The 2011 volume is made up of two complementing parts: the first is a collection of poems written by Tadeusz Różewicz in Wrocław, with commentaries from twenty-four different poets, the second is an almost 40-minutes long documentary by Artur Burszta and Jolanta Kowalska.
Each of poets describes his or her "own" Różewicz, and studies the selected works, Wojciech Kass writes:
Poem in the Memory of Konstanty Puzyna belongs to my private collection of arch-poems. After reading them for the first time, I start treating them as a pledge or a long-term loan, as mine–but not mine. They find their space inside me like chips of glass, making themselves felt with a prick, a nag, in the most unexpected moments of life.
Bohdan Zadura examines the poem Powrót/ The Return, "All these poems converge into one, they form a unity. They are witnesses of an era, or eras, they are, or sometimes are, a struggle for breath. It is a bitter testimony and a tough battle. This poetry 'has many tasks it can never cope with.' I think it would be quite illuminating to return to Różewicz's old poems, even to those with which the poet cannot make peace."
Zbigniew Machej comments on Tego się Kafce nie robi/ You Don't Do This to Kafka:
It is an honour and obligation to be on the side of Kafka and Różewicz. An honourable obligation, as they used to say. It ill befits a poet – and I view myself as a poet sometimes – to be on the side of monumental bourgeois constructions. But then I changed my mind. While I still wouldn't want to be on your side, my attitude towards your poem has changed.
Literary scholar Piotr Śliwiński on Różewicz and his writing, "For decades, the most independent poet has also been the most influential one, breeding armies of followers, acolytes—and enemies. Pompous individuals usually hate him, lovers of exaltation don't understand him, aesthetes bridle at his alleged coarseness, and poets of life are paralysed by the excess of death."
Featured in the volume, the film is the first video in which other artists talk about what they owe to Różewicz's poetry, and about the ways they interpret his work. Unique archive material with Tadeusz Różewicz's appearances and readings of his poems complement the film. Artur Burszta on the reaction to Różewicz's poetry:
Known—by all means. Appreciated and recognized? I am not so sure.With the book and film 'The Tributaries of Różewicz' we want to encourage a more careful reading and new exploration of the poet's literary heritage.
The Tributaries of Różewicz / Dorzecze Różewicza
design: Eugeniusz Get-Stankiewicz
Biuro Literackie, Wrocław, April 2011
168 x 210, 148 pp., soft cover
ISBN: 97883-62006-74-8
Source: Press materials
Translated by: Helena Chmielewska-Szlajfer, edited by Marta Jazowska