Warning them against “saying any foolish things!” (qtd. Dionizy Wajs (in Romani calledĭyśko)-being the oldest of the kin-held a council meeting with his compatriots The rumour that a Great Master from Warsaw, a poet and a writer,Īrrived, caused immense agitation in the camp. “The moment of arrival,”2Ĭommo-tion and confusion in the camp connected with the arrival of the “gentlemanįrom Warsaw” was described by Edward Dębicki, a nephew of Papusza: Records about the life of Roma people during. After the war, he found them in Western Pomerania1Īnd introduced Ficowski to them as his nephew, a poet from Warsaw, collecting To set up a camp on his property, and later on, during the occupation wandered In 1949,Īn old friend Edward Czarnecki (also known as “Poruczniko” during his time asĪ Polish Army officer) wrote to him with an anthropological challenge to join theĬamp and Ficowski accepted his proposal. Interested in the fate of Gypsies “out of necessity”-while looking for a refugeįrom the Security Office which was chasing him in the late 1940s. Jerzy Ficowski, a literary scholar, writer and artist, claimed that he became Which influenced the shape of the texts and continues to stir up controversy Poetry-to elucidate the cultural conditioning of the meeting of the two poets These reflections is-apart from indicating major translation aporia in Papusza’s This analysis is inspired by postcolonial translation strategies. The poetic project which involved the works of Bronisława Wajs-Papusza,Īc-cording to Jerzy Ficowski, revealed culturally untranslatable elements. Finally, Ficowskiĭid not presume that his translation work would be carefully examined byĬultural studies seeking hidden traces of oral messages in the texts he recorded. Stemmed from the Roma requirement of secrecy and mystery, which, whenĭisregarded, was sanctioned by exclusion from the community.

Would reveal a prominent disparity between the two cultures. Not expect that his discovery would bear tragic consequences for the poet and His Romani adventure would lead to discovering Papusza, a poet, whose storyĪnd works were to move the hearts and minds of literature lovers. Upon his arrival, Ficowski did not expect that Of Dionizy Dyśko Wajs and his wife, Bronisława Wajs, known as “Papusza” The area of Stargard Szczeciński in August 1949. Jerzy Ficowski arrived in a Polish Roma (Gypsy) camp of 16 families in Now for the first time it speaks for itself and about itself with its own voice. Gypsiness, the romance of the forest wanderers’ lifestyle, has been made familiar to us from beautiful, but often misleading, works of poetry from around the world.

Jerzy Ficowski and Papusza’s Poetic Project in the Postcolonial Perspective

Pieśni mówione by Papusza