Magical everyday life in Poems by Jadwiga Żenczykowska

Abstract

The author discusses the only collection of poems by Jadwiga Żenczykowska published in 2002, simply titled Wiersze [Poems]. It was issued posthumously in Szczytno, where the Borderland Pole ended up in 1945, after several years of wandering caused by the Bolshevik coup (1917) and the loss of a vast estate in Oleksandrivka near Kyiv. Being a teacher of Polish and Russian at Polish common, primary and secondary schools, the legacy she left is a collection of lyrical memories, very often with specific addressees in both her closest and more distant surroundings. In this sense, not only does Poems by Jadwiga Żenczykowska hold original literary value and is far from amateur verse, but it also provides a significant insight on everyday reality, especially on the post-war period and life in her new tiny motherland in a Masurian town of Szczytno. Poems is the author’s intimate journey from her childhood to adulthood, steeped in melodious verse and dance rhythms, reminiscent of Volhynian scents and both sadness and joy caused by forced resettlement.