SORCERER’S APPRENTICE (JERZY FICOWSKI AND JULIAN TUWIM MEET ON A GYPSY TRAIL)

Abstract

Based on archival correspondence between the two poets, the sketch reconstructs the
early period of Jerzy Ficowski’s interest in the Romani people, together with his acquaintance
with Julian Tuwim and the latter’s benevolent albeit ambivalent – highly ideologised - patronage.
In the period’s Stalinist political context, the mutual intellectual attraction of the two personalities
had also negative consequences. The precarious situation that involved Ficowski-the researcher
crossing the borders of insular Romani customs and, simultaneously, introducing the
Romani poet Bronisława Wajs (Romani name: Papusza) into the official literary mainstream
tainted by ideology, was, therefore, particularly dramatic. Ostracism of the Romani community,
which eventually banished Papusza, proved to be the price for presenting her poetry to a wider
range of readers. The ensuing sense of threat she experienced eventually led to a mental disorder.