On Julian of the Cross

The hero of the fracas is Julian Krzyżanowski. During the interwar period, he worked as a teacher in Lublin schools: at the Vetter Gymnasium in Lublin, and later at the Wacława Arciszowa Gymnasium. In 1925, he became an academic professor at the Catholic University of Lublin. In 1927-1930, he taught Polish literature at the Kings School of Slavonic Studies at the University of London, and later for four years he was a lecturer of Slavonic literature at the University of Latvia in Riga. In 1934, he became the head of the Department of Polish Literature at the Faculty of Polish Studies of the University of Warsaw.

He was the author of the first review devoted to Józef Czechowicz's poetry, which appeared in "Ziemia Lubelska" in 1927, after the publication of Kamień [The Stone], and was entitled O przecinku i o poezji [About the Decimal Point and About Poetry]. Many years later, he published another text devoted to the Lublin poet's works - Liryka Czechowicza [Czechowicz's Poetry]. He also wrote a review of the book Spotkania z Czechowiczem [Meetings with Czechowicz], which was published in "Twórczość". (1972, no. 5).

The author of Kamień devoted one of his epigrams to the Lublin scholar. While reading it, it is worth knowing that Professor Krzyżanowski was the author of, among other things, the thesis entitled O klocku powieściowym w w. XVI [On the Novel Block in the 16th c.]. We should also remember that in 1930, he became a lecturer of Slavic literature at the University of Latvia in Riga.

Czechowicz begins the piece with the words: "Julianie mój, a leć, a piej" [My Julian, and Go and Sing], clearly referring to Mickiewicz's poem Do B. Z. [To B. Z.]. It is worth mentioning that literary quotations also appear in other epigrams by the poet from Lublin. In the text Na Zygmunta Mądrego [To Sigismund the Wise], he refers to Mikołaj Sęp-Szarzyński (I nie miłować ciężko, i miłować ciężka pociecha [It is hard not to love hard, and to love is heavy consolation] while in the work O Bielskim [On Bielski] - to a text by Jan Kochanowski (A witajże nam, witaj miły Konradynie [Welcome to us, welcome my dear Konradyn"). The literary quotations and allusions appearing in Czechowicz's "courtesans" will be noticed many years later by the protagonist of the trifle O Janie od Krzyża – wdzięczny poecie za wyprorokowanie mu dalszego „pół wieku pracy” [About John of the Cross - grateful to the poet for prophesying him a further "half a century of work]. In 1962, in the introduction to the first edition of the trifles, Julian Krzyżanowski wrote: "Verbal incrustations of this kind give Czechowicz's phrases a distinct comic colouring, enhancing their meaning, and prove that their author was a truly skilful student of the Master from Czarnolas".