Reminiscencje czarnomorskie we wczesnej poezji Jarosława Iwaszkiewicza

Abstract

Odessa plays a unique role in the biography of Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz: in this city, the poet saw the sea for the first time, from this journey the musical drama King Roger was born (in close cooperation with the composer Karol Szymanowski). Wspomnienie Odessy became an inspiration for poems written in 1918–1938, but it never became an independent, dominant subject. References to Odessa can be found indirectly in Sonety contained in Księga dnia i Księga Nocy. Iwaszkiewicz refers here to the Pearl of the Black Sea, using a lyrical form identical to that used by Adam Mickiewicz in Sonety odeskie. For the young poet, Odessa became the realization of the Orient, so far only imagined by him, and the foundation for building the myth of the Mediterranean Sea in the poetry, of which Sicily became the crowning achievement. Iwaszkiewicz’s poetic path from Odessa to Sicily is a manifestation of his emerging European identity embedded in Ukrainian identity.