On One Poemby WislawaSzymborska, the1996 NobelLaureate inLiteratureOn the cover of The Elld and the

Beg/llllillg, the latest volume by therenowned Polish woman poet \X'islawaSzymborska, is an abstract painting byPoland's foremost painter Jerzy

owosielski. It was in fact Nowosielski,Szvmborska's old friend, who intro-duced me to her a few years ago inI--::rak6w._!\lthoughI had been interestedin both her verbal and \-isual output, Iasked the poet about her lesser knownyet equally fascinating collages. Herdeferential response was interspersedwith self-conscious laughter. Since then,for me, she will remain forever the rar-est type of celebrity, the one that doesnot exude an aura of self-importance.

Svzmborska, who creates, from timeto time, pun- filled collages, is an artconnoisseur, and, moreover, in her po-etry frequently evokes masterful paint-ings. In this triple role, she expressesher fascination with the visible world;

Photograph of the poet from WrodoscCzytania 5zymborskiej (Krakow:1996)

her eye w1erringly travels from one as-pect of reality to another and celebratesits wonders. She does not seek, nor doesshe trust, the so-called ideal beauty,since perfection-in her view--doesnot belong to this world. Thus her bestpoetic images are not so much touchedby imperfection but appear to us ratherunexpectedly, peripherally. Her eye issuddenly attracted to an onion, or thesole of a shoe, or a dead beetle, and weare caught up in her wonderment and

This is I see my exams:two monkeys, chained to the floor, sit on the windo\Vsill~the sky b~~in~~~~~'71t~r§~!!ithe sea lstaIciri.g itsbams, .. ......The exam is the History of Mankind.I stammer and hedge.':..:...::-.\.::'.'.. \.': ..".':: .,.... :..:...\ ..':............ . ....•.•'...:.•.:,.: .•.',...••....•...•.••.•.... :::.

One tnonk~v ~taresthe other se~ms to be dreaming away-but when it's clear 1don't knowwhahe prompts m~~vi~a g~nt1~clinking 0 f his chain.

joy, no matter what its origin.Yet one cannot claim that this is a

systematic tendency of hers, forSzymborska's imagination resists allsystems by creating anti-systems. Al-mos t every statement we can find inher poetry has an opposite statement.In her verse, a casually conjured imageis often complemented by a refined im-age taken from high culture, be it a me-dieval book illumination or a Rubenspainting. All forms of culture, low orhigh, are for Szymborska a source ofcognitive amusement and surprise.Other than children, poets perhaps arethe only individuals that never lose thegift to be surprised and, in turn, to sur-prise the reader. Sz\"mborska is a mas-ter at achieving this effect.

Let us look, for example, at herpoem, "Breughel's Two Monkeys." Thetitle already informs us of the poem'spoint of reference-Pieter Breughel'spainting from the Dahlem Museum.Szymborska takes care to preserve thepainting's integrity and content. Its min-iature scale is a perfect match forSzymborska's miniature poem on art.The many details captured in thepainting'scity and seascapeare jlL\.1:aposedwith a rudin1entary interior that servesas a confinement for two monkeys.

Szymborska-without imposing herpoetic ego on the painting--engagesin a dialogical interaction with our dis-tan t cousin, the monkey. Then, sheironically reverses the roles and endowsthe monkey (in this case, two monkeys)with superior wisdom and experiencesstemming from enslavement. In an as-tonishingly simple way, she shiftsBreughel's personal statement on hismarriage and leaving Antwerp into auniversal message concerning the er-roneous History of Mankind.

\X'hy then are the two nouns markedwith capital letters?

The poem appeared in 1957 duringa political thaw that offeredSzvmborska a brief moment of free-dom and allowed her to publish the firstof herw1Censored volumes. The HistorvExam was over. Very few Polish poetspassed that exam during the Stalinist era.l\lan~; in fact, compromised fueirtalents,

COlltill/led 011 page 5

Interest inHungary

Thrives at IUThe Bloomington campus ofIndiana

University is the major center forthe study of Hungary in the UnitedStates. It is home to the Hungarian Stud-ies program, the only such U.S.programleading to an advanced degree offeringa concentration of courses devoted toHungary, her history, culture, literature,and language. In addition to coursestaught by regular faculty in the Depart-

Laszlo Borhi (left) and MihalySzegedy-Maszak at the formal dinnerhonoring the Ambassador.

ment of CentralEurasian Studies,the Hungarianprogram IS en-hanced eachvear by theholder of theGyorgy RankiChair in Hun-garian Studies.

The Hungar-ian Chair is anendowed po-sition fundedjoin t1y by theHWlgarianAcad-emy of Sciencesand III and filledby a professor appointed from Hungary.Established by an agreement in 1979, itrepresented the rather unusual arrange-ment of an appointee from a Commu-nist COWltry serving on the faculty of anAmerican public wliversity.

This year's Hungarian Chair isLaszlo Borhi of the Institute of His-tory at the Hungarian Academy of Sci-ences. This spring, he has been teachingtwo courses on the political economyof Hungary and Hungarian foreign

Ambassador Gyorgy Banlaki (left) with Jean Sinor (middle)and Denis Sinor (right) at the Hungarian Conference.

policy, while working on a historicalstudy of the American response to So-viet rule in Hungary during the period19-1--1--56. Borhi also organized an in-ternational conference, "HungarianContributions to Scholarship," whichwas attended bv the Ambassador of theHungarian Republic, His ExcellencyGyorgy Banlaki.

The conference took place April 5-6 and brought together some 20

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or-as Szymborskadid--truly believedinthe utopian dream of a betterworld. fanyof these poets chose to forget their ownmistakes, while a handful of others, in-cluding Szymborska, did not deny themand understood the real depth of whatthis utopia represented. Hence thepoem's chilling message.

Introduced here as a poet of the ,-i-sual, Szymborska is more than a de-scriptive artist, since she imbues whatis obvious to our eye with personalexperience and sly reference to the dra-matic shifts and tensions of socio-politi-cal reality. Yet hers is also a rich andthoughtful summary encompassinglife's many intimate paradoxes and con-tradictions, best expressed in her"Thank- You Note:" "I owe so muchto those I don't love."

- BO'\.ellaShall.crossSlavic LaligNages alld literatNres, TUB.

Rector Wlodzimierz Siwinski of Warsaw University was honored at areception hosted by the IU Polish Studies Center. To his right is BozenaShallcross, Polish literature professor and the center's associate director. JanuszGrzelak (right) is dean of International Programs at Warsaw University. Siwinskiand Grzelak visited Bloomington in connection with the IU-Warsaw Exchange.