Franciszka Arnsztajnowa

61

Franciszka Arnsztajnowa : biography

19 February 1865 – 1942

Another composition belonging to this period is the poem entitled "Powrót" (The Return) published in a literary journal in April 1916. Comprising five ottava rima stanzas, the 40-line poem brought her the Silver Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature, a (now historical) body awarding the most prestigious literary honours of the land at the time.F. Arnsztajnowa, "Powrót", Sprawa Polska (Lublin), No. 13, 18 April 1916, p. 11.

The interwar period

During the Interbellum Arnsztajnowa collaborated with the newspapers and literary magazines Dziennik Lubelski, Kamena, and Kurjer Lubelski; she was the editor-in-chief of the literary supplement Dodatek Literacki to the newspaper Ziemia Lubelska. At the same time she was the moving spirit of the literary life of the city of Lublin, a fact recognized by outside observers,Cf. Jan Szczawiej, "Życie literackie w Lubelszczyźnie", Ilustrowany Kuryer Codzienny (Kraków), vol. 25, No. 28, 28 January 1934, p. 3. co-founding in 1932, together with the poet Józef Czechowicz, the Lublin section of the writers’ union, the Związek Literatów (see Polish Writers’ Union), of which she served as the president. To this period, in addition to the aforementioned collection Archanioł jutra (1924), belong also her volumes of poetry entitled Odloty ("Flying Away"; 1932),F. Arnsztajnowa, Odloty, Lublin, Związek Literatów w Lublinie, 1932. a compilation of verses published in literary journals between 1902 and 1926, and the collection produced jointly with Józef Czechowicz, Stare kamienie ("Old Stones"; 1934) which was at once a tribute to her beloved Lublin, a city in which she continued to reside until 1934, epitomized in the poem "Tobie śpiewam, Lublinie" (To You do I Sing, O Lublin!), and a form of a literary farewell.Franciszka Arnsztajnowa & Józef Czechowicz, Stare kamienie: [poezye], Lublin, [n.p.], 1934. Contemporary critics observed that the unspecified nature of the collaboration between the two famous poets gave the publication an anonymous tinge,K. W. Zawodziński, "Liryka" (Lyric Poetry); in Rocznik Literacki za rok 1934, ed. Z. Szmydtowa, Warsaw, Instytut Literacki, 1935, p. 53. and although subsequent scholarship clearly differentiated between the pieces written by Arnsztajnowa and those written by Czechowicz mistakes of attribution did occur in succeeding years and decades.Tadeusz Kłak, Miasto poetów: poezja lubelska, 19181939, Tarnów, The Author; Lublin, Wojewódzki Dom Kultury, 2001. ISBN 8391501825.

Odloty represents a continuation of the modernist esthetics that dominated the first phase of Arnsztajnowa’s literary life, as evidenced in the imagery employed and in the method of shaping of the lyrical persona, as well as in the return of the fairy-tale motifs favoured by the Young Poland poets, such as lakes, mirrors, and shadows. Although on occasion she adopts a new cadence closer to the spirit of the Skamander circle then gaining an ascendancy over Polish poetics, such diversions are rare. The title poem, "Odloty" (Flying Away), first printed in a literary magazine in 1905, is a mystical allegory on the inevitability of the departure, of parting despite the ties thereby shattered.F. Arnsztajnowa, "Odloty", Ateneum (Warsaw), vol. 3, No. 9, September 1905, p. 165.

Arnsztajnowa was co-founder of the historically important Kraków periodical Życie famously associated with the artistic avant-garde and with the person of Stanisław Przybyszewski, for which she wrote a programmatic poem, and had close ties to the literary magazine Kamena (see Kamena), founded and edited by K. A. Jaworski: the journal began publication in 1933 with a poem by Arnsztajnowa, "Na Olejnej" (In Olejna Street), on the first page of the first issue.Franciszka Arnsztajnowa, "Na Olejnej (z cyklu Stare kamienie)" (In Olejna Street from the Stare kamienie Cycle), Kamena (Chełm Lubelski), vol. 1, No. 1, September 1933, p. 1.