Ryszard Krynicki (Polish: ; born 28 June 1943) is a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

and

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

, member of the Polish "New Wave" Movement. He is regarded as one of the most prominent post-war

contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...

Polish poets List of poets who have written much of their poetry in Polish. See also Discussion Page for additional poets not listed here. There have been five Polish-language Nobel Prize laureates in literature: Henryk Sienkiewicz, Władysław Reymont, ...

. In 2015, he was awarded the

Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award The Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award (Polish: ''Międzynarodowa Nagroda Literacka im. Zbigniewa Herberta'') is a Polish international literature prize established in 2013 in Warsaw and named after a Polish poet, essayist, and morali ...

as a recognition for his poetry works.

Life and works

He was born on 28 June 1943 in

St. Valentin St. Valentin (also referred to as ''Sankt Valentin'') is the most westerly town in the district of Amstetten in Lower Austria in Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern pa ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, he moved to Poland, where he graduated from

Marie Curie Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...

High School No. 2 in Gorzów Wielkopolski. He further studied

Polish philology Polish studies, or Polonistics ( pl, filologia polska, or ''polonistyka'') is the field of humanities that researches, documents and disseminates the Polish language and Polish literature in both historic and present-day forms. In the United State ...

at the

Adam Mickiewicz University Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint Joh ...

. He made his literary debut in 1964 in Poznań's literary club ''Od nowa'', where he publicly read out one of his untitled poems. His first poem was published in 1966 (''Wczasowstąpienie'') in a literary magazine ''Pomorze''. In 1968, he wrote ''Pęd pogoni, pęd ucieczki'' ("The Impulse to Pursue, the Impulse to Flee"), which one year later appeared in his first book of poetry ''Akt urodzenia'' ("The Birth Certificate"). He also published articles in an emigration weekly ''Wiadomości'' ("The News"). In the 1970s and 1980s, he was actively involved in the opposition movement against communist authorities of the

Polish People's Republic The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million ne ...

. In 1971–1973 he worked at the editorial office of the

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

-based ''Student'' magazine where he met many prominent members of the generation of the Polish ''New Wave'' (1968–1976) including

Adam Zagajewski Adam Zagajewski (21 June 1945 – 21 March 2021) was a Polish poet, novelist, translator, and essayist. He was awarded the 2004 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the 2016 Griffin Poetry Prize Lifetime Recognition Award, the 2017 P ...

and

Stanisław Barańczak Stanisław Barańczak (, November 13, 1946December 26, 2014) was a Polish poet, literary critic, scholar, editor, translator and lecturer. He is perhaps most well known for his English-to- Polish translations of the dramas of William Shakespeare a ...

. He was the signatory of

Letter of 59 The Letter of 59 (also known as the ''Memorial'' or ''Memorandum of 59'') was an open letter signed by 66 (or 59 at first, hence the name) Polish intellectuals who protested against the changes of the Constitution of the People's Republic of Poland ...

, which was a reaction of Polish

intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or a ...

s against the undemocratic changes in the

Constitution of the Polish People's Republic The Constitution of the Polish People's Republic (also known as the July Constitution or the Constitution of 1952) was a supreme law passed in communist-ruled Poland on 22 July 1952. It superseded the post-World War II provisional Small Cons ...

. As a direct consequence of this, his works were officially banned between 1976 and 1980. He collaborated with the Workers' Defense Committee; and in the period between 1977 and 1981, he published articles in ''Zapis'' magazine. In 1980, he took part in a

hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...

St. Christopher Saint Christopher ( el, Ἅγιος Χριστόφορος, ''Ágios Christóphoros'') is venerated by several Christian denominations as a martyr killed in the reign of the 3rd-century Roman emperor Decius (reigned 249–251) or alternatively u ...

's Church in Podkowa Leśna as an act of solidarity with the detained

political dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 20th ...

s Dariusz Kobzdej and Mirosław Chojecki. He published numerous texts and articles in opposition magazines such as ''Solidarności Wielkopolski'' ("Greater Poland Solidarity"), ''Obserwator Wielkopolski'' ("Greater Poland's Observer") and ''Bez Debitu'' ("Without Debit"). He also published his works in ''Zeszyty Literackie'' ("Literary Notebooks"). In 1988, he co-founded ''wydawnictwo a5''

publishing house Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

, which specialized in the publication of poetry books. Since 1991, he has been running a publishing company together with his wife Krystyna. Nowadays, Krynicki is seen as one of the foremost representatives of contemporary Polish poetry alongside

and Ewa Lipska. In 2015, he became a member of the

Polish Academy of Learning The Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences or Polish Academy of Learning ( pl, Polska Akademia Umiejętności), headquartered in Kraków and founded in 1872, is one of two institutions in contemporary Poland having the nature of an academy of scie ...

Themes

His early poems contain a wealth of

poetic devices Poetic devices are a form of literary device used in poetry. Poems are created out of poetic devices composite of: structural, grammatical, rhythmic, metrical, verbal, and visual elements. They are essential tools that a poet uses to create rhyth ...

and evoke gloomy imagery which presents reality as "a nightmare of chaos, emptiness and nothingness". The feeling of oppression and hostility characteristic of his works in this period can be interpreted in political, ethical and metaphysical aspects. Krynicki's approach to poetry at that time "concentrated on language in order to discern the falsehoods perpetrated in language by the

totalitarian Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and reg ...

ideology. The goal was to escape from the lies of communist new-speak". His later works represent a radical shift from complex, Baroque poems to short, simple, miniature poems that evolved from "an imperative of internal self-perfection, cleansing the world of falsehood, and refusing to submit to various concepts of nothingness". Their aim was to inspire the reader to contemplate the world and to encourage empathy.

Awards

(2015) * Gdynia Literary Prize for the translation of Paul Celan's ''Psalm and Other Poems'' (nomination) (2014) * ''Stone'' Award at the City of Poetry Festival in Lublin (2008) * Silver Medal for Merit to Culture - Gloria Artis (2005) * Friedrich-Gundolf-Preis (2000) * Kościelski Award (1976)

Selected publications

* ''Pęd pogoni, pęd ucieczki'' ("The Impulse to Pursue, the Impulse to Flee"), Warsaw, 1968 * ''Akt urodzenia'' (''The Birth Certificate''), Poznań, 1969 * ''Organizm zbiorowy'' ("The Collective Organism"), Kraków, 1975 * ''Nasze życie rośnie. Wiersze'' ("Our Life is Growing: Poems"), Paris, 1978 * ''Niewiele więcej. Wiersze z notatnika 78-79'' ("Not Much More. Poems From the Notebook 78-79"), Kraków, 1981 * ''Jeżeli w jakimś kraju'' ("If in Some Country"), Underground publisher S.i.s.n, 1982 * ''Ocalenie z nicości'' ("Salvation from Nothingness"), Kraków, 1983 * ''Niepodlegli nicości'' ("Independent of Nothingness: Selected and Revised Poems and Translations"), Warsaw, 1988 * ''Magnetyczny punkt. Wybrane wiersze i przekłady'' ("The Magnetic Point: Selected Poems and Translations"), Warsaw, 1996 * ''Nie szkodzi'', 2002 * ''"Kamień, szron"'', Kraków, 2005 * ''Wiersze wybrane'' ("Selected Poems"), Kraków, 2009 * ''Przekreślony początek'' - selected poems, Wrocław, 2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Krynicki, Ryszard 1943 births 20th-century Polish poets Polish translators Polish male poets Living people Polish publishers (people) 20th-century Polish male writers People associated with the magazine "Kultura"