Stanisław Jerzy Lec (; 6 March 1909 – 7 May 1966), born

Baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than ...

Stanisław Jerzy de Tusch-Letz, was a Polish

aphorist An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by trad ...

and

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 (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

. Often mentioned among the greatest writers of post-war Poland, he was one of the most influential aphorists of the 20th century, known for

lyric poetry Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person. The term for both modern lyric poetry and modern song lyrics derives from a form of Ancient Greek literature, t ...

and skeptical philosophical-moral

aphorism An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by tra ...

s, often with a political

subtext In any communication, in any medium or format, "subtext" is the underlying or implicit meaning that, while not explicitly stated, is understood by an audience. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as "an underlying and often distinct theme ...

Biography

Son of the Baron Benon de Tusch-Letz and Adela Safrin, he was born on 6 March 1909 in Lemberg,

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

(now Lviv) to a Jewish nobilitated family.Stanisław Jerzy Lec" (in English) on the Wirtualny Sztetl porta
(read online).
The family moved to

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

at the onset of

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, and Lec received his early education there. After the war the family returned to Lwów in the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...

. Lec attended the Lemberg Evangelical School. In 1927 he matriculated and began studies at Lwów's Jan Kazimierz University in Polish language and law. He graduated in 1933. His literary debut was in 1929. Much of his early work was lyric poetry appearing in left-wing and communist magazines. He collaborated with the communist “''Dziennik Popularny''" between 1933 and 1936. In 1935 he co-founded the satirical magazine '' Szpilki'' (Pins). A "literary cabaret" he founded in Lwów in collaboration with Leon Pasternak in 1936 was closed by the authorities after several performances. Nor did his law-abiding image improve after he took part in the Convention of Culture Workers, a radical congress initiated by the international communist movement Popular Front in the same year. Later that year he spent a few months in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

, afraid that his activism could lead to his arrest in Poland. He spent the next two years in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, where he was involved with a number of other left-leaning publications. Following the

German invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

on 1 September 1939, Lec fled Warsaw, returning to his hometown, Lwów. Lec spent the years 19391941 there, while the city along with the rest of Polish Eastern Borderlands was occupied by the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

after the

Soviet invasion of Poland The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military conflict by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Second Polish Republic, Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Polan ...

on 17 September 1939. While in the Soviet Union, Lec joined in the literary life under the auspices of

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

authorities. He contributed to the magazine New Horizons. His poems, satires, articles, and translations from Russian were published in Krasnoe Znamya magazine. In 1940 he joined the

Union of Soviet Writers The Union of Soviet Writers, USSR Union of Writers, or Soviet Union of Writers () was a creative union of professional writers in the Soviet Union. It was founded in 1934 on the initiative of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (1932) a ...

of Ukraine and became a member of the editorial board of The Literary Almanac in Lwów. He wrote the first poem about

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

written in the

Polish language Polish (, , or simply , ) is a West Slavic languages, West Slavic language of the Lechitic languages, Lechitic subgroup, within the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, and is written in the Latin script. It is primarily spo ...

("Stalin", ''Czerwony Sztandar'', 5 December 1939). A number of his works appeared in the '' Czerwony Sztandar'' (Red Banner) newspaper. On 19 November 1939 Lec signed a resolution calling for the incorporation of Polish Eastern Borderlands into the territory of the

. Lec's collaboration with the Soviet authorities remains controversial to this day, though he has been defended by

Adam Michnik Adam Michnik (; born 17 October 1946) is a Polish historian, essayist, former Anti-communist resistance in Poland (1944–1989), dissident, Intellectual#Public intellectual, public intellectual, as well as co-founder and editor-in-chief of the P ...

who wrote in his 2007 book that Lec has been unfairly branded by critical opinion as a "Soviet collaborator" on the basis of his "weakest, least successful, or most frankly conformist pieces". After Nazi Germany's attack on the Soviet Union he was imprisoned in a German work camp in

Tarnopol Ternopil, known until 1944 mostly as Tarnopol, is a city in western Ukraine, located on the banks of the Seret (river), Seret River. Ternopil is one of the major cities of Western Ukraine and the historical regions of Galicia (Central Europe ...

(now Ternopil), from which he made several attempts to escape. He received a death sentence for his second attempt to escape, but managed to successfully escape in 1943. In his autobiography he described his escape as having taken place after he killed his guard with a shovel when taken to dig his own grave. This became the subject of one of his most famous poems "He who had dug his own grave" (from the cycle "To Abel and Cain"):
He who had dug his own grave looks attentively at the gravedigger's work, but not pedantically: for this one digs a grave not for himself. After his escape he participated in partisan warfare within the communist formations of Polish resistance (the Gwardia Ludowa and the Armia Ludowa), and eventually served in regular units of

Polish People's Army The Polish People's Army (, ; LWP) was the second formation of the Polish Armed Forces in the East during the latter stages of the Second World War (1943–1945), and subsequently the armed forces of the Polish communist state (1945–1989 ...

until the end of the war, which he finished with the rank of major. He also edited the communist resistance underground newsletter ''Żołnierz w Boju'' (Soldier in Combat) and the communist magazine ''Wolny Lud'' (Free Nation). Lec's wartime service allowed him to obtain a diplomatic post as a cultural attaché in Vienna. Becoming disillusioned with the Communist government, he left for

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

in 1950 with his wife, son and daughter. Lec couldn't adapt to the life in Israel and returned to Poland with his son after two years there. His wife and daughter remained in Israel. He moved to a small town in which he had been in the underground during the war, and remarried there before returning to Warsaw. At first he worked as a translator, as the Polish communist authorities had taken away his right to write or publish until the late 1950s. He was immensely popular, and despite the anti-communist and anti-totalitarian themes of his later works, he was given an official state funeral in Warsaw when he died on 7 May 1966. That year, he was awarded the Officer Cross of the Order Polonia Restituta.

Works

Lec's early works were primarily lyrical poetry. In his later years, he became known for aphorisms and

epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word derives from the Greek (, "inscription", from [], "to write on, to inscribe"). This literary device has been practiced for over two millennia ...

s. He was influenced by religious (Jewish and Christian) as well as European cultural traditions. In his works he often modernized ancient messages, while preserving their universality. His notable poems such as ''Notatnik polowy'' (Field Notebook; 1946), ''Rękopis Jerozolimski'' (The Jerusalem Manuscript; 1950–1952, reedited in 1956 and 1957), and ''Do Kaina i Abla'' (To Cain and Abel; 1961) had a theme of exploring the world through irony, melancholy, and nostalgia. His later works, usually very short (aphorisms), through techniques such as wordplay, paradox, nonsense, abstract humor, and didacticism convey philosophical thoughts through single phrases and sentences. Collections of Lec’s aphorisms and epigrams include ''Z tysiąca jednej fraszki'' (From a Thousand and One Trifles; 1959), ''Fraszkobranie ''(Gathering Trifles; 1967); and ''Myśli nieuczesane'' (Unkempt Thoughts; 1957, followed by sequels in 1964 and 1966). His work has been translated into a number of languages, including English, German, Slovak, Dutch, Italian, Serbian, Croatian, Swedish, Czech, Finnish, Bulgarian, Russian, Romanian and Spanish.

Lec's
aphorism An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by tra ...
s

*Those who tried to enlighten were often hanged on lampposts. *Beyond each corner new directions lie in wait. *It's a shame to suspect, when you are quite certain. *The exit is usually where the entrance was. *Some like to understand what they believe in. Others like to believe in what they understand. *He who limps is still walking. *In a war of ideas it is people who get killed. *The mob shouts with one big mouth and eats with a thousand little ones. *Even a glass eye can see its blindness. *To whom should we marry Freedom, to make it multiply? *I am against using death as a punishment. I am also against using it as a reward. *You can close your eyes to reality but not to memories. *Optimists and pessimists differ only on the date of the end of the world. *Is it a progress if a cannibal is using knife and fork? *If a man who cannot count finds a four-leaf clover, is he lucky? *No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible. *All is in the hands of man. Therefore wash them often. *Do not ask God the way to heaven; he will show you the hardest one. *If you are not a psychiatrist, stay away from idiots. They are too stupid to pay a layman for his company. *Thoughts, like fleas, jump from man to man, but they don't bite everybody. *The first condition of immortality is death. *Suppose you succeed in breaking the wall with your head. And what, then, will you do in the next cell? *When smashing monuments, save the pedestals—they always come in handy. *Do not expect too much of the end of the world. *Even the masochists tell everything when tortured. From sheer gratitude.

Family

Lec was married twice, first with Elżbieta Rusiewicz-Zuckerman, with whom he had a son Jan (1949) and a daughter Małgorzata (1941), and second with Krystyna Świętońska, with whom he had a son Tomasz (1955).

Influence

Roman Turovsky Roman Mykhailovych Turovsky-Savchuk (born May 16, 1961) is an American artist-painter, photographer and videoinstallation artist, as well as a lutenist-composer,

composed a

tombeau A tombeau (plural tombeaux) is a musical composition (earlier, in the early 16th century, a poem) commemorating the death of a notable individual. The term derives from the French word for "tomb" or "tombstone". The vast majority of tombeaux date f ...

for Lec in 2018.http://polyhymnion.org/tombeau

Radu Jude Radu Jude (; born 28 March 1977) is a Romanian film director and screenwriter. Most known for his Golden Bear winner film ''Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn'' (2021). Biography In 2003, Jude graduated from the Film Directing Department of the Med ...

's movie " Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World" is titled after one of Lec's aphorisms.

Main works

* ''Barwy'', poems (1933) * ''Spacer cynika'', satire and epigrams (1946) * ''Notatnik polowy'', poems (1946) * ''Życie jest fraszką'', satire and epigrams (1948) * ''Nowe wiersze'' (1950) * ''Rękopis jerozolimski'' (1956) * ''Unkempt Thoughts'' (''Myśli nieuczesane'') (1957) * ''Z tysiąca i jednej fraszki'' (1959) * ''Kpię i pytam o drogę'' (1959) * ''Do Abla i Kaina'' (1961) * ''List gończy'' (1963) * ''More Unkempt Thoughts'' (''Myśli nieuczesane nowe'') (1964) * ''Poema gotowe do skoku'' (1964) * ''Fraszkobranie'' (1966)

References

Bibliography

*Mirosław Nowakowski, ''Lexical Expectations: Lexical Operations in "Myśli nieuczesane" (Unkempt thoughts)'',

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

, The Adam Mickiewicz University, 1986. * Jacek Trznadel, ''Kolaboranci: Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński i grupa komunistycznych pisarzy we Lwowie, 19391941'' ("The Collaborators"), Komorów, Fundacja Pomocy Antyk/Wydawnictwo Antyk Marcin Dybowski, 1998. . *''PolskaUkraina: trudna odpowiedź: dokumentacja spotkań historyków (19942001): kronika wydarzeń na Wołyniu i w Galicji Wschodniej (19391945)'', ed. R. Niedzielko,

, Naczelna Dyrekcja Archiwów Państwowych entral Directorate of State Archives& Ośrodek Karta, 2003. , . * Karl Dedecius, ''Stanisław Jerzy Lec: Pole, Jew, European'', tr. & ed. M. Jacobs,

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

, The Judaica Foundation/Center for Jewish Culture, 2004. . (Bilingual edition: text in Polish and English.) *Marta Kijowska, ''Die Tinte ist ein Zündstoff: Stanisław Jerzy Lec der Meister des unfrisierten Denkens'',

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, Carl Hanser, 2009. . (See esp. pp. 43ff.) *Dorota Szczęśniak, "Jewish Inspirations in the Literary Work of Stanisław Jerzy Lec"; in: ''Poles & Jews: History, Culture, Education'', ed. M. Misztal & P. Trojański,

, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Pedagogicznego, 2011. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Lec, Stanislaw Jerzy 1909 births 1966 deaths 20th-century Polish male writers 20th-century Polish poets Aphorists Armia Ludowa members Polish barons Collaborators with the Soviet Union Cultural attachés Epigrammatists Home Army members Jewish concentration camp survivors Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Polish expatriates in Austria Polish expatriates in Israel Polish expatriates in the Soviet Union Polish male poets Polish satirists Polish satirical poets Writers from Lviv