Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński: A Lyrical Diary

krzysztof_kamil_baczynski_autoportret_polona.jpg, default, Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński: A Lyrical Diary, 'Autoportait' by Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, 1933-1944, photo: Biblioteka Narodowa / Polona, center, #000000

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The prince of poets, a knight, a troubadour, the last of the Romantics. A son, a husband, a soldier, an artist. On the 100th anniversary of Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński’s birth, we read 10 of his poems as autobiography.

Imagination

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A graphic by Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, early work, 1933-1944, photo: Biblioteka Narodowa / Polona

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Through her body’s trembling prism
white sparks of music will leap
while ermine will creep through her
like the downy leaves of sleep.

Bears are rimed in its hoarfrost
with polar starlight imbued
and a stream of mice pours through it
in a clamorous multitude.

Till slowly she drifts into sleep,
filled all with milky white,
while time melodiously settles
deep down, in a tumble of light.

Author

From ‘White Magic’ by K. K. Baczyński, Jan 1942, trans. Bill Johnston

Thumbnail — A graphic by Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, undated works, photo: Biblioteka Narodowa / Polona

Wearing a navy-blue, velvet uniform with lace cuffs and collar, he looked like the protagonist of Little Lord Fauntleroy or The Secret Garden – that’s how Maria Turlejska remembers her cousin. Apart from these two novels, he read Andersen as a child and even designed a cover for his Tales as a way of perfecting his skills as an illustrator. Krzysztof’s mother was a teacher, an author of children’s stories and textbooks, as well as a translator of Russian literature for children. If one were to ask if fairy tales are the sister of poetry – as the literary scholar Agnieszka Zgrzywa tries to convince us – one could easily find an answer in Baczyński’s works.

White Magic, written at 3:00a.m., is something more than just a subtle erotic poem. It’s a journey to an oneiric, sensual land inhabited by demonic animals: a weasel, previously associated with witchcraft, just like mice, whereas a bear was an incarnation of a demon. It’s a heavily synaesthetic text, full of metaphors and epithets, maintained in a fairy tale convention; even the image of a woman lying down to sleep makes one think of Sleeping Beauty. Evil forces in the poem are eventually destroyed by a bright light of love and the silver-bodied woman’s delicacy. Interestingly, the poet would reach for shades of white much more often when he met Barbara and during the first year of their relationship and marriage (the frequency with which the colour appears in Baczyński’s works was examined by Mieczysław Balowski). The colour white, then, is unambiguously associated with happiness.

Early years

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Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński with his dog Fred, c. 1931-1932, photo: Aleksander Jałosiński / Forum

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In the eyes of dogs, you can pluck the white-tulip sky.
Whom do you love, loving stray dogs,
roaming streets burned by wind,
their glassy eyes like teardrops congealing on the window panes? [...]

Cast, cast the magic of spinning wheels,
raise your hands to the power of the paws,
snuggle into friendly fur and float
through the coast of years overgrown with skulls.

Author

From ‘Psy’ (Dogs) by K.K. Baczyński, Feb 1941, trans. Culture.pl

Here, dogs’ eyes are a mirror of memories; in them, time stands still. Their faces, overgrown with fur, are calm and full of empathy. Paws are the hands of a friend. By endowing those four-legged creatures with human traits, the poet ascribed them the role of guardians of memory. In this poem, dogs’ selfless love and devotion are contrasted with the wartime lack of security and people’s hostility. The presence of dogs re-establishes a sense of balance and causes the speaker to ponder on the nature of humanity. In other poems, these pets anticipate change (Dary Deszczu Wiosennego [The Gifts of Spring Rain]) or sense an upcoming death (Elegy), become an inseparable companion (Z Psem [With the Dog]), tear away sorrows (Wiersz o Późnej Jesieni [A Poem About Late Fall). A dachshund became the protagonist of Cudowne Przygody Pana Pinzla Rudego (The Wonderful Adventures of Mr Pinzl the Red) – Baczyński’s unfinished fantasy novel, which was only recently discovered in the archive of his friend Jerzy Kamil Weintraub.

Baczyński loved dogs. His beloved Fred (a fox-terrier, according to the poet’s friends) was a companion of his childhood adventures, and it’s likely that the poem Psy was written with him in mind. A golden-brown dachshund named Dan also inscribed himself in literature – the poem Z Psem is dedicated to him. The poet created a series of his portraits, adding humorous comments to the drawings, e.g. ‘Ponderings’ – a dog bending down over a bowl, or ‘Curiosity’ – a close encounter between a dog’s nose and a cactus.

Mother

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Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, a postcard to his mother, 1937-1944, photo: Biblioteka Narodowa / Polona

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My childhood dreams smelled of vanilla.
How does one remove fear from this life?
These days are like idols in an olive wood –
– they’ve grown into adult wolves and fire
setting fire to the pines of soaring elation. […]

Mother,
one more smile before the age of twenty
return my view to the world
of a child.

Author

From ‘*** (Sny Dziecinne Pachniały…)’ (*** [My Childhood Dreams Smelled Like…]) by K. K. Baczyński, Oct 1940, trans. Culture.pl

This is one of the many poems dedicated to Baczyński’s mother. He’s addressing her directly, searching for warmth and safety in her smile. As an adult man, he escapes from the cruelty of war into the carefree world of childhood, smelling of vanilla and an olive grove. Baczyński used scent not merely as an aesthetic device – a pleasant smell possesses calming, almost healing properties. This is even more prominent in the last of his well-known poems, in which the rich scent of of lilies brings the protagonist to life, if only for a short time.

Stefania Baczyńska, née Zieleńczyk, was said to have been an overprotective mother. Krzysztof was her only son, as her daughter Kamila had died before her brother was born. Perhaps he got his second name after his sister – although a family friend, Zofia Marecka, heard Stefania talk about commemorating Krzysztof Cedro from Ashes and Cyprian Kamil Norwid with his names. In his poem To My Parents, Baczyński mentions his Catholic patron Saint Christopher, the protector of travellers (‘like the saint, I was to bear the Lord across a river of animals, sand, people’). The future poet’s holiday travels were related to his asthma. He travelled with his mother at first – to the mountains in winter, to the seaside in summer. Later, during his lonely journeys, he would write to her regularly. It was from the Zieleńczyks that he inherited his poor health – as well as his character. His sense of humour in particular was similar to his mother’s.

Father

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A graphic by Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, early work, 1940, photo: Biblioteka Narodowa / Polona

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It’s bravery – the sigh of life is so heavy
in a thought-devoid room
that keeps working to smooth
the wrinkles of days.
A day walking the street, indifferent with dust as always,
without you it’s empty, emptier.
And each day walks through the aisle of terror
and each like every day blown up with strangeness.
Like a passer-by walking
past a friendship unstuck by experience.

Author

From ‘Elegia’ (Elegy) by K. K. Baczyński, Aug 1939, trans Culture.pl

Baczyński owed his appearance, however, to his father: he was equally handsome, elegant, with slightly wavy, combed back hair, as well as intriguing, sad eyes. Stanisław Baczyński was nicknamed ‘White’ by his friends. He became a writer and a literary critic. In one of his articles concerning folk literature, he mentions a man called Jantek of Bugaj. It’s this name that Agnieszka Zgrzywa considers the inspiration for the poet’s artistic pseudonym (Jan Bugaj), and not – like other experts on Baczyński – a type of a stream or a clump of greenery, which admittedly appear in his works quite often. His other nicknames include ‘Emil’, ‘Jan Krzyski’, ‘Piotr Smugosz’, ‘Krzysztof Zieliński’, ‘Krzyś’.

The relationship between the father and the son was rather tense; Baczyński’s parents separated for a period of time. The poet was on his last holidays in Bukowina Tatrzańska when, on 27th July 1939, Stanisław Baczyński died. It’s to him that his son dedicated the poem Elegia. It starts with the words: ‘It’s bravery – the sight of life is so heavy’. This contemplative text is filled with sadness, loneliness, fruitless anticipation. Important words won’t manage to sound out anymore; reality becomes blank in the face of death. This peculiar farewell might also constitute an expression of anxiety related to the oncoming war.

Artist

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A page from the 'W Żalu Najczystszym' (In Purest Sorrow) book of poetry by Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, a fragment of the poem 'Wolność' (Freedom), photo: CBN Polona

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Strona z tomiku Krzysztofa Kamila Baczyńskiego "W żalu najczystszym" fot. CBN Polona

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Wake up – you are free,
though like a ghost in the ground
taking the low road around,
wake up, you are free,
just open your ears. […]

And if you don’t believe,
that you are free, because they chained you,
you will measure yourself by your steps
and you will be a human chisel,
and you will in your palm be held
through time, through – accursed time.

Author

From K.K. Baczyński’s ‘Wolność’ (Freedom), Mar 1942, trans. Culture.pl

In spite of the daily reality of life under the occupation, Baczyński wrote a poem constituting an affirmation of freedom. He calls for hope and faith, and urges not to surrender to the enemy. He directly addresses his countryman and fellow soldier, while he himself is armed with words. He attempts to offer consolation by claiming that, despite the body being chained, the mind and soul can remain unbent, and enslavement should be perceived as a path to victory and freedom.

This work was included in the volume W Żalu Najczystszym (In Purest Sorrow), a volume which the poet created himself. He took the motto from Norwid, which signals a turn towards the Romantic tradition (in fact, he was Norwid’s equal in using the ellipsis). He wrote 18 poems on creamy-grey paper, embellishing each with a small watercolour landscape, or a floral or animal motif. His teacher was certain he would grow up to be a painter – he illustrated fairy tales, ‘and when he told them, his beautiful, doe-like eyes would burn’ (quoted from Wiesław Budzyński, Miłość i Śmierć Krzysztofa Kamila [The Love and Death of Krzysztof Kamil]). Baczyński had even been preparing to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw; he also had had a chance to study in France, but the war interrupted his ambitious plans. He ended up illustrating his own poems and would later gift the aforementioned volume to his beloved Basia as a wedding present.

Muse

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Flowing into you still, and bearing your reflection
in pupils, or like a tear from eyelids hanging,
I'll hear in you silver seas etched by a dolphin,
like sleep inside the shell of your body ringing.

Or in a grove, where you are
a birch tree, pure white air
and the milk of daylight,
a huge barbarian,
bearing a thousand centuries
I'll burst with the copse's noise
into your branches, birdlike.

Author

From K. K. Baczyński’s ‘Love Poem’ (originally: ‘Erotyk’), Feb 1942, trans. Bill Johnston

Barbara Drapczyńska charmed the poet with her extraordinary intelligence. They married after knowing each other for only slightly more than half a year, on 3rd June 1942 in a church in Warsaw’s Solec. In autumn, the couple began to study Polish literature at a secret university. Barbara was considering a career in literary criticism; she read Mann, Przyboś and Andrzejewski, who was also the best man at their wedding. Although Polish wasn’t his best subject at school, Krzysztof adored Tuwim’s poetry. He wrote his own poems on pieces of paper – grey or pink, depending on the poem’s subject – taken from his father-in-law’s printing house. In Baczyński’s early works, one may find traces of his intimate relations with Zuzanna Progulska (his first infatuation) and Anna Żelazny (his first fiancée), but it’s Basia who became his most important muse.

Love Poem, the most sensual text of Baczyński’s oeuvre, presents an intimate act through symbols and through what Edward Balcerzan called ‘landscape euphemisms’. Fascination with the body is projected onto nature. Baczyński effuses a fairy tale-like aura, deploying a subtle yet easy to decipher word-play. Whiteness and the motif of a dream appear here, just like in White Magic. Physical pleasure remains discrete, resulting from pure feelings rather than desire.

Knight

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'Wiersze rozproszone' (DIspersed Poems) by Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński , 1939-1944, from the archives of Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, photo: Biblioteka Narodowa / Polona

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When in people did love become death
and collapse upon us a thundering fiery ceiling,
blessed are those, for whom that trepidation
was too small for their hearts and hands. […]

It happens when they sewed bloody seams,
though the ground was like a bundle of jasmines,
blessed were those – a tone linking
hope with heaven – the sound of a spring. […]

You only need to recognise the voice and the word,
because one step is like a soldier’s step,
and when you take to it, then you have found
God for your faith and work for your hands.

Author

From ‘Dzieło dla Rąk’ (Work for Hands) by K.K. Baczyński, Jun 1943, trans. Culture.pl

For Baczyński, love possessed a redemptive power, and fairy tale motifs weren’t merely a way of escaping the wartime reality, but also an attempt to release emotions. Krzysztof Kąkolewski described him as a combination of ‘the myth of a knight without blemish, and a troubadour – a chansonnier of love and military campaigns’. In summer 1943, the poet decided to start fighting with more than just words, as he quit university and joined the underground resistance. He revealed this decision in his poem Dzieło Dla Rąk (Work for Hands), referring to history and God’s blessing for honourable deeds.

A sense of obligation to protect his homeland had been rising within him for a long time – some traces of it may be found in juvenilia written during his years at Stefan Batory Middle School. His classmates included Tadeusz Zawadzki, Jan Bytnar and Maciej Aleksy Dawidowski – ‘Zośka’, ‘Rudy’ and ‘Alek’ from the Gray Ranks [an underground scouting group], which Baczyński also joined. Despite his sensitive character and health problems, he participated, for instance, in the derailment of a German train outside Urle. Fellow soldiers reminisced on how he would often recite poems to them, but they didn’t know that he had written them.

Dzieło dla Rąk was included in the poetry volume titled Conflagration Song. After Baczyński’s death, his mother fought for the book to be released, appealing to Kazimierz Wyka, who had already recognised Baczyński’s talent. The volume was printed using the machines made available by Basia’s father. In August 1947, it was advertised in Nowiny Literackie (Literary News) as ‘works by a young, talented poet, fallen in the Warsaw Uprising’. There were few reviews – Stanisław Lem termed this lack ‘a conspiracy of silence’. In 1956, Wydawnictwo Literackie publishing house attempted to release the poet’s Collected Works. Fearing a financial risk, they planned a circulation of 5,000 volumes. The edition turned out to be a bestseller.

Generation

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'Generation', a graphic by Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, early works, 1940, photo: Biblioteka Narodowa / Polona

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We learned our lesson. There is no mercy.
By night come dreams of the brother who died,
his eyes put out while he still was living,
beaten until his bones were all broken,
deep and painful the chisel's carving,
his eyes bulging like bubbles with blood.

We learned our lesson. There is no conscience.
buried by fear, we live in pits;
in terror we carve out our dark loves,
statues of ourselves-evil troglodytes.

We learned our lesson. There is no love.
How could we then escape into darkness
from the sail of the nostrils sniffing us out,
from the staves and hands in their spreading net,
when the mothers and children would never come back
to the hollowed out pod of an empty heart.

Author

From K. K. Baczyński’s ‘Generation’, Jul 1943, trans. Bill Johnston

In this poem, Baczyński is the voice of the Generation of Columbuses – young people whose dreams the war were destroyed, which deprived them of memories and forced them to re-examine their values. It turned them into troglodytes – people led solely by their primordial instincts. The initial, descriptive part of the poem constitutes a study of life, where natural cycles are juxtaposed with stages of human existence. Such dichotomies (nature and humans, before and after the war) are one of the distinctive characteristics of Baczyński’s writing. The second part of Generation is dominated by a catastrophic vision of the world, cruelty and bestiality. The anaphora ‘[w]e learned our lesson’ sets an ominous tone, while evocative metaphors (‘the hollowed out pod of an empty heart’) reinforce the poem’s expressive power. Will the generation be remembered by posterity, will they ‘if only from pity, … build / a cross over our grave’?

Stanisław Stabro juxtaposes Generation with Czesław Miłosz’s Campo di Fiori (both poems were written within the same year), proving the similarity between the two poets’ understanding of history, referring to tradition, imagery, and formal sophistication, as well as the polyphonic structure of some of their works. ‘Miłosz, as a representative of ‘Żagary’ […] e surely was one of Baczyński’s masters, at least to a certain extent, in the context of philosophy of history’ – Stabro convinces us in Chwila Bez Imienia (Nameless Moment). The works of both Miłosz and Baczyński were released by underground publishing houses under the occupation. They shared the first prize (along with Świrszczyńska and Hollender) in a conspiratorial literary competition. They knew each other personally. Reportedly, at one of the secret literary parties, the 10-years-older (and also taller) Miłosz approached Baczyński and said: Listen, someday you’ll be greater than I am!’ Baczyński’s response was: ‘I’m already greater than you are’ (quoted from Wiesław Budzyński’s Miłość i Śmierć Krzysztofa Kamila).

Dream

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‘Darling’ – the song rustles and wraps around his head, it rings
like a streak of soft hair, which smells so strongly of lilies,
that he, leaning over death, squeezes his fingers on his weapon,
gets up and, still black from the dust of battle – he senses,
that violins are playing inside him quietly, so he walks carefully, slowly,
as if along a thread of light, through a sea of hissing nightfall
and ever closer is that softness similar to white clouds,
until it fills up the area and he feels her soft little voice
standing in the enormous quiet on his fingertips. […]

And then dawn spills out. The weapon in the corner has cooled and is waiting.
The snake of silence slithers by, expelling a lengthy hiss.
And then they wake up crying, as shots burst in the distance,
because they dreamt they had conceived a child covered in blood.

Author

From ‘*** (Gdy za Powietrza Zasłoną…)’ (*** [When Behind the Veil of Air]) by K.K. Baczyński, 26 Oct 1940, trans. Culture.pl

In his last-known poem, all the characteristic motifs and figures of Baczyński’s writing intertwine: love and war, a fairy tale-like world of nature and harsh reality, dream theatre, poetic imagery full of symbolism, and an intensification of sensual experiences (the scent of lilies, the snake of silence, a hissing nightfall, the softness of clouds). Love is sacrum, the meaning of life; it provides consolation. The final line, the one involving a nightmare, turned out to be prophetic. While stationed in the Blank Palace, Baczyński was killed on the 4th August 1944, shot by a German sniper. His wife died on 1st September, wounded by a piece of glass during an air raid a few days prior. The poet’s mother confirmed that Barbara was pregnant.

After the war, both families begun to search for the bodies. They couldn’t find Baczyński’s body for a long time. One night, Basia’s mother had a dream of her son-in-law pointing to his burial place. In the morning, in the Town Hall’s courtyard, a coffin was dug out, and a First Communion holy medal – with the poet’s initials engraved – was found inside.

Poetry that resonates

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A graphic by Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, early works, 1933-1944, photo: Biblioteka Narodowa / Polona

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And here ring worlds indifferent,
the poppy seed stars turn into the cosmos,
the indifferent worlds growing menacingly,
planets brought near keep growing.
Here is a road without top nor bottom.
Who has seen heaven’s vaulted roof?
Here is a space of triangles and points,
lines in a palm stretched into the depths.
Then in a dream more primordial than the planets
float masses of ever-further circles.
Oh, to chop the shadow of meteors with a blow
of sleep like an axe: in two!

Author

From K.K. Baczyński’s ‘Astronomia’ (Astronomy), 26 Oct 1940, trans. Culture.pl

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Mela Koteluk & Kwadrofonik - Astronomia [Official Music Video]

Baczyński left behind more than 500 poems, several dozen short stories, as well as numerous illustrations to poems and his favourite books. Baczyński, as we know him from Polish class in school, is a legend – a poet of apocalypse fulfilled. He’s often called ‘the last of the Romantics’ or ‘the prince of poets’ (the latter was meant to be a title of his biography by Wiesław Budzyński).

However, in musical arrangement by Mela Koteluk and Kwadrofonik, he sounds completely different: lighter, clearer, more familiar, more tender. In 2020, the artists recorded the album Astronomia Poety: Baczyński (A Poet’s Astronomy: Baczyński), which includes less well-known, but gentler poems, which focus on nature, beauty and freedom.

In an interview with the Polish Radio, Koteluk shared:

Text

Baczyński appeared pompous, distant, put up on a pedestal. It’s difficult to get closer to someone through pathos. We wanted to ‘zoom in on’ him; we knew it was worth it… After all, he was a visionary. It was possible to achieve only by creating intimate forms concerning universal issues.

Author

Trans. AWP

In the poet’s ‘Astronomia’, the universe tinkles; the sky vibrates, becoming a musical instrument; space is harmony. Baczyński appears as a lover of life, and it’s as such that we would like to remember him.

Originally written in Polish, 19 Jan 2021, translated by AWP, 21 Jan 2021

^{Sources: ‘Miłość i śmierć Krzysztofa Kamila’ by Wiesław Budzyński (Kraków 2014), ‘Taniec z Baczyńskim’ by Wiesław Budzyński (Warszawa 2001), ‘Testament Krzysztofa Kamila’ by Wiesław Budzyński (Warszawa 1998), ‘Imaginauci’ by Anita Jarzyna (Łódź-Kraków 2017), ‘Chwila bez Imienia’ by Stanisław Stabro (Kraków 2003), ‘Poeta i Baśń’ by Agnieszka Zgrzywa (Poznań 2011).}

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krzysztof kamil baczyński

the generation of columbuses

warsaw uprising

20th century polish poetry

polish poetry