Sergey Jurskij
The October edition of Russia's Innostranaya Literatura monthly presents its readers with an audiobook insert of Czesław Miłosz's works. Marek Pytasz, Polina Justova and Sergey Moreyno have put together the selection of poems
1300 copies of the audiobook are being released on the 15th of October, featuring the acclaimed actor Sergey Jurskij reciting the poetry of the Polish Nobel Prize laureate.
On the 25th of October, the Polish Institute in Moscow opens an exhibition of Czesław Miłosz's photographs taken by Elżbieta Lempp. The audiobooks will be given special publicity during the exhibition opening.
The audiobook endeavour forms part of the Cultural Programme of the Polish Presidency of the EU, as well as a special programme commemorating the hundredth year since the Polish poet's birth. The publications engage various actors and writers who lend their voices for recordings of different selections of Miłosz’s poems in each country of publication. The graphic design and overall concept remains the same: The audio books, produced by the pan-European Polish Institutes, are an opportunity for European readers to acquaint themselves with the works of the Polish laureate of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Marek Pytasz is Head of the Institute of Historic Poetics and the Art of Interpretation at Silesian University. He also directs Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego (Silesian Univerisity’s Publishing House). Sergey Moreyno has translated the works of Czesław Miłosz into Russian.
"Dedication", "Song on Porcelain", "A Poor Christian Looks at the Ghetto", "Bypassing Rue Descartes", "Gift", "Campo dei Fiori" and "You Who Wronged" are some of the poems selected for the Russian audiobook. Also read by actor Sergey Jurskij are fragments from Miłosz’s "Native Realm".
Jurskij was born in Russia in 1936. He has performed in numerous theatre pieces and some 40 film productions, also working as a theatre director and set designer. From 1958 to 1978 Sergey Jurskij was part of the Maxim Gorky Leningrad Drama Theatre. The actor then moved to Moscow and began his work at the Mossoviet State Academy Theatre. Jurskij is best known for his unique one-actor theatre works. He is the laurate of many awards and medals, including the Order of Merits for the Motherland and the Pushkin Medal.
Czesław Miłosz is one of the most prominent writers of the 20th century. Every “cultured” European is obliged to remember his name. Remebering a name is easy.
Yet a real confrontation with his work turns out to be much more difficult. Miłosz didn’t care for the reader’s ease. His poems sound like prose, and his prose sounds like poetry. He tried to bring together two different ways of thinking: the narrow path leading into our restless soul and a wide view of the entire world, with all its history and its perpetually tragic present. There are many wars there [in his poetry], there is Poland (a place where all misery culminates), the ghetto (the epicentre of pain), Europe and America (as a false image of peace), and then, there is poetry - an improper game of beauty, played upon seeing and feeling the world’s ugliness.
When I first sat down with the big pile of texts that I was to read out loud, I felt discouraged. And then, I tried a second time, and got gradually pulled in. Slowly, a world - hidden from the author himself - revealed itself to me. It is very important for me to be able to take the listeners of this recording on a journey into this world.
Putting it directly - reading Czesław Miłosz’s poetry was a break-through event in my life.
Sergey Jurskij, April, 2011
6500 copies of the audiobook will be released as an insert to the special Polish literature edition of Inostrannaya Literatura (Иностранная литература) magazine.
The Russian edition of Czesław Miłosz's audiobook was made possible thanks to the help and cooperation of the Polish Institute in Moscow.
Full list of Czesław Miłosz's poems on the Russian audiobook:
"Посвящение"
"Судьба"
"Дерево"
"Обидевший простого человека"
"Стенанья дам минувших дней"
"Ars Poetica?"
"Бедный христианин смотрит на гетто"
"Песни Адриана Зелинского"
"Напутствие"
"Джонатану Свифту"
"Дар"
"Oeconomia divina"
"Не так"
"На исходе XX века"
"Признание"
"Но книги"
"1911 год"
"Тревога-сон"
"Облака"
"Сроки"
"Бедный поэт"
"Счастливец"
"Этюд об одиночестве"
"Некая местность"
"Ад"
"Желтый велосипед"
"Волшебная гора"
"Поздняя зрелость"
and
"Родная Европа" (fragments of "Native Realm")
Date: Distribution starts on the 1st of September, 2011
Location: Distributed nationwide in Russia, through
Organised by: Inostrannaya Literatura, Polish Institute in Moscow, Adam Mickiewicz Institute
Project cofinanced by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.
Czesław Miłosz is a Flagship Project of the Cultural Programme of the Polish Presidency. For more information on the project, see: Czesław Miłosz
For more information on 2011 Milosz Year, see: www.365milosz.eu
Source: Adam Mickiewicz Institute