Iliad pulses

Although in the interwar period - as Tadeusz Kłak writes - "any kind of connection with Young Poland became suspicious, especially for a poet who was counted among the avant-garde, Czechowicz always kept a free hand in finding affinities, and among the writers of Young Poland he saw precursors of later conquerors".

Stanisław Wyspiański was a very important artist of Young Poland, about whose works he spoke with great respect, finding in them "an extract of Polishness and creative fantasy". Responding to a poll in "Prosto z Mostu" [Straight from the Bridge] (1938, No. 9), entitled Jaką najciekawszą książkę przeczytałem w 1937 roku? [What was the most interesting book I read in 1937?], Czechowicz listed Akropolis [The Acropolis] by Wyspiański, "that visionary who, with sarcasm, recalled: "lances, scythes, sabres, emblems", was at the same time the most Polish of the creators of the bygone era and stood the test of time as an artist of the order of the great forever".

The poem iliada tętni [the iliad is pulsating] was first published in the magazine "Zet (1932, no. 17), and later in the volume w błyskawicy [in the lightning]. Dedicated to the memory of Stanisław Wyspiański, it confirms the presence of the modernist tradition in the work of the Lublin poet. Years later Jerzy Zagórski wrote about this work that it was the most beautiful tribute of the new generation to Young Poland.

The work is a poetic version of Wyspiański's illustrations to Iliada. In this way, as Tadeusz Kłak writes, "the painterly visions born from the word returned to the verbal form and arranged themselves into a sequence of images moving in the imagination".

The poem was delivered during the Academy in honour of Stanisław Wyspiański, organised by the Lublin Writers' Union to mark the 25th anniversary of the death of the Young Poland artist. The ceremony took place on 28 November 1932 in the auditorium of the Municipal Theatre in Lublin. From the programme of the academy, we learn that the opening word was delivered by Wacław Gralewski, followed by Czechowicz's reading of Imię wielkości [The Name of Greatness]. Later, the actor L. Zbucki recited Wyspiański's poem Niech nikt nad grobem mi nie płacze [Let no one cry at my grave]. Works by poets from Lublin were also presented; apart from the above-mentioned poem by Czechowicz, a poem by Marian Czuchnowski Wyspiański and Ewokacja [The Evocation] by Konrad Bielski were recited.