Edward Stachura. Man's life is a journey

Comic heroes usually try to save the world on their own. In an unequal battle, alone, they struggle against the evil. And when they leave this world, they become legends. Edward Stachura, alias Sted, was like a hero of a comic book, except that he was a real person. The vagabond poet left his family home in Łazieniec, near Aleksandrów Kujawski, where the soil is poor, unbelievable sands \ goats, mullein, pine tree, and crossroads. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, he roamed the high roads and wild roads of Communist Poland, with his guitar and knapsack.

“Mr. Nobody”, as he called himself, gave away all he had possessed. His poems and songs (which he sang himself ”for some wine and bread”) brought hope and a breath of freedom to the grey, sad, communist reality around him. Total freedom. It was freedom that didn’t take any note of politics, governments or traditions, but recognised only love.

Man is a wolf to man / but don’t become a wolf yourself. / Man is a brother to man / be a brother to a brother, he said in one of his poems. He had tried to combat all the evil in the world, for which he paid the highest price.

He became a legend while he was still alive. After his death, Stachura’s writings remained very popular for several years. These days he has become rather forgotten and he deserves to be remembered and honoured. Even with just this publication.

Piotr Całbecki Marshal of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship

text

Maciej Jasiński illustrations

ISBN 978-83-953483-8-9

Jacek Michalski

text Maciej Jasiński illustrations

Fot . Mu zeum Lite ratury

/ EAS T NEW S

Jacek Michalski The life story of Edward Stachura could begin like this: he was born on 18 August, 1937, he died tragically on 24 July, 1979, he wrote poetry and prose, he was a translator and a song writer. However, the life of Stachura, alias Sted, cannot be placed within the frameworks of a typical biographical note. Both his embarking upon adulthood as well as the last stage of his life were unusual. In fact, he was born into a family of Polish economic migrants in France, where he lived for ten years. It was there that he gained the knowledge of the language that he later brought to Poland with him. His independence had many shades: from financial resourcefulness he cultivated by playing cards for money almost professionally, through carefree roaming around cities and through wilderness, to his declaration ”to be true to himself” – a fundamental value of creativity and the reason for his disapproval of the order of reality that tormented him. That feature was the basis upon which he built his own legend that is still cultivated by Stachura’s fans.

The strength of its impact was seen in the credibility of the harmony of life and creation, which Henryk Bereza called “life-writing”. Nevertheless, the sense of his own otherness and not being understood (despite his immense popularity in the 70’s) led to his mental disorders and two suicide attempts. He didn’t give himself a third chance.

Today, 40 years after his death, Stachura is mainly remembered as a song writer whose songs were and still are performed by artists well known in the world of sung poetry. However, even rock groups that don’t normally use such lyrics also happen to reach for his songs. Stachura is also remembered for his prose, especially his novels Axing, or the Winter of the Forest Folk (Siekierezada, albo zima leśnych ludzi, (1971) and All the Brightness (Cała jaskrawość, 1969), although this list also includes: essayistically inventive novel, the title of which characterizes Stachura’s life, Everything is Poetry (Wszystko jest poezja, 1975), a collection of short stories Self (Się, 1977), and the original in form Fabula Rasa (1979). In the array of his works translations also deserve attention. Stachura’s diaries and letters also make for interesting reading, sometimes maybe a bit self-centered, but usually intimately sincere, telling a lot about his relations with other writers, such as Janusz Żernicki and Ryszard Milczewski-Bruno. His notes and exchange of letters provide a map of places Stachura visited and liked. Although there are large cities such as Warsaw, Gdynia, Lublin and Toruń on the map, more conspicuous are small towns, hamlets and charming wild areas between them. Places such as Łazieniec near Alexandrów Kujawski, where his family lived, and Ciechocinek, where he attended a secondary school, mark the time when Sted was entering adulthood and his family home was the centre of Stachura’s world, to which he would return throughout his whole life. He felt a special affection for this region, and in his famous Ballad for Potęgowa he wrote without embellishments but with a certain tenderness about the “White Kujawy”. He would add emotional impressions to the stories about the Kujawy region in his diary and letters written over the years, as if he wanted to save the happy moments of pure pleasure. Some of these natural observations may seem trivial and insignificant, but they are romantically charming, for instance, ”the slope covered in blue lupins, by the railway line between Suchatówka, on the Inowrocław-Toruń route” that he noticed in June 1968.

Today there are fewer and fewer places like these, but the Bieszczady area is still viewed as a nature sanctuary. It is there in Smolnik by the San River that the Workshops of Active Poetry named after Edward Stachura take place every year. The fact that this event of sung poetry is continued, hosting significant figures and attracting guests from all over the world, seems to be a good summary of the presentation of Stachura. It does not finish here but encourages to take a closer look at the man and his creativity.

content advisor dr hab. Dariusz Pniewski ISBN 978-83-953483-8-9 publication date 2020 print run 1500 szt. publisher Agencja Reklamowa GALL sc ul. Szosa Chełmińska 50, 87-100 Toruń gall@gall.torun.pl commissioned by Samorządu Województwa Kujawsko-Pomorskiego

Contact: Office of the Marshal of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region in Toruń Address: Plac Teatralny 2, 87-100 Toruń, tel. +48 56: 6218600, 6218610 e-mail: punkt.informacyjny@kujawsko-pomorskie.pl www.kujawsko-pomorskie.pl facebook.com/WojewodztwoKujawskoPomorskie twitter.com/lubietubyc

dr hab. Dariusz Pniewski PhD, NCU Professor literary scholar at the Department of Literary Anthropology and New Media Studies, Faculty of Humanities, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun. .

instagram.com/kujawskopomorskie youtube.com/user/umwkp issuu.com/kujawsko-pomorskie flickr.com/photos/kujawskopomorskie

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

text Maciej Jasiński illustrations

Fot . Mu zeum Lite ratury

/ EAS T NEW S

Jacek Michalski The life story of Edward Stachura could begin like this: he was born on 18 August, 1937, he died tragically on 24 July, 1979, he wrote poetry and prose, he was a translator and a song writer. However, the life of Stachura, alias Sted, cannot be placed within the frameworks of a typical biographical note. Both his embarking upon adulthood as well as the last stage of his life were unusual. In fact, he was born into a family of Polish economic migrants in France, where he lived for ten years. It was there that he gained the knowledge of the language that he later brought to Poland with him. His independence had many shades: from financial resourcefulness he cultivated by playing cards for money almost professionally, through carefree roaming around cities and through wilderness, to his declaration ”to be true to himself” – a fundamental value of creativity and the reason for his disapproval of the order of reality that tormented him. That feature was the basis upon which he built his own legend that is still cultivated by Stachura’s fans.

The strength of its impact was seen in the credibility of the harmony of life and creation, which Henryk Bereza called “life-writing”. Nevertheless, the sense of his own otherness and not being understood (despite his immense popularity in the 70’s) led to his mental disorders and two suicide attempts. He didn’t give himself a third chance.

Today, 40 years after his death, Stachura is mainly remembered as a song writer whose songs were and still are performed by artists well known in the world of sung poetry. However, even rock groups that don’t normally use such lyrics also happen to reach for his songs. Stachura is also remembered for his prose, especially his novels Axing, or the Winter of the Forest Folk (Siekierezada, albo zima leśnych ludzi, (1971) and All the Brightness (Cała jaskrawość, 1969), although this list also includes: essayistically inventive novel, the title of which characterizes Stachura’s life, Everything is Poetry (Wszystko jest poezja, 1975), a collection of short stories Self (Się, 1977), and the original in form Fabula Rasa (1979). In the array of his works translations also deserve attention. Stachura’s diaries and letters also make for interesting reading, sometimes maybe a bit self-centered, but usually intimately sincere, telling a lot about his relations with other writers, such as Janusz Żernicki and Ryszard Milczewski-Bruno. His notes and exchange of letters provide a map of places Stachura visited and liked. Although there are large cities such as Warsaw, Gdynia, Lublin and Toruń on the map, more conspicuous are small towns, hamlets and charming wild areas between them. Places such as Łazieniec near Alexandrów Kujawski, where his family lived, and Ciechocinek, where he attended a secondary school, mark the time when Sted was entering adulthood and his family home was the centre of Stachura’s world, to which he would return throughout his whole life. He felt a special affection for this region, and in his famous Ballad for Potęgowa he wrote without embellishments but with a certain tenderness about the “White Kujawy”. He would add emotional impressions to the stories about the Kujawy region in his diary and letters written over the years, as if he wanted to save the happy moments of pure pleasure. Some of these natural observations may seem trivial and insignificant, but they are romantically charming, for instance, ”the slope covered in blue lupins, by the railway line between Suchatówka, on the Inowrocław-Toruń route” that he noticed in June 1968.

Today there are fewer and fewer places like these, but the Bieszczady area is still viewed as a nature sanctuary. It is there in Smolnik by the San River that the Workshops of Active Poetry named after Edward Stachura take place every year. The fact that this event of sung poetry is continued, hosting significant figures and attracting guests from all over the world, seems to be a good summary of the presentation of Stachura. It does not finish here but encourages to take a closer look at the man and his creativity.

content advisor dr hab. Dariusz Pniewski ISBN 978-83-953483-8-9 publication date 2020 print run 1500 szt. publisher Agencja Reklamowa GALL sc ul. Szosa Chełmińska 50, 87-100 Toruń gall@gall.torun.pl commissioned by Samorządu Województwa Kujawsko-Pomorskiego

Contact: Office of the Marshal of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region in Toruń Address: Plac Teatralny 2, 87-100 Toruń, tel. +48 56: 6218600, 6218610 e-mail: punkt.informacyjny@kujawsko-pomorskie.pl www.kujawsko-pomorskie.pl facebook.com/WojewodztwoKujawskoPomorskie twitter.com/lubietubyc

dr hab. Dariusz Pniewski PhD, NCU Professor literary scholar at the Department of Literary Anthropology and New Media Studies, Faculty of Humanities, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun. .

instagram.com/kujawskopomorskie youtube.com/user/umwkp issuu.com/kujawsko-pomorskie flickr.com/photos/kujawskopomorskie

Comic heroes usually try to save the world on their own. In an unequal battle, alone, they struggle against the evil. And when they leave this world, they become legends. Edward Stachura, alias Sted, was like a hero of a comic book, except that he was a real person. The vagabond poet left his family home in Łazieniec, near Aleksandrów Kujawski, where the soil is poor, unbelievable sands \ goats, mullein, pine tree, and crossroads. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, he roamed the high roads and wild roads of Communist Poland, with his guitar and knapsack.

“Mr. Nobody”, as he called himself, gave away all he had possessed. His poems and songs (which he sang himself ”for some wine and bread”) brought hope and a breath of freedom to the grey, sad, communist reality around him. Total freedom. It was freedom that didn’t take any note of politics, governments or traditions, but recognised only love.

Man is a wolf to man / but don’t become a wolf yourself. / Man is a brother to man / be a brother to a brother, he said in one of his poems. He had tried to combat all the evil in the world, for which he paid the highest price.

He became a legend while he was still alive. After his death, Stachura’s writings remained very popular for several years. These days he has become rather forgotten and he deserves to be remembered and honoured. Even with just this publication.

Piotr Całbecki Marshal of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship

text

Maciej Jasiński illustrations

ISBN 978-83-953483-8-9

Jacek Michalski