Why? Notes on the Poem In a Church

Abstract

The article presents an interpretation of a poem written by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz in his old age, titled W kościele (In a Church). The poem was published in 1977 (in the volume Mapa pogody); 25 years later, it was included in an anthology of Iwaszkiewicz’s poetry selected by Czesław Miłosz. The anthology was the final phase of a long-standing dialogue between the two distinguished Polish poets. Aside from selecting texts for the anthology, Miłosz was a translator, and in his old age, he once more took upon himself a duty to comment, to evaluate and — last but not least — to preserve Iwaszkiewicz’s poetry. The poem W kościele is read as a sign of a special new agreement between the Old Masters of Poetry and its inclusion in the anthology titled A Literature Lesson with Czesław Miłosz was an important part of that.