Spór o poezję

Abstract

In 1996, Czesław Milosz published the critical essays — Noty o Różewiczu (Notes about Różewicz and Różewicz w 1996 (Różewicz in 1996)-, in the volume 7o (This) he included two poems - Unde malum and Różewicz. There also occurred a direct conversation between the poets in Solski’s dressing-room at J.Słowacki Theater, published in “Rzeczpospolita” in 1999. In the newest volumes by Różewicz, it is not hard to encounter poems which are the response to and polemics with Miłosz - mainly Zaćmienie światła (Eclipse of the Light), Tajemnica wiersza (The Mystery of a Poem), Eciepecieo poecie (Blabla about the Poet), and Dlaczego piszę (Why I Write). That dispute of the poets, which has recently taken on some acute forms, has its antecedents visible in the earlier works. Initially, its form was that of a sympathetic dialogue. Milosz’s poem Do Tadeusza Różewicza poety (To Tadeusz Różewicz, the Poet) can be considered the beginning. The similarity of titles is becoming characteristic (Ocalenie - Ocalony, Równina — Równina, Glosy biednych ludzi - Glosy niepotrzebnych ludzi, Gucio zaczarowany - Myrmekologia (dalszy ciąg bajki o Guciu zaczarowanym), and also the antinomy fragments in the poems Campo di Fiori and Maska (Mask), Piosenka o końcu świata (The Song of the End of the World), Róża (Rose) and Marzyciel (Dreamer). Although the dialogue and dispute of the outstanding poets has its philosophical reasons, its grounds are mainly aesthetic. It concerns the language of poetry and its place and sense in the contemporary world.