Teraz poety, syna, starego człowieka - o sytuacjach granicznych i ciążeniu ku śmierci Tadeusza Różewicza (Matka odchodzi)

Abstract

The article conducts a literary and philosophical analysis of Tadeusz Różewicz’s work Matka odchodzi. The poet emeritus, composing a sylphic threnody and directing reader’s attention to own family (especially mother), highlighted his very person and showed that he never ceased to be a poet-mother. The poem Matka odchodzi opens with a confession Now (Teraz). Now is the key word of the whole article, it is a departure point for considerations over Różewicz’s literary output. Now opens up the door to the past and the analyses of what was Before both in poetry and the poet’s life. The evoked literary passages confirm that Różewicz is familiar with the philosophical ideas of Jaspers, Heidegger, Jung and Wittgenstein. A considerable part of the article is devoted to the problem of expressing the inexpressible, or depicting the experienced border situations (such as mother’s death) with linguistic means, especially those implemented by the rhetoric of sublimity, that is a simile, repetition and paradox.