On Wacław

The trifle O Wacławie [About Wacław] belongs to a collection of sixteen trifles by Józef Czechowicz presenting members of the Lublin Society of Book Lovers.

Its main character is Wacław Gralewski (1900-1972), a poet, writer, editor, journalist, friend of Józef Czechowicz, author of a book about the poet entitled Stalowa tęcza [The Steel Rainbow] and several books of memoirs describing the intellectual and artistic life of pre-war Lublin.

It is worth noting that the colourful figure of the Lublin writer also appears in Czechowicz's poem We czterech [We Four]. In the poem, Gralewski, as the only one of the four creators of the "Reflektor"group, was called a "poet", although - as Józef Zięba notes - "with a closer analysis of even Gralewski's works published so far, one could conclude that he did not seem to be an outstanding and original poet". In fact, he quickly broke his pen and ended his "velvet tiger run" for poetic laurels. It is not surprising that Czechowicz, who in his youthful poem enthusiastically described "the poet Wacław", believing in his creative potential and indefatigable energy, after years characterised him slightly differently in his trifle: jokingly, but nevertheless with a delicate, barely perceptible note of disappointment. In this work, we probably have in mind not only a beautiful, Napoleonic profile, which we can admire when looking at youthful photographs of Gralewski, or his caricature made by Henryk Donga, the court portraitist of poets from Lublin, but also "the theatrical profile of a poet who no longer writes poems, and the theatrical profile of an animator of literary life, but who refers only to the memories of the 'wonderful past'".

Although Gralewski remained "a poet of unfulfilled hopes", he still played an important role in Lublin's cultural life. He was absorbed mainly by journalistic and social work. He wrote reviews of poetry volumes, reports, as well as (important information for the reader of Czechowicz's trifle!) theatre reviews published in Lublin magazines.