The meeting with Stanisław Srokowski, held on Wednesday, September 17, at the Wedding Palace (Bolesławiec Town Hall), was led by Tadeusz Samborski, a resident of the Borderlands and president of the Legnica-based “Krajobrazy” Cultural Association. Samborski called Srokowski “one of the most distinguished Polish writers.” In his view, the author of “The Ukrainian Lover” is an exceptional creator because in his texts he speaks about things that others prefer to leave unmentioned.
Both Samborski and Srokowski come from the Borderlands. They both strongly emphasize this fact. “I preserved the melody of the Borderlands in my language,” the writer said during Wednesday’s meeting. – “For me, the Borderlands are a personal experience. My literature does not arise from fiction.” Poles, Ruthenians and Jews lived in his family’s village. He absorbed the local customs and religious life: “At the age of eight, I spoke three languages. The whirl of cultures fertilized my imagination.”
Hatred, Warning and Memory
During World War II, Ukrainian nationalists murdered Poles on a mass scale. “If you have survived hell, you cannot write about heaven,” said the author of “The Spirits of Childhood.” His first books were written in the 1970s. In the Polish People’s Republic, he had problems with censorship. In Poland after 1989, some publishing houses refused to print his texts—they told him that he should write something about the future. “If we want to be a great European nation, we cannot fail to remember the past,” he stressed.
His book “Hatred” is intended as a warning. Nationalism is re-emerging in Ukraine. But many politicians downplay this problem.
The Great Culture of the Borderlands
“I am a writer who draws great spiritual values from the Borderlands,” the artist declared at Wednesday’s meeting. Many distinguished scholars and writers came from these lands, including Czesław Miłosz, Jan Kochanowski, Mikołaj Rej, Aleksander Fredro and Jan Brzechwa. The flower of the Polish nation perished during World War II. “The misfortune that befell us broke this genetic code,” Srokowski said sadly. In his view, we lost entire generations of scientists and artists who would have built a different Poland—one based on the values of the Borderlands.
(GA report)