“We Have to Remember it”. The Memory Imperative by Wiesław Kulikowski

Abstract

In the poetry of Wiesław Kulikowski the memory protects the speaker from losing his own identity and the history from sinking into oblivion. Therefore, the lyrical subject that can be identified with the author, creating the myth of his own genesis in the poems, preserves the memory of the Second World War and traces the origins of his existence. Being aware that it is impossible to capture the moment in its invariability, he records the memories as well as the changes of his consciousness. The changeability of visions, overlapping mutually, completely imitate the dreamlike visions which manifest both fears and desires. The author uses, or forms, countless metaphors showing the impressions related to reaching the past. They are, for example: going inside a maze, illuminating a picture, pulling out a drawer, opening a photo album or rewinding a film. Stairs and depths of a well turn out to be characteristic here. Yet, a detailed accumulation of even the slightest recollections results in burning them down, and therefore, their symbolic destruction. Still, a total liberation from hurting images is not the intention of the speaking character who, in spite of pain, wishes to keep the memories of the past and, this way, expresses his regard for the history.