„You do not save souls covered with words …” – what does Jan Twardowski teach about the words, in his poems?

Abstract

In refl ection on the word, I turned to my master Jan Twardowski. The starting point for my considerations is a quotation from one of the poems: „You do not save souls covered with words”. It corresponds with the biblical warning of Jesus: „But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Mt 12,36–37). I notice that in the biblical texts, the ethics of language is a topic often discussed, for example in psalms. In the main part of my considerations, I formulate the poet’s „ decalogue of words” based on the poems of Jan Twardowski. The decalogue includes the following points: saving words, truth, silence and intentional understatement, humbleness and simplicity, ignorance, the presence of the speaker and face, love and trust, humor and other remarks.