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150th Anniversary of the Birth of Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer
W 2015 r. mija 150. rocznica urodzin jednego
The year 2015 marks the 150th anniversary of the
birth of one of Poland’s greatest poets of the late 19th
and early 20th century – Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer.
He came from a family of landowners and convinced
patriots. He was a member of the intellectual elite of
his time - his half-brother was the painter Włodzimierz
Tetmajer and his cousin was Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński.
Tetmajer was recognized as the voice of the Young Poland
generation, which found in his poetry a reflection
of the fears and anxieties of the end of the century
(Koniec wieku XIX). The loss of faith in progress and
in power of the man of the “age of steam and electricity”
led him to seek refuge in art and subsequently in
the wild nature of the Tatra Mountains. And he found
it in the nature and culture of the Podhale region.
This led to the creation of the unique Tatra series,
in which the verses of poems (Widok ze Świnicy…,
Melodia mgieł nocnych) are masterful descriptions of
the mountains and the human soul.
Tetmajer was also a prose writer. He became famous
after the publication of the national epic Na Skalnym
Podhalu, which is a series of short stories - flavored
with down-to-earth folk humor and stylized dialect -
about the people of this region, from mythical times
to the present. The measure of Tetmajer’s talent
is the fact that the Polish Highlanders recognized
this collection as their own and passed the stories
contained therein in their oral storytelling. This work
has played an important role in the awakening of
their national consciousness.
During World War I, the poet was involved in patriotic
efforts, siding with Piłsudski’s Legions (O żołnierzu
polskim). During the struggle over the Polish borders,
he participated in the creation of the Committee
for the defense of Spisz, Orawa and Podhale, which
worked towards uniting these territories with Poland.
After 1918, Tetmajer moved to Warsaw, but the
interwar period marked the decline of his activity.
In 1921 he was elected as the president of the Society
of Writers and Journalists and in 1934 he was awarded
the honorary membership of the Polish Academy of
Literature. Ailing and depressed after the loss of his son,
he retired from public life. He lived in the Europejski
Hotel in Warsaw until the outbreak of the war and died
in a hospital in the first months of the Second Word War
(18 January 1940).
Grzegorz P. Bąbiak