Sit down and turn on!
In the streets of Warsaw there appeared plastic arm-chairs in different colours. Red, yellow, blue… Each of them is carrying a slogan “Sit down and turn on”. In this way one of the television channels is encouraging to purchase its subscription. The goal of the promotion action is attacking my brain cells while I am picturing alternative use of the seats. For example to arrange a café. Add a table, call together relatives or passers-by, bring up snacks and drinks at hand, and the café is ready. The arm-chair may also be useful for crossword makers. They would sit back comfortably with a pile of crossword puzzles, and occasionally ask a passer-by for suggestions. Not mentioning banal relaxing after shopping. There comes one more possibility to my mind: I sit down, close my eyes, whisper the name of desired destination, and teleportation happens. I liked the idea so much that I endeavoured to do it. Unfortunately, I did not manage to reach my destination at once. I dreamed of traveling to Trieste. Oh, how to travel to Trieste while being in Warsaw? You need to take the issue no. 90 of “Zeszyty Literackie”, sit down comfortably, preferably in a yellow plastic arm-chair, and turn into a wanderer for a while. Who knows – perhaps reading the Trieste “Zeszyty Literackie” is much a better idea than traveling to the city itself: we enter a world subjected to creative consideration, thus avoiding the inertia of initial impressions. And the names: Claudio Magris, Italo Svevo, Casanova, Stendahl… I evoke only the best-known ones, but let me assure you, the issue no. 90 is full of celebrities. To summarize such an issue is a breakneck task, therefore I will limit myself to only a few extracts treating them as fleeting memories of the journey.
Literature
The tissue of Trieste is undoubtedly literature. The beautiful sentence by Claudio Magris: “The city living in literature and by literature as literature is the only space in which we can find ourselves and learn truly who we are” (Europa widziana z Triestu – Europe Seen From Trieste) emerges not only from the awareness that the land gave birth to some writers, but also from the belief that the mixture of nations, their cultures and languages brings special narration, creates a tale of preserving identity in the world subjected to unification, and at the same time a tale of opposing the destructive power of nationalisms. Trieste for Magris is like a confession of faith; it becomes the point of reference for all his literary attempts.
“Zeszyty Literackie” give opportunity to meet all types of literary characters, starting with the biggest celebrities – the sketch „Ulisses“ urodził się w Trieście (”Ulysses “ was born in Trieste) by Italo Svevo showing Joyce’s associations with the city (“It is apparent that we, the Triestians, are allowed to love him as if he were one of us”), through already mentioned Svevo (Magris writes about him in a long text Pisanie i nieokiełznana starość – Writing And Unbridled Old Age, the same does Eugenio Montale in Dla Itala Sveva – w hołdzie – Tribute To Italo Svevo), ending with ones known only to few (Eugenio Montale: Wspomnienie o Robercie Bazlenie – Memory of Robert Bazlen and Giani Stuparich Bobi Bazlen). Reading all the texts gathered in the section Trieste Figures gives an impression that Trieste is an agora of literary meetings; dates of birth and death become irrelevant as the sons of literature meet everyday, living in a community beyond the time. The timelessness, which forces us to watch history as an expanding continuum, is yet another memory of the journey.
History
Let us have Magris speak again: “We are inside a collage where nothing has become the past and none wound healed in time; in which everything is the present, open and indefinite, everything coexists and remains simultaneous: the Habsburgh empire, fascism, the year 1945, nostalgia for imperial royal Austria, nationalism, pursuits for independence, Italian patriots with Slovenian names and vice versa, Slovenes full of pretence and members of National Liberation Army, worried about six time zones in the Slavonic world starting right behind the threshold, memory of exodus from Istria and reluctance to its victims, stubborn wisdom of the Jewish Mitteleuropa, discrete intelligence of Slovenes and the one epic and calm of the inhabitants of Friuli, the cult of Italianess which makes Italians being blamed for not being true Italians at all and not understanding love which Trieste feels for them, and the wish not to bother about them anymore” (Dorastać w Trieście – Growing In Trieste). The quotation makes us aware how much the city comprises in itself, how many events and emotions it is hiding. The city is a huge melting pot in which history flowing in an intense current melted into the Trieste mixture. Surrendering to Magris’ narration I cannot read the texts included in “Zeszyty Literackie” differently than one long story. And although I recognize the markings of dates I do not bother whether the events happened recently or two ages ago; I am perceiving them through the prism of my present. For example the short note by Egon Schiele: “I dreamed of Trieste, the sea, the space. Nostalgia!” (List z więzienia, 1 maja 1912 – Letters From Prison, May 1, 1912).
A fantastic thing are Extracts in which the editors of the issue gathered descriptions of places, buildings, streets and corners of the city thus creating a special guidebook of Trieste. Special as it is weaved of literary quotations. It would be beautiful to set off for a journey with such a map. The points on the map are for example The Olive Press, numerous literary cafes, places where writers used to step in, fish market, sightseeing routs, and even balconies, frontages and roofs. Indeed Trieste is a worthwhile place to its full extend.
The issue no. 90 of “Zeszyty Literackie” is glittering with thousands of colours; it is a mosaic of names, works, ideas and thoughts. It let me believe for a while that I indeed moved from Warsaw to the port city, leaving behind the plastic arm-chair.
Agnieszka Kozłowska
Translated by Małgorzata Pilewska
Discussed journals: Zeszyty Literackie