Kashubian Poetry

ksiaznica_prof._gerarda_labudy_pap.jpg, default, Library of Professor Gerard Labuda in Wejherowo, photo: PAP

It feels and speaks Kashubian and about Kashubia. It is almost a century and a half old and is published several times a year under different names. How has Kashubian poetry changed, and what does it have to offer?

The history of poetry in the Kashubian language begins with Heruś from Wielo – the pseudonym under which Hieronim Derdowski (Kash. Hieronim Derdowsczi) published a fragment of the first poem in his native language. Well, maybe not entirely, because he used the Polish alphabet for writing, and he considered Kashubian only a dialect of Polish. Anyway, in December 1879, this journalist and poet from Wiele published his text in a supplement to Gazeta Toruńska. Until March, successive parts of the first book of the epic were published regularly, and the work was published in its entirety in the autumn of 1880.

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Hieronim Derdowski, portrait, photo: ‘Poznaj Swój Kraj’, no. 5, 1987 / wikimedia.org; ‘Kaszube pod Widnem’ by Hieronim Derdowski, Poznań, pub. Fiszer & Majewski, 1929, photo: Polona National Library

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The epic poem Ò Panu Czôrlińsczim Co do Pùcka pò Secë Jachôł (About How Mr. Czorliński Went to Puck to Buy Fishing Nets) is for Kashubians what Pan Tadeusz is for Poles, and the Kashubian artist in the pantheon of regional poets occupies an analogous place to Mickiewicz in Polish lyric poetry. Although Derdowski was born three years before the bard’s death, both of them were creating at a time when their homeland was under partition. What the author of the saying ‘There is no Kashubian without Poland, / Or Poland without Kashubia’ (orig. Kash. Ni ma Kaszub bez Pòlonii, /A bez Kaszub Pòlsczi) emphasized in his works was the importance of the bonds of the Kashubian people with Polish culture, while nurturing their native history, mythology, legends and customs. The Young Kashubian movement was guided by very similar ideas.

‘What’s Kashubian is Polish’

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Covers of Kashubian magazine ‘Gryf’, no. 3, 1932; no. 8, 1931, photo: National Maritime Museum

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The maturation of Kashubian poetry was similar to that of its older Polish sister – authors organized themselves into literary groups, usually around magazines, and even if their poetics differed, they were connected by the ideas, purpose and themes of their poems. Apparently, nothing unites as much as a common enemy, and in the period of intensified Germanization of the Pomeranian people, it was not difficult to find one. Those who proclaimed the slogans of sociocultural closeness with Poland, and at the same time the distinctiveness of tradition and language, brought the Young Kashubian Society (Towarzystwo Młodokaszubów) to life in the summer of 1912. Their mature debuts coincided with the years of the struggle to join Pomerania to Poland, while many of them died during World War II – because of the similarity of their experiences, this group is sometimes compared to the generation of the Columbuses.

The most important representatives of the poetic group were a doctor, a lawyer and a priest – namely, Aleksander Majkowski (Kash. Aleksander Majkòwsczi; leader), Jan Karnowski (Kash. Jón Kôrnowsczi) and Leon Heyke (Kash. Léón Heyke). Majkowski published the monthly Gryf (which over time became the main magazine of the Young Kashubians) and wrote the first novel in the literary Kashubian language Żëcé i Przigòdë Remusa (The Life and Adventures of Remus). Karnowski researched the past of Kashubian villages, as a result of which he was called ‘the conscience of Kashubian regionalism’. Heyke developed an individual spelling and vocabulary based on northern dialects, while wandering around Kashubia to collect tales and legends. It was the regional mythology and customs that were the main building blocks of Young Kashubian poetry. There was a cult of the Kashubian language and tradition on the one hand, while on the other the creators did not steer away from a bitter assessment of society’s vices, such as litigiousness, superstition or mindless drawing on foreign models. Majkowski reached for satire, Heyke was famous for his subtle love poems, Karnowski escaped into melancholy, lamenting the fate of the Kashubian region.

The Kashubian bond

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‘Poezja Zrzeszyńców’, authors: Jan Rompski, Aleksander Labuda, Jan Trepczyk, Feliks Marszałkowski, Stefan Bieszk, Franciszek Grucza; cover of book of poetry ‘Kaszëbsczim Jesmë Lëdã’, author: Aleksander Labuda, 1996, photo: distributor’s press materials

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A more radical stance on the language (Kashubian is an independent Slavic language) and nationality (Kashubians are an independent and brutally Polonized Slavic nation) was presented by the unionists (zrzeszeńcy). They wanted freedom and civil equality for their compatriots, as well as a cultural and social rebirth of the region. They propagated their uncompromising views in the magazine Zrzësz Kaszëbskô (The Kashubian Union), published from 1933 until the war and then also shortly after the war. The new ideological and literary movement was headed by Aleksander Labuda, a student of Leon Heyke’s, who otherwise criticized the actions of the unionists.

Labuda began his career as an editor and columnist in a supplement to Dziennik Gdyński but soon became involved with Gryf. He replaced Majkowski as the president of the Kashubian Regional Association, which also included his schoolmate Jan Trepczyk (Kash. Jón Trepczik) – soon the most prominent representative of the unionists. While Labuda concentrated on writing satirical columns, putting manifesto poetry aside (he did not live to see his individual volume of poems published, which didn’t happen until several years after the poet’s death), Trepczyk devoted himself to lyrical poetry. Although he did not study music, he composed songs and pieces for choirs, founded folklore groups, was an amateur singer and played the piano and violin. He also became famous as the author of a Polish-Kashubian dictionary, and his theoretical work on the Kashubian language was reflected in the poems of almost all the members of this group. Trepczyk not only turned to the history of his small homeland but also praised the beauty of his native landscape, as did both Jan Rompski (Kash. Jón Rómpsczi), an ethnographer and playwright who modelled his poetry on Juliusz Słowacki (privately Trepczyk’s brother-in-law), and Stefan Bieszk (Sztefan Bieszk), an excellent teacher and author of sonnets.

The cane

In the interwar period, another Kashubian poetic formation stood out, engaging in a polemic with the unionists, especially in matters of linguistic distinctiveness and separatist aspirations. The ‘Klekowcy’ (from the word kluka, meaning a cane), gathered around the Wejherowo magazine Klëka, noticed the possessiveness of the Germans and Russians and postulated strengthening ties with Poland, but they also did a lot to popularise Kashubian folklore. This was especially true of Leon Roppel (Kash. Léón Roppel), who devoted many scientific works to Kashubia and popularized Kashubian literature abroad. In his works, he himself used simplified spelling, emphasized the comprehensibility of the content, composed songs and legends, drew on fairy tales and stories. Because he cared about the continuity of thought and cultural history of the region, he also wrote the biography Florian Ceynowa: Twórca Regionalizmu Kaszubskiego (Florian Ceynowa: Creator of Kashubian Regionalism). Roppel repeatedly referenced marine motifs, observing the life of fishermen. Józef Ceynowa displayed similar interests – he tried to perpetuate the Kashubian identity in poems, stories and fairy tales based on local legends and the history of seaside Kashubians.

Changing of the guard

Post-war Kashubian poetry is much more diverse. Young authors not only seek their identity in the tradition and history of their land (as did Stanisław Pestka, who wrote under the pseudonym Jan Zbrzyca) but also deal with the experience of combat and occupation. More and more often they turn to everyday matters, nature and religion. When defenders of the Kashubian region make themselves heard, they do not create lofty slogans or poems-manifestos but express their attitude in a more subtle way. For example, Jan Drzeżdżon (Kash. Jón Drzéżdżón), debuting in the mid-1960s, introduced the colloquial speech of the inhabitants of northern Kashubia to poetry. His belocki dialect emphasised the melancholic nature of his poems on the transience of life and its contemplation. Drzeżdżon fulfilled himself mainly as a prose writer; in the eyes of Henryk Bereza, his talent surpassed even Cortázar or Borges.

The themes of their poems and their poetics are becoming more dispersed, individual and strive for a universal message. A certain new phenomenon, hitherto rare in Kashubia’s patriarchal society, is taking shape – women are reaching for the pen. These voices are not numerous, but they are loud, bringing a different perspective and sensitivity, while at the same time being bold and original. It is true that Rozalia Narloch (known as ‘the Konopnicka of Kashubia’) or Teodora Kropidłowska (who wrote fairy tales under the pseudonym Deotyma) paved the way for women’s Kashubian lyric poetry, but it was only later generations of female authors who became the subject of literary studies. Maybe it’s time to pay more attention to the precursors?

Poetry is a woman

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Ida Czaja honoured with Kashubian Literary Award, 2021, photo: Marshal’s Office of Pomeranian Voivodeship

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Speaking of contemporary Kashubian women poets, two names should be remembered above all: Krystyna Muza (Kash. Kristina Mùza) and Ida Czaja (Kash. Ida Czajinô). The first of these defended her master’s thesis in Polish philology in Gdańsk on the life and work of Jan Rompski (Kash. Jón Rómpsczi) and made her debut in Pomerania. Her creative output is quantitatively modest – it is limited to one volume titled Mamòta published in 1981 and poems printed in the press. Qualitatively, it belongs to the canon of Kashubian poetry (if there is one at all). The author subtly combines themes on an Arcadian childhood with a female perspective and introduces magical elements from the world of fairy tales and myths. As did Jan Drzeżdżon, Muza pays homage to the northern part of Kashubia not only in symbolism but also in language, using local phraseology and archaic stylization. Adela Kuik-Kalinowska, a researcher of the works of female poets writing in Kashubian, even sees similarities with the lyrics of Ewa Lipska and Julia Hartwig in the creation of the female world by the author of Mamòta.

Ida Czaja – a teacher, reciter and translator into Kashubian of, among others, Norwid and Leśmian, as well as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet – has a richer poetic output. She has published several books of poetry, in which she tackles the subject of love attired as an atmospheric ballad, looking to Kashubian demonology and legends. When discussing her volume Czôrny kléd (Black Dress), Daniel Kalinowski wrote:

[…] Czaja is not a poet who should be placed among politically or socially engaged writers. Nor is she ostentatiously feminist. However, the female narrative perspective is still strongly present in her work, and if one can draw a line of a clearly female lyrical subject presented in Kashubian poetry, then Czaja’s proposals would be second – in terms of chronology – after Krystyna Muza’s poems.

Both authors only open the list of poets for whom the Kashubian identity is the foundation and the impulse to create reflective, philosophical lyric poetry, seeking contact with God and nature. Although men’s names are still much more common in volumes of poetry than women’s, the woman’s voice is increasingly heard. The problem not only of poetry but of Kashubian literature in general is therefore not quantity or quality but its hermetic character. Although both individual works and anthologies have been translated into several foreign languages, mainly Slavic and English (the Museum of Kashubian-Pomeranian Literature and Music in Wejherowo prepared several videos with translations as part of the Kashubian Contemporary Poetry project), it is difficult to find even a mention of them in non-regional media. And language is not an insurmountable obstacle. ‘The language of poetry is, after all, universal’ – as Bogumiła Cirocka (Kash. Bògùmila Cërockô), chairwoman of the jury of the Kashubian Literary Award (Kaszubska Nagroda Literacka) 2021, argued when Ida Czaja received the award.

Sources

Translated from Polish by Michał Pelczar

Language English