Bronisława Wajs
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«From camp I was, now I am out of nowhere»
Why do we consider this woman to be an important person?
Papusza was
a poet who wrote in the Roma language. She came from a group of ethnic Polish
lowland Roma
people.
She paid a huge price for her difference because she dared to write down her
feelings in poems. And although her
poetry was recognized, she was excommunicated by
the Roma community, accused of treason
and condemned to solitude.
She paid a high price for going beyond the traditional role of women and broke the existing standards of
the Roma.
Biography
We do not know the exact date of
her birth. As the most likely is given August 17th, 1908 and May 10th, 1910. We
do not know who her father was. Her mother chose for her the name Papusza, which meant a doll. She belonged to the Polish Roma ethnic group. Her life would look like the
majority of Roma women - camp, husband, children, divination, and care for the
maintenance of the family. Initially Papusza lived in the camp and wandered
across Poland.
But even then something happened, what was to decide about her later life. She
wanted to learn to read and write. Initially she spied children but later a Jewish
woman taught her and she paid for the lessons in stolen chickens. Then for the
first time she broke from the existing rules of the Roma, books or newspapers
were not appreciated by them. At the age of 15, she got married. This
relationship ended in Papusza’s betrayal and a divorce. Later, she married Dionizy
Wajs. He worked as embroiderer and he was 26 years older than Papusza. She was not happy with him. They
had no children. Second World War found the Wajs’ camp in Wołyń. It was a
period of real extermination of Gypsies. After the war, there was a meeting
with Jerzy Ficowski and Papusza . In 1949, the budding poet was hiding from the
security force in a gypsy camp. There he met a young gypsy girl who „arranged songs from her own head”. He persuaded her to write these
songs. Papusza wrote in Romany and J. Ficowski translated into Polish. Ficowski
was interested in the culture of the Roma and Gypsies trusted him. Papusza’s poems
seemed so interesting to him that he gave them to Julian Tuwim, who was
delighted by her poetry and encouraged Papusza to write. This was the cause of
the Papusza’s tragedy. Roma people recognized her as the proteus. A woman who could
read, had no children, corresponded with outstanding Polish poets was excluded
from the community. The ethnic group, in which she lived, found her to be a
traitor. The conflict worsened after Tuwim’s interview with
Ficowski, which was published in 1950 in the journal „Problems”. In this
interview Ficowski spoke about his book on gypsy culture, about Papusza and her
poetry, they also published the first translation of her poems. The talks focused on the forced settlement of Roma, called by the authority of the Grand halt. The appearance of Papusza’s compositions in this context caused that she was
repelled by the Roma. She did not feel safe and she together with her family
left the camp. She lived in Gorzów
Wielkopolski. In 1953 Jerzy Ficowski published a book „Polish
Gypsies”. At the end of the book he put Roma - Polish dictionary, to assist in
the understanding of Roma culture. Papusza was accused of disclosing Gypsy’s
affairs to strangers, although Ficowski, staying in the camp, talked not only
with her, but it was she who was blamed for breaking the gypsy code. The
penalty for this was to be a mental illness that struck Papusza. Several times
she stayed in psychiatric hospitals. Remaining between the two worlds - the
world of the Roma, which she idealized and the world of literature, where she
did not feel confident. She wrote to Tuwim:
„ I write the truth to Mr Tuwim, I'm
just a fortune-teller, not a poet”. She was suspicious of the awards and
the scholarship of the Ministry of Culture recognizing it
as a kind of gift, she did not want to accept.
She could not understand that they
can pay for the poems.
In 1962 she became
a member of the Polish Writers Union, but she soon stopped writing. She took very much to heart death of
J. Tuwim and she
broke off contact with J. Ficowski. After
her husband's death she lived alone.
After years Papusza returned
as a heroine of
books and publications dedicated to her work. There was also a film made showing her not very easy way of life.
Papusza is interesting to
contemporary people as „the accursed poet”
and her life, full of dramatic moments,
is a rewarding subject for
authors.
Bibliography:
- Angelika Kuźniak: „Papusza”, Wydawnictwo Czarne, Wołowiec 2013
Links:
- Anna Sidoruk „Papusza: skąd te słowa u mnie” - http://kultura.onet.pl/ksiazki/artykuly/papusza-skad-te-slowa-u-mnie,1,5571839,artykul.html (available 21.08.2013)
- „Papusza wyklęta” - http://www.wprost.pl/ar/284006/Papusza-wykleta/ (available 10.09.2013)
Source of photo:
Description: Portrait of Papusza by Krystyna Gierlinska - Jozwiak
Date: 2008
Author: Krystyna Gierlińska
Source: File Papusza.JPG is on Wikimedia Commons , the free media repository
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plik:Papusza.JPG
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