Helena Bakuło: ‘We can’t tell students that Mickiewicz had five mistresses and Syrkomla only one’

‘This year our museum was visited by 3400 people – it is a very good result,’ said Helena Bakuło, director of Władysław Syrokomla Museum, in an interview for zw.lt.

Antoni Radczenko: Is being the director of Władysław Syrokomla Museum only your work, or also your passion? 

Helena Bakuło: It is a passion, but it is also a hard work, because digging potatoes or other physical labor does not require any spiritual resources. Being a director of a poet’s museum requires certain emotions and knowledge. However, people sometimes ask ‘what do you do here?’ Because it seems to everyone that in a museum there is some lady dozing and people are visiting. Our museum, however, is unique. It is a house-museum, Władysław Syrokomla lived here.

Usually museums consist of two parts – one is what an ordinary visitor can see, the other – archives. How is it in Syrokomla Museum? Do you have any poet’s manuscripts? 

Unfortunately, the museum was funded in 70’s – over 100 years after the poet’s death, so all the manuscripts are in archives and in Wróblewscy Library. They are available. We have numerous materials in our exposition. Our custodian Józef Szostakowski is taking care of it. But everything has to be paid for, scans have their price, photocopying is a little cheaper. We simply cannot afford to have bigger expenses. Current exposition cost us over 3 thousand Litas.

And what about funding? 

We are an institution of public benefit which is funded by the local government of Vilnius region. Renovation of the museum, which was done several years ago, was defrayed from the EU funds.

Is the museum being visited by many people? 

Yes, we keep records. We already had 3400 visitors since January. It is a lot for our museum. As far as I know, in some Lithuanian museums of this type there are only several dozen visitors a year. In fact our museum has a very good location – near Vilnius, in a very beautiful village.

Who is usually visiting the museum – local people, or also tourists from Poland? 

Lithuanians, of course, because in Poland Syrokomla is rather unknown. Comparing to Polish writers, he is very insignificant. He is not even in the school program. However, there are streets named after him. I know of one street in Gdańsk, in Warsaw there are probably two. Although he was a really great poet, his works require deeper analysis. He is famous in the Vilnius region because he wrote about our land. His works were influenced by legends, fairy tales and folk songs. Syrokomla is very important for three nations because he was born in Belarus, wrote in Polish, but he lived in Lithuania and wrote about Lithuania.

Museums all over the world are organizing different supporting events. Is it similar in your case? 

Yes. First of all, we work with schools. Children are rather bored listening to poetry, so we have calligraphy classes, ceramic workshops. We also have classes from literature, which are conducted by Józef Szostakowski. Everyone can book such lessons. We also have Advent evenings. There are also meetings with poets. They can come here at any moment with tea or wine. There is also a festival of poetry – May by the Viliya (Maj nad Wilią). We have a poetic series ‘Syrokomla’s Lyre’ (Lira Syrokomli). Moreover, we organize youth camps because we have a camping site.

Do you personally like Syrokomla’s poetry? 

I’m a trained Lithuanian language teacher. Syrokomla’s poetry is very close to me. It was a very interesting personality.

But also controversial… 

Of course, but most of all he was a great patriot. He was a believer. He died the day before The January Uprising. He was taking part in the underground activity. He was imprisoned for it. He was a modern, enlightened man.

But he had an affair with an actress, which caused a sex scandal. Maybe it is worth talking about such things to encourage young people? 

But we won’t tell children from fifth grade that Mickiewicz has five mistresses, and Syrokomla only one. We should talk about their work. We all protect our privacy, so it is not worth doing this with a poet’s life. Pulling out such things is very nasty.

Source: http://zw.lt/wilno-wilenszczyzna/helena-bakulo-nie-mozna-mowic-uczniom-ze-mickiewicz-mial-piec-kochanek-syrokomla-tylko-jedna/

Tłumaczenie by Anna Leśkiewicz w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Anna Leśkiewicz within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.