Tadeusz Różewicz > Quotes

“They mutilate they torment each other
with silences with words
as if they had another
life to live

they do so
as if they had forgotten
that their bodies
are inclined to death
that the insides of men
easily break down

ruthless with each other
they are weaker
than plants and animals
they can be killed by a word
by a smile by a look ”
― Tadeusz Rózewicz

“Zaraz zrobimy kawę. Wprawdzie nie mam kawy, filiżanek i pieniędzy, ale od
czego jest nadrealizm, metafizyka, poetyka snów.”
― Tadeusz Różewicz

“Że też w tym kraju każdy kelner jest filozofem i każdy filozof kelnerem.”
― Tadeusz Różewicz, Kartoteka

“my gray zone is starting to include poetry   here white is not absolute white black is not absolute black the edges of these non-colors adjoin”
― Tadeusz Różewicz, New Poems

“Survivor

I’m twenty-four
Led to slaughter
I survived.

These words are empty and equivalent:
man and animal
love and hate
foe and friend
dark and light.

Man is killed just like an animal
I’ve seen:
truckloads of chopped-up people
who will never be saved.

Concepts are only words:
virtue and vice
truth and lie
beauty and ugliness
courage and cowardice.

Virtue and vice weigh the same
I’ve seen:
a man who was both
vicious and virtuous.

I’m searching for a teacher and a master
let him give me back my sight hearing and speech
let him name objects and concepts again
let him separate the light from the dark.

I’m twenty-four
Led to slaughter
I survived.”
― Tadeusz Różewicz, Sobbing Superpower: Selected Poems

“Tell me about
your Italian journey
I am not ashamed
I wept in that country
beauty touched me
I was a child once more
in the womb of that country
I wept
I am not ashamed
I have tried to return to paradise”
― Tadeusz Różewicz, They Came to See a Poet: selected poems

“Poetą jest ten który odchodzi
I ten który odejść nie może”
― Tadeusz Różewicz

“Poetą jest ten który pisze wiersze
I ten który wierszy nie pisze”
― Tadeusz Różewicz

“In the Middle of Life

After the end of the world
after my death
I found myself in the middle of life
creating myself
building a life
people animals landscapes

this is a table I kept saying
this is a table
on the table are bread knife
the knife is used for cutting bread
people feed on bread

man should be loved
I learned by night by day
what should one love
I answered man

this is a window I kept saying
this is a window
beyond the winidow is a garden
in the garden I see an apple tree
the apple tree blossoms
the blossoms fall off
fruit forms
ripens

my father picks an apple
the man picking the apple is my father

I was sitting on the front steps of the house
that old woman
pulling a goat on a rope
is more needed
is worth more
than the seven wonders of the world
anyone who thinks or feels
she isn’t needed
is guilty of genocide

this is a man
this is a tree this is bread

people eat to live
I kept repeating to myself
human life is important
human life has great importance
the value of life
exceeds the value of every object
man has made
man is a great treasure
I kept repeating stubbornly

this is water I kept saying
stroking the waves with my hand
talking to the river
water I said
kind water
it is I

the man talked to the water
talked to the moon
to the flowers to the rain
he talked to the earth
to the birds
to the sky

the sky was silent
the earth was silent
if he heard a voice
flowing
from the earth the water the sky
it was the voice of another man”
― Tadeusz Różewicz, Sobbing Superpower: Selected Poems

“To the Dead

My concerns belong to the living.

I see hear touch
weigh myself on a street scale
I dodge a blue tram
In July I wipe the sweat off a shiny forehead
I drink raspberry soda
I am tired
I am bored I write poems
I think about death
I buy pretzels and fuzzy
peaches that look like baby mice
I read Marx
I don’t understand Bergson
I go out dancing with a redhead
and we laugh
about the A-bomb
the red circle of lips
a long golden straw
my girl in a green blouse
drinks the moon from the sky
a waiter carries foamy beer around
lights glisten on the eyelashes of evening
the memory of you
covered my anxiety with a hand.

These are my concerns. I live
and nothing is as alien to me
as you my dead Friend.”
― Tadeusz Różewicz, Sobbing Superpower: Selected Poems

“I'll start dying meticulously
wisely optimistically
without wasting time”
― Tadeusz Różewicz, They Came to See a Poet: selected poems

“Ima u meni
ima tako nešto
Ne mogu
da opišem
ima u meni nešto
čega nije bilo
i raste
ne ne raste
penje se u grlo Ne
penje se nepomično je
ispunjava me Ne
ne znam tačno
dobro je što zaboravljam
ali šta je to
govori ljudski
je li to ljubav
ne to nije strah
ili je mržnja
ideja da je to prazno
Ne nije ideja
to je već gotovo svuda
da li se to prikrada
ili ide otvoreno
da li ćuti ili je govorljivo
da li je daleko viče
o još je daleko
da da
još je vrlo daleko
zaista reci mi
da je još daleko
ali šta kaži šta
već je u meni
ovde i ovde
i tamo
ali toga nije bilo u meni
znam da nije bilo
znam da nije bilo
a sad je već u tebi
penje ti se u grlo
ništa ne osećaš
kaži mi brzo
kakvo je to u tebi
crno ili belo
nevidljivo ili sunce
nemo ili viče
ništa ne govoriš
reci mi da je daleko
Ne
govoriš da će pobeći
ništa ne govoriš
kaži
ne možeš da govoriš
ne ne bojim se jer nikad
to nisam video
možda ćemo se preseliti
dobro odmah
na drugo mesto
videćeš da će sve
biti dobro Ne
govoriš da nema drugog
mesta da se ne možemo preseliti
ništa ne govoriš
govorim da je ništa u nama

1959-1960.”
― Tadeusz Różewicz

“From Gold

gold bars and gold ingots
bare their teeth
the skulls keep silent the sockets speak”
― Tadeusz Różewicz, Sobbing Superpower: Selected Poems

“Taki już jest nasz ironiczny los - żywić szekspirowskie uczucia, a mówić o nich językiem
sprzedawcy samochodów, wyrostka lub gimnazjalnego profesora.”
― Tadeusz Różewicz, Kartoteka

“Rose

Rose is the name of a flower
or a dead girl

You can place a rose in a warm palm
or in black soil

A red rose screams
one with golden hair passed in silence

Blood drains from the pale petal
the girl’s dress hangs formless

A gardener tends tenderly to a bush
a father who survived rages in madness

Five years have passed since Your death
flower of love that knows no thorn

Today a rose bloomed in the garden
memory of the living and faith have died.”
― Tadeusz Różewicz, Sobbing Superpower: Selected Poems

“Plains (part III)

Down Zabia Street
through a Polish city
walks Rose
in white feathers

It’s not a costume ball
for a long time the wind will carry
feathers from the beds
of those
departed

Their bodies will not leave impressions
in the grass of May meadows
nor on the waves which shimmer
under the saffron fins of fishes
their bodies will not leave impressions
in the hay
when a black lightning bolt of swallows
flies with a squawk
through an empty barn with dirt floor

Their bodies will not leave impressions
on any bed sheets

Down Zabia Street
through a Polish city
walks Rose
on uneven cobblestones
past houses with blue stars
and boarded-up windows
walks through a temple
where stray cats
have found their lair
She walks amidst the glowing feathers
on this black day
she walks through your cities neutral Swedes
she walks through your homes theaters places of worship
she walks through your villages neutral Swiss
through your clean towns
clean as tears

She passed as clouds pass
across the sky across the earth without a trace

Within me I preserved
her heartbeat
the silence of her eyes
the warmth and hue of her lips
the heft of her insides
her fleeting thighs
in the shadow of love
the shape of her head
and the reddish dusk of her falling hair
and the small sun of her smile
She passed as clouds pass
but from where is this immeasurably long shadow
being cast”
― Tadeusz Różewicz, Sobbing Superpower: Selected Poems

“Taki już nasz ironiczny los - żywić szekspirowskie uczucia, a mówić o nich językiem sprzedawcy samochodów, wyrostka lub gimnazjalnego profesora.”
― Tadeusz Różewicz, Kartoteka