Jarosław Marek Rymkiewicz (''Jarosław Marek Szulc''; 13 July 1935 – 3 February 2022) was a Polish

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 ...

essayist An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal ...

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

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 ...

and literary critic. He is the recipient of the 2003

Nike Award The Nike Literary Award ( pl, Nagroda Literacka „Nike") is a literary prize awarded each year for the best book of a single living author writing in Polish and published the previous year. It is widely considered the most important award fo ...

, Poland's most important literary prize.

Life and work

Rymkiewicz was the son of Władysław Szulc, of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

and

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 ...

origin, who changed his last name to Rymkiewicz (a writer) and wife Hanna Baranowska, of

and

Tatar The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

origin (a physician). He 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

University of Łódź The University of Łódź ( Polish: ''Uniwersytet Łódzki'', Latin: ''Universitas Lodziensis'') is a public research university founded in 1945 in Łódź, Poland, as a continuation of three higher education institutions functioning in Łódź i ...

and worked at the Literary Research Institute of Polish Academy of Sciences and Letters. As a poet, he was influenced by the traditions of

classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthet ...

and the baroque. He has received multiple prizes for his novels, essays, and translations, including the Kościelski Prize (1967), S. Vincenz Prize (1985), and Polish PEN Club Prize. His volume of poetry ''Zachód słońca w Milanówku'' won the prestigious

in 2003. Although Rymkiewicz was primarily a poet, he is better known as the author of two influential novels that contributed to the two most important debates of the 1980s: that involving the 1981 martial law and Polish-Jewish relations. His novel ''Rozmowy polskie latem'', 1983 (''Polish Conversations in Summer'' 1983) discusses the meaning of being Polish and the preoccupation with achieving independence. Rymkiewicz’s second novel, entitled ''Umschlagplatz'' (1988), had a greater impact. Instytut Literacki, the largest Polish émigré publishing house, originally published the novel in Paris in 1988 as it could not appear in communist Poland. It was reprinted a few times by underground publishing houses in Poland but officially appeared only in 1992 after the communists lost power in 1989. It was translated into French (1989), German (1993), and English (1994). The novel focuses on the symbolic meaning of Umschlagplatz, which denotes a small square in German-occupied Warsaw (1939–1945) from which the Germans sent more than 300,000 Jews to their deaths, and thus a place which "may well be the only place of its kind" in the world. (p. 7, Umschlagplatz). He attempts to understand the implication of the existence of such a place for the contemporary Warsaw and the contemporary Poles. It took Rymkiewicz two years of study and research to create a detailed plan of the square. He concluded that Germans introduced the name Umschlagplatz sometime before July 1942; in pre-war Poland the place was called Transfer Square and was the center for the Jewish wholesale trade. He is also known as a translator, particularly of American poetry ( T. S. Eliot and

Wallace Stevens Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...

) and of Spanish poetry (

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...

and

Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño (, ; ; 17 January 160025 May 1681) was a Spanish dramatist, poet, writer and knight of the Order of Santiago. He is known as one of the most distinguished Baroque ...

). As an essayist, Rymkiewicz concentrated on

Polish history The history of Poland spans over a thousand years, from medieval tribes, Christianization and monarchy A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political l ...

( the partition period,

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 supported the conservative Law and Justice political party. Rymkiewicz died on 3 February 2022, at the age of 86.Nie żyje Jarosław Marek Rymkiewicz. Miał 86 lat

Publications

Poetry

Each year links to its corresponding "

ear An ear is the organ that enables hearing and, in mammals, body balance using the vestibular system. In mammals, the ear is usually described as having three parts—the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear consists of ...

in poetry" article: *

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year ...

: ''Konwencje'' ("Conventions")Web page title
"Rymkiewicz Jaroslaw Marek"
, at the Institute Ksiazki website (in Polish), "Bibliography" section, retrieved February 24, 2010 *

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

: ''Ulica Mandelsztama'' ("Mandelstam Street") *

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

: ''Mogila Ordona'' ("Ordon's Grave") *

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

: ''Moje dzielo posmiertne'' ("My Posthumous Works") Krakow: Znak *

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

: ''Znak niejasny, baśń półżywa'' ("The Unclear sign, a Half-living Legend"), Warsaw: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy * 2002: ''Zachód słońca w Milanówku'' ("Sunset in Milanówek"), Warsaw: Sic! * 2006: ''Do widzenia gawrony'' ("Good-bye, Rooks"), Warsaw: Sic!

Prose

Each year links to its corresponding "

in literature" article:

Books of Essays

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

: ''Czym jest klasycyzm'' ("What is Classicism?") *

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Janu ...

: ''Mysli rozne o ogrodach'' ("Various Thoughts about Gardens") *

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...

: ''Aleksander Fredro jest w zlym humorze'' ("Aleksander Fredro is in a Bad Mood") * 1982: ''Juliusz Slowacki pyta o gozine'' ("Juliusz Slowacki Inquires about the Time"). Warsaw: Czytelnik *

: ''Wielki Ksiaze'' ("Archduke"). Warsaw: PIW *

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

: ''Zmut'' Warsaw: Niezalezna Oficyna Wydawnicza *

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...

: ''Baket'' *

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

: ''Kilka szczegolow'' ("A Few Particulars"). Cracow: Arcana * 1996: ''Do Snowia i dalej'' ("To Snow and Beyond"). Cracow: Arcana * 2001: ''Lesmian. Encyklopedia'' ("Lesmian. Encyclopedia"). Warsaw: Sic! * 2004: ''Słowacki. Encyklopedia'' ("Słowacki: The Encyclopaedia"), Warsaw: Sic! * 2007: ''Wieszanie'' ("Hanging"), Warszawa: Sic! *

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

: ''Kinderszenen'', Warszawa: Sic!

Novels

: ''Rozmowy polskie latem roku 1983'' ("Polish Conversations during 1983 Summer") *

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

: ''Umschlagplatz''

Comedies

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

: ''Krol Miesopust'' ("The King of Meat") * 1971: ''Porwanie Europy'' ("The Abduction of Europe") *

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

: ''Kochankowie pieklo'' ("The Lovers of Hell") *

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: ...

: ''Niebianskie bliznieta'' ("The Heavenly Twins") *

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...

: ''Dwor nad Narwia'' ("Country House on the Narwa")

References

External links

Instytut Książki
Web page on Rymkiewicz {{DEFAULTSORT:Rymkiewicz, Jaroslaw Marek 1935 births 2022 deaths 20th-century Polish dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Polish poets Polish male dramatists and playwrights Polish people of German descent Polish people of Lipka Tatar descent Nike Award winners Polish male poets University of Łódź alumni Writers from Warsaw People associated with the magazine "Kultura"