planet earth
Cranes
LONG-LEGGED ELEGANCE Text and photos WOJCIECH JAROSZ
Thanks to long legs, cranes feel great even in deeper water
grams "The Bestiary" (full name: "The Bestiary, in which shapes,
These birds can hardly be caught in an awkward posture. Whether they are standing, strolling on a wet meadow or flying among the clouds – they always do it all with a noble grace.
cases and customs of various people, animals and birds are described, especially falling to our present day" year 1562), and much later Jan Brzechwa dedicated a poem to the crane – admittedly with the heron, but nevertheless in the title the crane comes first. It could take a long time to list the items of literature, but this is not what this text is about. To end the topic of cranes inspirations, I will mention the wonderful beauty of oils on the canvas by Józef Chełmoński: "Cranes" (also
W
– cranes" (1910), "Cranes in the morning" (1913) and "Cranes
mance full of choreographic flavors, and exquisite ones
in the clouds" (1913–1914, unfinished work), which are an ex-
at that.
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known as "Departure of the cranes", 1870), "Greeting the sun
hen they start to dance, they create a magical perfor-
tremely successful continuation of the painting trend consist-
This is why people have always been delighted with cranes.
ing in presenting scenes from the life of cranes, started by our
It is impossible to count the references in literature, and in
ancestors. Their prehistoric works in the form of wall paintings
order not to be groundless, I will mention Homer's Iliad as the
can be admired in Europe, Africa and Australia. Perhaps just
first. The crane is also mentioned in the Bible, which can be
one more word about the Golden Palm-winning lyrical war
interpreted as an indicator of its good recognition, that is, of
drama by Mikhail Kalatozov "The Cranes Are Flying" (1957), in
regonising it as a representative of the avifauna well known
which the title V-formation of the cranes, appearing at the be-
to man. In the former Poland, Mikołaj Rej of Nagłowice of Oksza
ginning and at the end of the film, is one of the most important,
coat of arms wrote about the crane in his collection of epi-
symbolic motifs. But let's get back to the more natural issues.
