BOOK REVIEW
Literary History From the Horse's Mouth
7 June 1998

Nobelist Mi這sz describes the sweep of words leading up to... himself.

Czes豉w Mi這sz is an old-fashioned man of letters, not just a poet's poet (though he is that too). He does not confine himself to speaking ex cathedra in his poetry, but like a Franciscan, he mucks around in the daily grind of literary affairs as a teacher at Berkeley and a critic. From those labors springs his exhaustive History of Polish Literature. The history was first published in 1969, then updated in 1983, and is now available in Poland in a paperback version from the University of California Press.

The book is written for a Western audience. Mi這sz begins each chapter with a thumbnail sketch of Polish history and society of the period. Reading only these historical summaries is an acceptable shortcut for those who can't get through the 1,000-plus pages of Norman Davies' history of Poland, God's Playground. Many are bound to quibble with certain historical generalizations by Mi這sz, though, such as his view that "Poland of the `Golden Age' was largely a Protestant country" (though it was certainly not the Catholic monolith it was to become).

Mi這sz avoids the circular great-poet, rote-learning approach to literature common in Polish schools, which was lampooned by Witold Gombrowicz in his 1938 novel Ferdydurke. (The schoolmaster in Ferdydurke asks the class, rhetorically, "Why does S這wacki inspire in us admiration and love? Why do we weep with the poet reading his wonderful, harp-like poem In Switzerland? ... Why? Because, gentlemen, S這wacki was a great poet!")

Mi這sz doesn't feel inclined to praise for the sake of praise. Of Miko豉j Rej (1505-1569), "the father of Polish literature," Mi這sz writes, "Whether he can be called little more than a glutton, a drunkard, a lecher, a gossiper, a man of obscene language, or a blasphemer is doubtful."

Similarly, he sums up the intellectual interests of the celebrated diarist Jan Chryzostom Pasek (1636-1701) as follows: "Pasek received some education at a Jesuit school in his native district; namely, he learned to declaim pompous speeches in Latin or in a mixture of Polish and Latin, also how to write extremely bad verse. Such equipment was to suffice for all his life, as there are no traces that he ever read any books." Yet Mi這sz is moved by the "swift, colorful, and racy" narrative of Pasek, "free from prescribed devices."

Mi這sz lampoons the pretentiousness of the influential Young Poland literary group from the 1890s, citing one of the poets who earnestly wrote, "Amid the ocean of black coffee / I sail toward an island of bliss." Beloved novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846-1916) had "a rare narrative gift" combined with "superficiality." Of the original "great poet," Juliusz S這wacki (1809-1849), Mi這sz writes that his work was "extremely abundant" but "uneven."

While he cuts overrated figures down to size, Mi這sz lavishes attention on those he considers truly worthy, such as the poets Jan Kochanowski (1530-1584) and Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855). Other worthies include Stanis豉w Wyspia雟ki (1869-1907), recalled as the key reformer of Polish theater.

Mi這sz greatly aids understanding of important works by filling in background information. Mi這sz says of Wyspia雟ki's greatest play Wesele (The Wedding), a series of cameos by characters from all walks of Polish life in the course of an all-night wedding reception, "to understand the form of The Wedding one must look for its source in the traditional Polish Christmas puppet show (szopka)." So simple, so helpful.

Eschewing current American scholarly fashion, each writer's social, historical and political environment is ever-present. Mi這sz can summarize with a telling detail an entire political regime, such as the Austrian partition of southern Poland: "Krak闚 was a rather idyllic city in that the censor, present in the audience, was tactful enough to escape when the actors delivered forbidden lines." And when Mi這sz delves into the language used by writers past, he gives richly textured readings. Passages are given in Polish and English, mostly translated by Mi這sz himself.

"I have not scorned the crazy, the funny, or the bizarre," writes Mi這sz. He unearths a hoard of literary curiosities:

The works of Sebastian Klonowic (1545-1602) included The Raftsman, "written in a sapphic stanza, a sort of guide for bargemen and merchants transporting wheat down the Vistula." A kind of Moby Dick in verse, The Raftsman included hints on the river's shallows and currents, "a history of sailing" and "technical data on the construction of ships."
Kazimierz Wierzy雟ki (1894-1969) "was one of the few European poets who wrote odes about athletics." Wierzy雟ki's poems included such ringing titles as "100 Meters" and "The Pole Vault," which won the literary contest at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic Games.
Leftist poet Tadeusz Peiper (1891-1969) invented a "socialist rhyme"-"a rhyme spaced so meticulously at long intervals that, at first reading, it is imperceptible." Peiper's poetry, says Mi這sz, "is interesting only as an example of unflinching attachment to principles." Low praise for a poet!
Another poet, W豉dys豉w Broniewski (1897-1962), capped off his career by writing an "Ode to Stalin" in 1949. The poetry-loving dictator no doubt registered his pleasure at the gesture.
The first play by Stanis豉w Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885-1939) was written at the age of 8, Cockroaches, "about a city invaded by these hardy insects."


There are hundreds more such vignettes.

Mi這sz overcomes a disinclination to discuss his own work by referring to himself, as objectively as possible, in the third person. It's artificial and one of the few false notes in the book. "Critics have tended to see a myth of the Earth, a protective deity ever renewing herself, as the core of Mi這sz's poetry, or have been calling him the only true pantheist in Polish poetry," Mi這sz says of his own work. "It is not certain whether this is true, since Christian elements are also strong." Well, which is it? Mi這sz isn't saying.

This is a big book, fit for sipping, savoring, setting aside and returning to. It's not for reading straight through, unless the whole Polish winter lies ahead. If the book works for expatriates, though, they may find themselves tossing off obscure literary allusions to astound their Polish friends.

Christopher Smith

Czes豉w Mi這sz, The History of Polish Literature (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2d ed. 1983), paper, 583 pp., is available from the American Bookstore, 45 Krakowskie Przedmie軼ie St., Warsaw, at zl.99.

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