What is „Kwiaty polskie” by Tuwim?

Abstract

The text is a record of the last public appearance of Prof. Krystyna Ratajska Ph.D. (1938–2017) devoted to Kwiaty polskie ( Polish Flowers) presented o n 13 September in Dom Literatury in Lodz during a discussion panel being a fragment of the event Urodziny Juliana Tuwima 2017 (Julian Tuwim’s Birthday 2017). The introduction to the lecture recalls the circumstances of the origin and issue of genre affiliation of Kwiaty Polskie. Tuwim’s utterances from his correspondence lead to observations concerning the formal innovative character of the poem in question. Kwiaty Polskie may be called a “colourful kaleidoscope”, a catch-all form representing new quality which allows for different genres and ways of speaking about the world. This is a poem which may contain different qualities and stylistic tones. Composing this poem by the poet may be also compared to creating a bunch of flowers, assembling a colourful whole from fragments diversified with regard to the genre, which makes it a syncretic work, a literary hybrid. Tuwim’s Kwiaty polskie is also a “biographical reading” composed of different fragments whose unchronological, associative order is governed by memory. The author of the lecture also recalls the relations of Ignacy Dziewierski, the poem’s main protagonist, with Tuwim. Like the poet himself he is a talented artist dealing with art of different kinds (both high and low). He may be also perceived as his spiritual portrait seeking consolation and escape from fear, emptiness and death in his art. According to the author, Kwiaty Polskie is, all in all, a work born out of Tuwim’s micrological passion and his attention to detail, depicting the world in the creation of which sensory elements, particles, pieces and traces become the building material.