CHAPTER I
FROM THE ’BARD’ TO THE BARD
Old photograph is a term used to describe pieces created after the first photographic techniques had been invented in the 1830s until the outbreak of WW I. The Museum of Literature boasts a collection of about 3,000 photographs constituting a rich iconographic material for those researching into the period, particularly for literature lovers and connoisseurs. Therefore, we start our Exhibition with a gallery of literature-related portraits. Bearing in mind that you cannot be a poet unless you are born as one, we are beginning with ‘bards’ as babies and conclude with… Well, wait and see! Here is Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński encouraging you to visit the Exhibition (I am Scared to Become a Bard):
I am not saying I am a genius
But neither am I an arsehole;
I, too, could write ‘Forefathers’ Eve’
If only I set it my goal.
I would make my maidens doomed
And faint under the moon,
Gustaw would expire.
He always does.
But neither am I an arsehole;
I, too, could write ‘Forefathers’ Eve’
If only I set it my goal.
I would make my maidens doomed
And faint under the moon,
Gustaw would expire.
He always does.
(Transl. Magda Iwińska)
The Chapter concludes with the Bard Adam summed with the above (Forefathers’ Eve, Part IV)
And listen thou! Yes, let it be thy task!
If you should ever chance to meet
A certain superhuman fair
Maiden – I mean my sweet –
And if she should inquire
Of what I died, reply not, of despair:
No: thou must say
That I was ever rosy, gay,
That I forgot her in the end,
That I played cards, tippled with a friend,
And on one drinking bout,
While dancing, I fell out,
I slipped (he stamps) and thus Gustav expires. (Transl. Count Potocki of Montalk)
If you should ever chance to meet
A certain superhuman fair
Maiden – I mean my sweet –
And if she should inquire
Of what I died, reply not, of despair:
No: thou must say
That I was ever rosy, gay,
That I forgot her in the end,
That I played cards, tippled with a friend,
And on one drinking bout,
While dancing, I fell out,
I slipped (he stamps) and thus Gustav expires. (Transl. Count Potocki of Montalk)
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Comments:
I am not saying I am a genius But neither am I an arsehole;