SEE US ON FB 
2 September 2010

Main page

Polish Culture in the World Polish Cultural Institutes
important links Ministry of Culture and National Heritage - Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych

Publisher:
Adam Mickiewicz Institute
ul. Mokotowska 25
00-560 Warsaw
tel. (+48 22) 44 76 100
fax (+48 22) 44 76 152
www.iam.pl 
about us  redakcja@culture.pl  order newsletter 
Bronisław Maj
languages: Polski  / English  / German 
 

Born in 1953, he is the author of seven volumes of poetry which have won him prestigious literary prizes, a reputation as one of the finest poets of his generation, and a place in many anthologies of contemporary poetry published both in Poland and abroad.

Maj is also the author of a book about Tadeusz Gajcy, a poet who died during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. He writes newspaper columns and has edited the literary quarterly Na Głos for many years. He lives in Cracow and teaches at the Jagiellonian University and the School of Creative Writing.

Who is the protagonist of his poems? Someone who lives in delight at the beauty of the world but is terrified by its incomprehensible nature. Someone who contemplates the moment of the experienced miracle of belonging, only to turn to a study of the bitter wonder of his own alienation. And also someone who lives in reminiscence and the cherishing of his own private - but also collective and shared - memories, someone suffering from the progressive disease of passing time, especially when someone else's intense presence turns into an overwhelming absence. Finally, it is someone who cannot consent to a poetry that only soothes the pain and accentuates the beautiful without also attempting to penetrate to reality or to describe the "absorbing routineness" of life. The anxieties that are always present in Maj's poetry - a poetry with a voice of great purity - attune it to an elegiac tone of concern for others, while nevertheless mandating a stubborn insistence on values held dear. These values are called faithfulness, friendship, solidarity, and admiration for things worth admiring.
"Properly speaking, these works are lyrical epiphanies, descriptions of poetic revelation or illumination that make it possible for a moment to grasp the sense of existence in all the complication of its internal contradictions... In all of his poetry, Bronisław Maj confirms the simple truth that a consistent metaphysical poet cannot, in the final analysis, be anything other than a moralist." (Stanisław Barańczak)
Bibliography:
  • "Wiersze (Poems)" Warsaw: NOWA, 1980.
  • "Taka wolność. Wiersze z lat 1971-1975 (Such Freedom: Poems, 1971-1975)" Warsaw: MAW, 1981.
  • "Album rodzinny (Family Album)" Kraków, Oficyna Literacka, 1986.
  • "Zagłada świętego miasta (Destruction of the Holy City)" London, Puls, 1986.
  • "Zmęczenie (Fatigue)" Kraków, Znak, 1986.
  • "Światło (Light)" Kraków, Znak, 1994.
  • "Elegie, treny, sny (Elegies, Threnodies, Dreams)" Kraków, Znak 2003.
Collected Columns:
  • "Kronika wydarzeń artystycznych, kulturalnych, towarzyskich i innych (Chronicle of Artistic, Cultural, Social and Other Occurrences)" Kraków, WL, 1997.

Source: www.polska2000.pl, Copyright: Stowarzyszenie Willa Decjusza

back to top
Browsing history




VIDEO COVERAGE  PHOTO COVERAGE  PAINTING  GRAPHIC ART  DRAWING  PHOTOGRAPHY  PORTRAITS  POLISH FILM 
RECENTLY ADDED
Martha Argerich and Maria João Pires at the "Chopin and His Europe" Festival
August 30, 2010
Promotion of the Podlaskie Voivodship
July 30 - July 31, 2010
Andrzej Sosnowski
On Monday, September 20, the first Polish arena for the Euro 2012 Cup will open in Poznań. The official ceremony will be honoured with a concert featuring Sting performing with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, conducted by Steven Mercurio.
Until September 25 (except for Sundays and holidays), the John the Baptist Archcathedral in Warsaw will host daily organ recitals as part of the 7th edition of the "Grand Organ of the Archicathedral" Festival.
"Dotyk człowieka/Beruehrungen" is the title of the exhibition presenting works of six Polish contemporary artists displayed at the German Embassy in Warsaw (Jazdów street): on view until September 27.
On October 17, the National Museum in Poznań will host the first public presentation of Claude Monet's "Beach in Pourville". The painting was stolen ten years ago. The painting returned to the museum in January 2010 after the folice found the thief.
Jazz pianist Chick Corea will give his only Polish solo concert on November 8 in Zabrze.
© Copyright by Instytut Adama Mickiewicza. All rights reserved - unless stated otherwise - including the rights of authors and the publisher. No further distribution of articles or other materials contained on the www.culture.pl website is permitted without the publisher's consent.
www.culture.pl ISSN 1734-0624 Nr 3166 | www.iam.pl
implementation: www.ornak.pl | design: Marek K. Zalejski
SITE MAP