Abstract
Jerzy Ficowski, born 1924, has published seven collections of poems in Poland. He has also published stories, essays, and translations from Rumanian (folk poetry), Romany (Papusza), Spanish (Garcia Lorca), and Yiddish. He is now on the editorial board of Zapis. He has written special studies of gipsy folklore and of Bruno Schulz. A major concern is the relation between Christians and Jews, to which his eighth collection of poems, Odczytanie Popiolów (‘Reading the Ashes’) bears witness; this collection, banned in Poland, was published earlier this year in England (in Polish). The following poems are taken from Reading the Ashes.
The use of the Hebrew name of Jerusalem in the first poem indicates that the journey spoken of is spiritual.
The ‘seven words’ of the second poem are both the Seven Words from the Cross and the seven words of a young victim at Belzec extermination camp; the poem reverses the familiar declaration in John's Gospel that the darkness could not contain the light. The third poem is a triumphant affirmation of life: thanks to a dose of Luminal (phenobarbitone) the baby survives to echo God's reply when Moses asked his name.