Twarzą ku nocy: Twórczość literacka Maurycego Szymla [Facing the night: literary works of Maurycy Szymel]

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Notes

1. The series is thought to be ongoing. To date, it contains the following titles: Eugenia Prokop-Janiec, Pogranicze polsko-żydowskie. Topografie i teksty (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersystetu Jagiellońskiego, 2013); Eugenia Prokop-Janiec and Marek Tuszewicki, eds, Polskie tematy i konteksty literatury żydowskiej (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, 2014); Eugenia Prokop-Janiec, ed, Polacy-Żydzi. Kontakty kulturowe i literackie (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, 2014); Zuzanna Kołodziejska, Izraelita (1866–1915), Znaczenie kulturowe i literackie czasopisma (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, 2014).

2. It is worth reminding the reader how the term “Polish-Jewish literature” is understood by scholars and how it used to be understood by writers. Since the 1860s it has been understood to refer to literary texts that deal with Jewish matters and are written by Jewish authors who identify themselves with the Jews. Such a definition can be found in different articles and manifestos both in the nineteenth century and in the first half of the twentieth century. See for example: Adolf J. Cohn, “Nasz dorobek literacki”, Izraelita 10 (1901), 110–112; Stefan Pomer, “Żydowskie miasteczko,” Nasz Przegląd 180 (1934), 17. In the 1990s Eugenia Prokop-Janiec recollected that definition in her book Polish-Jewish Literature in the Interwar Years, trans. Abe Shenitzer (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2003), 5 and since then it has been widely used by various scholars in that meaning.

3. Although The Shy Hand of a Jew, a bilingual collection of Szymel's poems translated into English, was published in 2013, it is not a full anthology and it does not contain a thorough analysis of Szymel's work. See: The Shy Hand of a Jew. Poems by Maurycy (Mosze) Szymel, eds. and trans. Aniela and Jerzy Gregorek (New York: Cross-Cultural Communications, 2013). Unlike any other collection of Szymel's poems, Twarzą ku nocy contains all his volumes of poems as well as other work; that is why this publication is so extraordinary.

4. Szymel published three volumes in Polish: Powrót do domu (Warszawa: Nakład Księgarni F. Hoesicka, 1931), Skrzypce przedmieścia (Warszawa: Nakład Księgarni F. Hoesicka, 1932), and Wieczór liryczny (Warszawa: Skład Główny Dom Książki Polskiej, 1935) while in Yiddish he published only one: Mir iz umetik (Varshe, Vien: A.B. Tserata Farlag, 1937). The Yiddish volume has been rewritten and checked by Karolina Szymaniak.

5. There is a section devoted to various poems published in different periodicals between 1926 and 1939.

6. The Skamander was a group of Polish experimental poets founded in 1918 by Julian Tuwim, Antoni Słonimski, Jan Lechoń, Kazimierz Wierzyński, and Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. In the 1920s they published their own monthly Skamander, but they also collaborated with other literary journals, including Wiadomości Literackie, the most important literary periodical in interwar Poland.

7. Julian Tuwim (1894–1953) was a recognized Polish poet of Jewish origin, a key figure in the interwar Polish literary world, a well-known children's literature author, and a co-founder of a modernist and experimental group Skamander. In the 1930s he along with other poets of Jewish origin publishing in Wiadomości Literackie was fiercely attacked by antisemitic critics and writers for “making Polish literature Jewish.” Roman Brandstaetter (1906–87) was a Polish-Jewish poet, writer, playwright, and journalist, one of the most important figures among Polish-Jewish writers in interwar Poland. After World War II he converted to Catholicism and started to write religious poems and plays. In 1927 Brandstaetter published an interview with Tuwim, against which the latter protested. The conflict became more dramatic when Brandstaetter started attacking Wiadomości Literackie – the most influential Polish literary journal, whose editorial board contained many Polish writers of Jewish origin – for their attitude towards Jewish culture. See: Eugenia Prokop-Janiec, Polish-Jewish Literature in the Interwar Years, trans. Abe Shenitzer (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2003), 82–95

8. Eugenia Prokop-Janiec refers to Harold Bloom's renowned Anxiety of Influence. A Theory of Poetry (London: Oxford University Press, 1978).

9. Eugenia Prokop-Janiec, “Twarzą ku nocy: lato 1939,” Twarzą ku nocy, 57, 65–7.

10. Joanna Lisek, “‘Dziadowie moi!'-o postaciach biblijnych w poezji Maurycego Szymla,” Twarzą ku nocy, 44.

11. Joanna Lisek, “Droga Maurycego Szymla do Mojsze Szimla,” Twarzą ku nocy, 73.

12. Maria Antosik-Piela, “‘Dzielni rycerze pługa'. Syjonizm w twórczości Maurycego Szymla,” Twarzą ku nocy, 46–7.

13. Ibid., 52.