Building the Barricade - Softcover

Świrszczyńska, Anna

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1945680687 ISBN 13: 9781945680687

Publisher: White Pine Press, 2023

Synopsis

Building the Barricade, harrowing and demanding, here takes its place in English among the twentieth century's master works of war-witness.”—Jane Hirshfield

Building the Barricade, is poetry of witness, and a lyric account of the sixty-three day Warsaw uprising.

Caught between German occupation and the advancing Soviets, the Polish Resistance Home Army barricaded central Warsaw in hopes of liberating the city and gaining Polish sovereignty. Building the Barricade is Anna Świrszczyńska’s first-person account of the atrocities that destroyed over 60% of the Polish capital and left over 100,000 civilians and 16,000 Polish resistance fighters dead.

Świrszczyńska had joined the resistance as a military nurse and later wrote: “Day and night German bombers raged over the capital, burying the living beneath the rubble.”

About this title

About the Author

Anna Świrszczyńska was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1909. She attended Warsaw University where she studied medieval and baroque Polish literature. She began publishing poems in the 1930s. During the Nazi occupation of Poland, Świrszczyńska joined the Polish Resistance and was a military nurse during the Warsaw Uprising. Anna Świrszczyńska died in Krakow of cancer in 1984.

Piotr Florczyk is the author of East & West, a volume of poems, Barefoot, a chapbook of poems, and Los Angeles Sketchbook, a collection of brief essays and photographs. He has also translated several books of Polish poetry. He teaches global literary studies at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Last Polish UprisingWe lament the hourwhen it all began,when the first shot was fired.We lament the sixty-three daysand sixty-three nightsof battle. And the hourwhen everything ended.When the place where a million people had livedbecame the emptiness of a million people. A Soldier SaysAlthough your bullet will go through the jacketto my heart,you, enemy, will not kill me.Although your bullet will tear apartmy body,you, enemy, will not kill me.While Building the BarricadeWe were afraid, building the barricadeunder fire.Barman, jeweler’s mistress, barber,all of us cowards.The housemaid hit the groundhauling a cobblestone, and we were very afraid,all of us cowards—ground’s keeper, stallholder, pensioner.The pharmacist dragging the toilet doorhit the ground,and we got very scared,smuggler girl, dressmaker, tram driver,all of us cowards.The boy from a reform schoolfell dragging a sandbag,and we got scaredfor real.Although no one forced us,we built the barricadeunder fire.To Shoot into the Eyes of a ManHe was fifteen,the best student of Polish.He ran at the enemywith a pistol.Then he saw the eyes of a man,and should’ve fired into those eyes.He hesitated.He’s lying on the pavement.They didn’t teach himin Polish classto shoot into the eyes of a man.Talking with CorpsesI slept with corpses under one blanket.I apologized to the corpsesfor being alive.What a gaffe. They forgave me.What carelessness. They were surprised.Lifeafter all was so dangerous back then.A Girl ScoutWhen she was dying in the hospitalshe told her girlfriends she is ashamedthat this is a war that she is a soldierso she is very ashamed but askssince she’s never been to a partythat after she dies they put on her that dresswith lace.When she died they put on her that dressand the four of them stood at attentionby her bed and stood for an hour.Conversation through the DoorAt five in the morningI knock on his door.I say through the door:in the hospital on Sliska Street,your son, a soldier, is dying.He opens the door,doesn’t unhook the chain.Behind him his wifetrembles.I say: your son asks for his motherto come.He says: his mother won’t come.Behind him his wifetrembles.I say: the doctor let himhave wine.He says: please wait.He hands me a bottle through the door,locks the door,locks with the second key.Behind the doorthe wife begins to screamas if she were in labor.

Edition details

• Publisher: White Pine Press
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1945680687
• ISBN 13: 9781945680687
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240