„Szczęście to przemijanie/ nam też zniknąć trzeba” – kilka uwag o przemijaniu w poezji ks. Jana Twardowskiego

Abstract

The authors have made an inevitable transitoriness in the poetry by priest Jan Twardowski into the theme of their article. The poet stresses that not only people are subject to unavoidable passing of time but also their feelings, the seasons, the surrounding nature, towns, buildings or just ordinary objects. All earthly creatures and organisms are mortal, but only man feels sadness on realizing transitoriness of their material existence and passing away of other beings. Transitoriness, however, is considered by priest Twardowski as something positive, as being happiness. Human life on earth is short, transitory, always heads towards unavoidable death, which is not the end, though, but transition to another life, a moment of achieving knowledge, getting to know God, the experience of true love. Human life in the poetry of Twardowski is most often presented as a way, a pilgrimage, whereas death is depicted as passing through the gate of life, a border crossing; a journey. The quality of life depends on the choices made by people and on the values they adopt. Life and death, worldliness and supernaturality, time and eternity, heaven and earth, similarly to hope and despair, love and loneliness, joy and pain, faith and the lack of it—form a unity; only when we experience them all, can we find a true sense of existence.