational kinship: "his voice was my voice". About Tomasz Rozycki, he writes enthusiastically: "I'll say briefly: Bruno Schulz lives on! He has changed his skin and genre, trying to cram a story or novel into a sonnet, to fit them into another time". About the work of Jacek Dehnel, whom he calls a classicist, he says: "I am enchanted by some of the poems, which may seem strange in a former supporter of the barbarian trend in the youngest poetry". Sometimes he will use a striking formula, not for fun but always better to define a trend: "Jaroslaw Mikolajewski is the most pro-family contemporary poet. And please don't treat this as a joke. Being deeply affected by being a father, a son or a husband often serves here to initiate a conversation with the world, to create the foundation of a lyrical situation", Maliszewski explains.
Rozproszone glosy / Scattered Voices also includes a few important texts in which the writer uncovers himself more than in a classical review. In "The Critic's Notes" he admits, apparently in amusement: "The situation is beyond my strength ... it is hard to deal with the large numbers of volumes being sent in, angrily chucked onto the veranda by my wife", but adds quite seriously a moment later, with a note of bitterness even: "An elusive, troublesome being, intended for later disrespect or even contempt. The accompanying critic". And he calls himself "a critic who is meant to play on the poets' team".
Though his efforts are not always rewarded, the critic-participant continues his service, and offers frank words of praise about poetry and poets. In "Recently in Krakow", Karol Maliszewski writes: "Recently in Krakow poets were called bastards. ... The world needs a poet, because the world forgets too quickly, loses names and mixes languages; a poet suggests that people slow down and listen intently".
Author: Marek Radziwon, wiadomosci.gazeta.pl, May 31, 2007 - Polish version