Poetry Recital and Competition: Polish Language

Martinez, California

The John Paul II School of Polish Language, based in Walnut Creek, California will host its annual Poetry Recital and Competition on Sunday, April 26 at 11am at the Polish Community Center and church at 909 Mellus Street in Martinez, California. For more information about attending the event or to contribute prizes, please contact the school Principal, Tomasz Kotlinski at kotomek@sbcglobal.net.

Students attending the school will each recite poems in the Polish language, organized by grade level. A panel of judges will preside over the students’ delivery technique, expression, articulation and native pronunciation. Prizes will be awarded.

Poetry has a long and rich history within Polish culture. “Show us your literature that we may judge of the actual state of your civilization, your character and your general qualifications,” quotes Paul Sobelski in his compilation of Poets and Poetry of Poland.

Poland was often occupied by invading foreigners who required the use of their own language and versions of history to be taught for generations. It was the persistence and dedication of the Polish people to continue Polish language and cultural education, sometimes in secret and at great risk. Poetry is a highly developed form of literature and an art. In the case of much of the cherished poetry of Poland, it documents the history through the actual experiences of the Polish people. These accounts paint a different portrait of Polish civilization and culture than do the histories which were manufactured by tyrannical oppressors. As spoken by Birgitta Trotzig, of the Swedish Academy, when awarding a Nobel Prize in literature, “…poetry, as a response to life, a way of life, of the word-work as thought and responsibility.”

Romance, whimsy, wit and charm can all be found in literary prose. Pan Tadeusz, written by Adam Mickiewicz, considered the “national poem” of Poland, documents the first partitioning of Poland and the hopes pinned on Napoleon’s call-to-arms of Poles to rise up and take back their country. While this work is clever and full of whimsy and romance; it has staying power. It is a historical documentary which speaks to the hearts and minds of Poles and others around the world. It is no small detail that it was developed while Mickiewicz was in exile.

Czesław Miłosz emigrated to the United States in 1960 and became a Professor of Polish literature at the University of California, Berkeley and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Miłosz lived in Warsaw, Poland during and after the Second World War. It was during this time that Miłosz put to pen The Captive Mind. It was a piece described as one of the finest studies of the behavior of intellectuals under a repressive regime. Miłosz’s work was banned under communist rule in Poland. A poem by Miłosz appears on a Gdánsk memorial to protesting shipyard workers who had been killed by government security forces in 1970. This poem, originally composed in 1950, talks to those “who hurt a simple man”.

Wisława Szymborska, a poet from Krakow, Poland participated in underground lessons during the Second World War in order to continue her studies of Polish language and literature. She published her first poem in March 1945, the Szukam słowa (I seek the word). In 1996, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and her works have been translated into many different languages. Her literary works include oppositional poetry and essays which could not be published in Poland, but rather were done so in other countries and then smuggled into Poland. In 1964, she is known to have demanded the freedom of speech in a piece developed for the The Times in the United Kingdom.

The John Paul II School of Polish Language is a non-profit organization and has been chartered with the education and continuation of Polish language and culture since 1967. Enriching the lives of the children and adults within the Polish-American community with Polish history and heritage provides them with a closer identity to their roots and family traditions. These experiences also create links and bonds with others within the Polish-American community which can lead to travel, higher education and career opportunities.

Please read more about John Paul II School of Polish Language at www.polishschool.org.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 18th, 2009 at 3:54 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.