Ryszard KRYNICKI: “The fact of Ukrainian origin is important for my identity”

“Your brain is a dead city in the distant future / grave robbers raise new mausoleums” is a line from one of the innumerous Ukrainian translations of Ryszard Krynicki’s poems. A well-known poet in Poland, a “European master,” he published his first collection Ped pogoni, ped ucieczki (Speed of Race, Speed of Escape) back in 1968 and “has been in the pantheon of contemporary Polish poets for two generations.” According to Marianna Kyianovska, “Krynicki’s personality is important not only in terms of literature, but culture as well.” He is scarcely known in Ukraine; he started to receive invitations to Ukraine only in 2008. At first, to Zbigniew Herbert’s Year, then – to Meridian Czernowitz Festival, this year – to Lviv Forum of Publishers. However, there are a few Ukrainian authors who translate his works into Ukrainian: Ostap Slyvynsky, Marianna Kyianovska, Oleksandra Bratchuk, and Anatolii Hlushchak.

Literary critics say his first collections of poetry are to a considerable extent a reflection of the 1968 events in Poland – student protests, which in a way started the Solidarity movement. Namely these events are said to “make” Ryszard Krynicki, as well as Adam Zagajewski, Julian Kornhauser, or Ewa Lipska; as a result of this impact the litterateurs refused from metaphors, lyrics, focused on aesthetic problems, and go back to ethic canon, to the sense of speaking openly about reality. So, Krynicki is called a dissident and ascribed to Generation 68, i.e., the “New Wave,” which took shape in 1968-76. His books were forbidden from publishing, so some of his poetic collections are handmade and exist only in several copies. The collection G is a collage made of newspaper cuttings and in fact a kind of an artifact, because it has only one copy.

Translations are an important line in Krynicki’s life. He has translated works by Bertolt Brecht, Gottfried Benn, Paul Celan, Reiner Kunze, and Nelly Sachs. Besides, together with his wife founded the a5 Publishing House, which orients mainly on poetry. He is called an underground author for his uniqueness.

Krynicki says he does not belong to poets of many words and that he is indulgent to the reader, lost in the superfluity of information and literature. Although he is 70 years old, he continues to write and translate. The author lives and works in Krakow.

The Day had luck to meet Krynicki at the awarding ceremony of the Angelus Central European Literature Award, which has recently taken place in Wroclaw. The key of this year’s award was the topic of historical memory and “shabby” and unequivocal identity of Central European Man. This is what we started our conversation with a gray-haired blue-eyed man, who habitually wears black clothes, speaks diffidently and modestly, but frankly.

We have recently spoken about the complicated and contradictory identity of Central European Man. You were born in Austria, the town of Sankt Valentin, but have lived for most of your life in Poland. Has this bifurcation influenced your identity?

“Yes, I was born in the borderland of Lower and Upper Austria. As I found out later, I was born not simply in the town of Sankt Valentin, but in the POW camp Lager Windberg, which was located there. It was in the war time. For much longer time I kept asking myself: why was I born namely in Austria? What for? I was puzzled by this. However, the fact of my Ukrainian origins was very important for me. My family comes from Galicia, from a small town in Ternopil oblast. My parents spent their young years there. When they were taken to Austria as Ostarbeiter, my father was 21 and my mother was 19. I always heard many languages at home, because my parents spoke both Polish and Ukrainian well. They also used many Yiddish words. The language I heard at home was puzzling for me, because it differed from the language my school peers were speaking. Now I understand Ukrainian very well, I can read Ukrainian, but, unfortunately, I cannot speak it. The fact of Ukrainian origin is important for my identity, because it is a many-culture borderland.”

You are ascribed to Generation 68. In your time you have worked at Student weekly, the heart of the so-called “New Wave” environment. Do you feel as part of this generation? Or consider yourself a stand-alone?

“I feel a strong connection to Generation 68. That period is a part of my life and my personal history. The period of 1968-70 was a concentration of violence in Poland. The revolt of students of 1968 was brutally suppressed by the regime [Krynicki means the student rallies, which reached the greatest scope at Warsaw University, and were followed by repressions and persecutions. – Ed.]. And in 1970 the state apparatus committed a bloody massacre. We were expressing our protest against violence. Apparently, our consciousness was influenced by this. But I cannot say that it was a crucial period for my development as a litterateur, because I had started to write earlier. In fact, I have worked as an editor of Student weekly. It is true, but I have worked there for a very short time. It was the time when the consciousness of our generation was shaped. I can say that certain pages in Student were truly flagship. Later we were called the ‘New Wave.’ We identified ourselves as Generation 68.”

You have translated the works by Bertolt Brecht, Gottfried Benn, Paul Celan, Reiner Kunze, etc. Do you feel any connection to these authors? For translation is a kind of closeness.

“I have translated many German poets, such as Hans Enzensberger, Reiner Kunze, and many others. This is a considerable part of literary work. And the authors whose work I translate are very close to me. For example, to understand better the poems by Nelly Sachs, I spent much time with her archives at the National Library of Sweden in Stockholm. Now these archives are stored in the third basement, because the library is very large. The archive room is organized in a way to resemble Nelly’s apartment in Stockholm, where she spent the second part of her life. In 1940, when German forces occupied Europe, Sachs immigrated to Sweden with her mother. In Stockholm they lived in a small apartment, which consisted of a small room and a kitchen. The archive is a reconstruction of that apartment, and everything there reminds of her. Reminder cards, manuscripts, books, library, pictures, various household items from her apartment, her writing desk. Since I translated her poetry, it was important for me to know what surrounded her, to understand the microcosm, in which she was living. I tried to find and understand her personal world. At the same time, I myself live in a world of my own. The authors whose work I translate are very close to me.”

This year you’ve visited the Lviv Forum of Publishers. What kind of Ukraine and Ukrainians you got to know during your stay here?

“I visited Ukraine for the first time back in 2008, when I was invited to the event dedicated to Zbigniew Herbert Year. It was a very short visit, so I know few people from there. In the same way, I stayed for two-three days in Lviv and somewhat longer in Chernivtsi. But it was too little as well. Zbigniew Herbert wrote: ‘When you go on a journey, may it be long. Only then will you be able to get to know people.’ I want to learn them better.”