Classic
Stanisław Rembek
Collected Works

War prose by one of the most outstanding Polish writers of the 20th century

Indeed, all the misfortunes of the 7th Company began the day Corporal Górny was killed.

A connection, impenetrable to human logic, seems to exist between certain events, as if the world were a unified mechanism, wherein the movement of even the tiniest particle can cause an unexpected reaction of the whole. Those same couplings that link a train crash to a loose screw in the metal rail, also appear to link it to a hare leaping over the track in front of the train as it hurtles towards annihilation. Every sailor, every airman, every miner, railwayman, fireman or soldier: all brothers in water, air, earth, fire and the animal instinct to fight, in the elements that make up the totality of our being, will always consider it proven that the most trivial deed, bah! careless word uttered at a “wrong moment” in the incomprehensible tangle of chance events that is their life, has a mysterious power to determine the success of their actions, and even the existence of their bodily shell. There are no arguments with which to explain to them that a third cigarette, lit with the same match, cannot influence the direction of a bullet or a photograph affect the efficiency of an aeroplane engine.

For faith is always something other than knowledge, and thought – something other than experience.

In this case too, no sage would have been able to detect a rational connection between Górny’s death and the disasters that began to plague the unit not long afterwards. Because today it can be stated above all, impartially and categorically, that the dead corporal played no distinguished role in the company whatsoever. On no occasion during his lifetime did he display those combat and organisational skills that began to be attributed to him only later. Neither did his aspirations and passions have any influence on the unit’s fate. What is more: None of all those people who so enthusiastically took part in the moving tributes to the dead man had shown any interest in him before his death.

For Górny had lived without drawing attention to himself. The best proof of this was that no one could remember later when he had first appeared in the company. The one certainty was that his vast figure was already showing up at roll-calls and parades in the Łódź barracks, with its calm soft elephantine movements, bright round face fresh as a peach, and absent-minded blue eyes, like those of child roused from sleep on a sunny morning.

He would always arrive last and stand in the line of non-commissioned officers in his slightly too small peaked cap, from under which straight wisps of never combed hair strayed onto his white forehead, in his green ‘Wehrmacht’ tunic with its wide slit over the buttocks, and huge brown boots like stove-pipes reaching high above the knees. The boots were always so highly polished they looked like new: only their shape as well as dark patches visible here and there on the uppers were clear evidence of their origin with the Prussian Death’s Head Hussars. It never occurred to his superiors to point this out to him, question him or punish him: no conversations with him ever went beyond stereotypical military reports or communications. Perhaps because he was conspicuous by his unusual calm and taciturnity, and taciturn people are able to command respect for their individuality. Another aspect of his personality was his immense mildness. It was this character trait that recruits recognised quickest and best. Punitive drills under his command were simply a pleasant stroll in the moonlight. Whenever he was in charge of sweeping the yard or the street in front of the barracks, cleaning latrines, scrubbing floors or stairs, any man could excuse himself from work, so that in the end the corporal was left only with those who were too stupid to ‘follow’ or were intimidated – which can often happen — by the delicacy of the non-commissioned officer.

Excerpt translated by Ursula Phillips

Classic
Stanisław Rembek
Collected Works

War prose by one of the most outstanding Polish writers of the 20th century

Publisher: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, Warszawa 2021
Translation rights: The Estate of Stanisław Rembek, contact via e.szwagrzyk@piw.pl

Stanisław Rembek (1901-1985) was one of the most outstanding Polish prose writers of the twentieth century. He was also a writer with a tragic biography. He was particularly unlucky: his most important books told of Polish victory over the Bolsheviks in the war of 1920, in which he himself took part as a gunner. For this reason, his works were not reprinted or discussed in communist Poland, while Rembek himself was consigned to the margins of literary life.

It should come as no surprise that the first three volumes of Rembek’s Collected Works [Dzieła zebrane] contain works about the Polish-Bolshevikwar: his diary from that time, short stories as well as two novels: Nagan [Nagant Revolver] and W polu [In the Field]. The latter – originally published in 1937 – was especially admired by contemporary critics and belongs today to the canon of Polish war literature. The history of a single infantry company, annihilated during a Bolshevik offensive, becomes the pretext for a realistic, indeed cinematic description of the battlefield. At the same time, Rembek provides an insightful analysis of the phenomenon of modern warfare as well as the mindset of the men fighting in it. In his prose, war is a multifaceted experience seen from the perspective of ordinary soldiers. Its hideous physiology is significant, but above all – its psychology and even its metaphysics, what war does to people’s minds and how it affects them. War in Rembek’s novels takes the form of a constant emotional response, prompted by a feeling of physical threat, which over time is called courage, fear or heroism. In the Polish-Bolshevik war, the Polish writer also observed the clash of two experiences: the Romantic-chivalric experience and the modern. Hence his images of battle oscillate between pathos and naturalism. Here war is often a killing field, yet sometimes the participants are enchanted by its menacing beauty. In Poland, In the Field and other of Rembek’s war novels and stories are compared to Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, Babel’s Red Cavalry and Jünger’s Storm of Steel.

Maciej Urbanowski

Translated by Ursula Phillips

Selected samples

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Mateusz Żaboklicki
Anna Świrszczyńska
Mirka Szychowiak
Filip Matwiejczuk
Justyna Kulikowska
Urszula Kozioł
Kamila Janiak
Urszula Honek
Zuzanna Ginczanka
Darek Foks
Kacper Bartczak
Justyna Bargielska
Joanna Kuciel-Frydryszak
Maciej Robert
Michał Książek
Natalka Suszczyńska
Małgorzata Rejmer
Grzegorz Bogdał
Andrzej Chwalba
Renata Lis
Andrzej Stasiuk
Julia Łapińska
Aleksandra Tarnowska
Kajetan Szokalski
Aleksandra Koperda
Marta Hermanowicz
Ishbel Szatrawska
Monika Muskała
Elżbieta Łapczyńska
Łukasz Krukowski
Adam Kaczanowski
Agnieszka Jelonek
Mateusz Górniak
Anna Cieplak
Julita Deluga
Wojtek Wawszczyk, Tomasz Leśniak
121344
Anna Kańtoch
Andrzej Bobkowski
Wisława Szymborska
Zdzisław Kranodębski
Andrzej Nowak
Wiesław Myśliwski
Jarosław Jakubowski
Anna Piwkowska
Roman Honet
Miłosz Biedrzycki
Wojciech Chmielewski
Aleksandra Majdzińska
Tomasz Różycki
Maciej Hen
Jakub Nowak
Elżbieta Cherezińska
歐菈·沃丹斯卡-波欽斯卡(Ola Woldańska-Płocińska)
作者:沃伊切赫·維德瓦克(Wojciech Widłak), 插圖:亞歷珊德拉·克珊諾夫斯卡(Aleksandra Krzanowska)
文字:莫妮卡·烏特尼-斯特魯加瓦(Monika Utnik-Strugała), 概念和插圖:皮歐特·索哈(Piotr Socha)
作者:亞格涅絲卡·斯特爾馬什克(Agnieszka Stelmaszyk)
尤安娜·日斯卡(Joanna Rzyska)、阿嘉妲·杜德克(Agata Dudek)、瑪格熱妲·諾瓦克(Małgorzata Nowak) Druganoga出版社,華沙2021
艾麗莎·皮歐特夫斯卡(Eliza Piotrowska)
米科瓦伊·帕辛斯基(Mikołaj Pasiński)、瑪格熱妲·赫爾巴(Gosia Herba)
歐菈·沃丹斯卡-波欽斯卡(Ola Woldańska-Płocińska)
瑪麗安娜·奧克雷亞克(Marianna Oklejak)
拉法爾·科希克(Rafał Kosik)
亞歷珊德拉·沃丹斯卡-波欽斯卡(Aleksandra Woldańska-Płocińska)
巴托米耶·伊格納邱克(Bartłomiej Ignaciuk), 阿嘉塔·洛特-伊格納邱克(Agata Loth-Ignaciuk)
文字和插圖:皮歐特·卡爾斯基(Piotr Karski)
文字和插圖:皮歐特·卡爾斯基(Piotr Karski)
羅珊娜·延澤耶夫斯卡-弗魯貝爾 (Roksana Jędrzejewska-Wróbel)
作者:普舎米斯瓦夫·維赫特洛維奇(Przemysław Wechterowicz) 插圖:艾米莉·吉烏巴克(Emilia Dziubak)
尤斯提娜·貝納雷(Justyna Bednarek) 插圖:丹尼爾·德拉圖爾(Daniel De Latour)
尤安娜·巴托西克(Joanna Bartosik)
瑪格熱妲·斯文多夫斯卡(Małgorzata Swędrowska)、尤安娜·巴托西克(Joanna Bartosik)
Jan Kochanowski
Jarosław Marek Rymkiewicz
Olga Tokarczuk
Władysław Stanisław Reymont
An Ancient Tale
Stanisław Rembek
Elżbieta Cherezińska
Henryk Sienkiewicz
Maria Dąbrowska
Stefan Żeromski
Bronisław Wildstein
Zbigniew Herbert / Wisława Szymborska
Karol Wojtyła
Wiesław Myśliwski
Czesław Miłosz
Anna Świrszczyńska / Melchior Wańkowicz
Tadeusz Borowski / Gustaw Herling-Grudziński
Wiesław Helak
Góra Tabor
Adriana Szymańska
Paweł Rzewuski
Mariusz Staniszewski
Staniszewski_Kartel
Radek Rak
Agla
Urszula Honek
Honek
Kazimierz Orłoś
Orlos
Rafał Wojasiński
Tefil
Antonina Grzegorzewska
Grzegorzewska_drama
Józef Mackiewicz
Mackiewicz_Sprawa
Tobiasz Piątkowski, Marek Oleksicki
Piatkowski_Oleksicki_Ekspozytura
Daniel Odija
Bronisław Wildstein
Józef Mackiewicz
Mackiewicz_Droga
Józef Mackiewicz
Mackiewicz_Bunt-rojstow
Witold Szabłowski
Szablowski_Rosja-od-kuchni
Andrzej Muszyński
Muszynski_Dom-ojcow
Wiesław Helak
Helak
Bartosz Jastrzębski
Jastrzebski_Dies-irae
Dariusz Sośnicki
Sośnicki_Po-domu
Łukasz Orbitowski
Orbitowski_chodz
Jakub Małecki
Malecki_SO
אנדז'יי ספקובסקי
Elżbieta Cherezińska
Wiesław Myśliwski
Jakub Małecki
Aleksandra Lipczak
Jacek Dukaj
Wit Szostak
Bartosz Biedrzycki
Zyta Rudzka
Maciej Płaza
Wojciech Chmielewski
Paweł Huelle
Przemysław "Trust" Truściński
Angelika Kuźniak
Wojciech Kudyba
Michał Protasiuk
Stanisław Rembek
Rembek
Krzysztof Karasek
Elżbieta Isakiewicz
Artur Daniel Liskowacki
Jarosław Jakubowski
Zbigniew Stawrowski
Szczepan Twardoch
Wojciech Chmielarz
Robert Małecki
Zygmunt Miłoszewski
Anna Piwkowska
Dominika Słowik
Wojciech Chmielewski
Barbara Banaś
Rafał Mikołajczyk
Jerzy Szymik
Waldemar Bawołek
Julia Fiedorczuk
Jakub Szamałek
Witold Szabłowski
Jacek Dukaj
Grzegorz Górny, Janusz Rosikoń
Paweł Piechnik
Andrzej Strumiłło

69

Marta Kwaśnicka
Piotr Mitzner
Paweł Sołtys
Wacław Holewiński
Anna Potyra
Wiesław Helak
Urszula Zajączkowska
Marek Stokowski
Stokowski
Hubert Klimko-Dobrzaniecki
HKD
Jakub Małecki
Malecki_Horyzont
Łukasz Orbitowski
Orbitowski
Małgorzata Rejmer
Rejmer
Rafał Wojasiński
Olanda
Wojciech Kudyba
Kudyba
Włodzimierz Bolecki
Bolecki
Jerzy Liebert
Liebert
Wojciech Zembaty
Zembaty
Wojciech Chmielarz
Chmielarz
Bogdan Musiał
Musiał
Joanna Siedlecka
Siedlecka
Krzysztof Tyszka-Drozdowski
Drozdowski
Jarosław Marek Rymkiewicz
Marek Bieńczyk
Bienczyk
Leszek Elektorowicz
Elektorowicz
Adrian Sinkowski
Sinkowski
Szymon Babuchowski
Babuchowski
Lech Majewski
Majewski
Weronika Murek
Murek
Agnieszka Świętek
Swietek
Stanisław Szukalski
Barbara Klicka
Klicka
Anna Kamińska

She climbed her first peaks in a headscarf at a time when women in the mountains were treated by climbers as an additional backpack. It was with her that female alpinism began! She gained recognition in a spectacular way. The path was considered a crossing for madmen. Especially since the tragic accident in 1929, preserved … Continue reading “Halina”

Wojciech Chmielarz

First, Marysia, a student of an exclusive private school in Warsaw’s Mokotów district, dies under the wheels of a train. Her teacher, Elżbieta, tries to find out what really happened. She starts a private investigation only soon to perish herself. But her body disappears, and the only people who have seen anything are Gniewomir, a … Continue reading “Wound”

Anna Kańtoch

A young girl, Regina Wieczorek, was found dead on the beach. She was nineteen years old and had no enemies. Fortunately, the culprit was quickly found. At least, that’s what the militia think. Meanwhile, one day in November, Jan Kowalski appears at the police station. He claims to have killed not only Regina but also … Continue reading “Penance”

Marek Krajewski

The year is 1922. A dangerous time of breakthrough. In the Eastern Borderlands of the Republic of Poland, Bolshevik gangs sow terror, leaving behind the corpses of men and disgraced women. A ruthless secret intelligence race takes place between the Lviv-Warsaw-Free City of Gdańsk line. Lviv investigator Edward Popielski, called Łysy (“Hairless”), receives an offer … Continue reading “A Girl with Four Fingers”

Ks. Tomasz Stępień

This question is closely related to the next one, namely: if any goal exists, does life lead us to that goal in an orderly manner? In other words, is everything that happens to us just a set of chaotic events that, combined together, do not form a whole? To understand how the concept of providence … Continue reading “Order and Love”

Jakub Małecki
Szczepan Twardoch
Wiesław Helak
Maria Wilczek-Krupa
Anna Kańtoch
Rafał Kosik
Paweł Sołtys
Dorota Masłowska
Wiesław Myśliwski
Martyna Bunda
Olga Tokarczuk
Various authors
Mariola Kruszewska
Waldemar Bawołek
Marek Oleksicki, Tobiasz Piątkowski
Wojciech Tomczyk
Urszula Zajączkowska
Marzanna Bogumiła Kielar
Ks. Robert Skrzypczak
Bronisław Wildstein
Anna Bikont
Magdalena Grzebałkowska
Wojciech Orliński
Klementyna Suchanow
Andrzej Franaszek
Natalia Budzyńska
Marian Sworzeń
Aleksandra Wójcik, Maciej Zdziarski
Józef Łobodowski

The work of Józef Łobodowski (1909-1988) – a remarkable poet, prose writer, and translator, who spent most of his life in exile – is slowly being revived in Poland. Łobodowski’s brilliant three- volume novel, composed on an epic scale, concerns the fate of families and orphans unmoored by the Bolshevik Revolution and civil war and … Continue reading “Ukrainian Trilogy: Thickets, The Settlement, The Way Back”

Piotr Zaremba
Wacław Holewiński
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