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Pigtail (1948)

Author Information
Writer: Tadeusz Rózewicz (1921 - )
Writer's Country: Poland
Original Language: Polish
Genre: Poetry
Event: Holocaust

When all the women in the transport
had their heads shaved
four workmen with brooms made of birch twigs
swept up
and gathered the hair

Behind clean glass
the stiff hair lies
of those suffocated in gas chambers
there are pins and side combs
in this hair

The hair is not shot through with light
is not parted by the breeze
is not touched by any hand
or rain or lips

In huge chests
clouds of dry hair
of those suffocated
and a faded plait
a pigtail with a ribbon
pulled at school
by naughty boys

Credit: From the book Tadeusz Rózewicz: They Came to See a Poet, translated by Adam Czerniawski. Published by Anvil Press Poetry in 1991. Reprint courtesy of Anvil Press Poetry.

Biography:

Poet, playwright and novelist Tadeusz Rozewicz was born in 1921 in Radomsko, Poland and is considered one of the most influential Polish writers of his generation. He studied art history in Cracow at the Jagiellonian University and joined the Resistance movement during World War II. It was during the war that he began to write, struggling to put the horrors he witnessed into words. He published his first work Niepokoj (Anxiety) in 1947, and since then has continually succeeded in reinventing literature with his stark and honest approach to writing. In the early 1960s, Rozewicz became a leading figure in Polish avant-garde theater. His work has been translated into numerous languages including English, German, French, Serbian, Serbo-Croatian, Danish, Finnish and Swedish, and his plays continue to be performed throughout the world. Rozewicz currently lives and works in Wroclaw, Poland.

Bibliography:

Conversation with the Prince and other poems (trans. A. Czerniawski), Anvil Press Poetry, 1982.

Green Rose (trans. Geoffrey Thurley), Darlington, Australia: John Michael Group, 1982.

Unease (trans. Victor Contoski), Minnesota: New Rivers Press, 1980.

Selected poems (trans. A. Czerniawski), Penguin, 1976.

The Survivor and other poems (trans. M.J. Krynski and R.A. Maguire), Princeton University Press, 1976.

Faces of Anxiety (trans. A. Czerniawski), Rapp & Whiting, 1969.