Poezje zebrane (1931-1944)

“Like Atlas I carry my own sky proudly on my shoulders,” Zuzanna Ginczanka writes in her early poem “Joyful Mythology”. This declaration seems to contain the premonition of heroism which will accompany her on her search for her own way.

Collected Poems (1931–1944) is yet another edition of Ginczanka’s poetry put together by the expert on her writing, Izolda Kiec. The book contains all known verse written by Ginczanka, both the lyric poems and satires, presented in chronological order. The edition is enhanced by the addition of recently unearthed, unpublished pieces, as Ginczanka’s output is still in the process of being discovered and therefore her opus remains open. It presents the fascinating pursuit of a native language and her own identity. Ginczanka was born in a Russian-speaking family and her choice of Polish was significant, as was the fact that she craved to become a Polish poet. This gesture of assimilation and emancipation also allowed her to go further – to express herself, as well as the experience of the feminine “I”, in this new language, with a boldly shown biological realm of corporeality. Key in this context is her volume O centaurach [About the Centaurs] with references to myths and tradition, the only volume published while Ginczanka was still alive. The feminine “I”, full of vitality, but also melancholy, in time gains a keener historical awareness. In the thickening political atmosphere of the 1930s, Ginczanka creates poems with catastrophic motifs, and later, after the outbreak of war, in 1942, she writes an untitled poem (*** “Non omnis moriar”), full of bitterness, in which she severs the last link to the homeland of her language where she never wanted to feel like a stranger, to be the Other.