Anna Dymna: The word is our best friend

With tumultuous standing plaudits the Vilnius thanked to the known Polish actors Anna Dymna and Jacek Romanowski, who came to Vilnius for the opening of Cracow Poetry Salon.

At Sunday noon in “Pan Tadeusz” restaurant in the Polish Community Centre in Vienna had its place a ceremonial opening of Cracow Poetry Salon. The known Polish actors Anna Dymna and Jacek Romanowski were reading for the audience the poetry of pr. Jan Twardowski.

“My dream is coming true today” – opening the Poetry Salon in Vilnius, said Anna Dymna. “Never have I been expecting that it is going to advance so much. Nobody has believed in it, but it turned out that poetry is needed for us” – said the actress. It was her initiative in 2002 to start Cracow Poetry Salon, during which on each Sunday at 12:00 a.m. known actors read the poems of their favourite poets.

“The word is human’s best friend. (…) With the word one can save a human, one can help him to live. The word may be a cure for the worst stresses. With the word one can also kill” – said the actress.

The initiative of poetic meetings was so appreciated by the audience that within twelve years there have been several dozen of Poetry Salons opened in plenty of Polish towns, as well as outside its borders, for instance in Sweden, Austria, Canada. Cracow Poetry Salon in Vilnius is already the fortieth one.

“After 12 years there had come into being a huge poetic family” – the actress didn’t hide her contentment. As she pointed out, the idea is very simple and it is based on reading poems by professional actors. They don’t recite. One mustn’t recite poems from memory, because, as Szymborska and Miłosz said, one should read poetry. Read to understand the sense in order not to kill content with form” – said A. Dymna. It is tradition that all the Poetry Salons are opened with the poetry of pr. Jan Twardowski. In view of, as the actress from Cracow pointed out, its simplicity and because it treats about the most important, the most beautiful things in life.

All the poetic meetings are accompanied by live music in performance of eminent instrumentalists. During the opening of Poetry Salon in Vilnius, the accordionist Daumantas Stundžia has played.

As the actress of Old Theatre in Cracow pointed out, Poetry Salons’ aim is to restore dignity of the word. “So the word serves us and is our friend” – said A. Dymna.

As she emphasized, the problems of poetry, about which Homer, Shakespeare or Kochanowski wrote, are always the same, because poets have always asked themselves the same questions. “And even if there is no answer to them in that poems, the fact that these are the same questions makes life better. Poetry tames pain, problems, longings” – said the actress.

The meetings within Cracow Poetry Salon will be held in Vilnius every month. As Irena Brazis, the coordinator of cultural projects in DKP and the initiator of poetic meetings, has informed, Poetry Salons will be held in Vilnius every month. The upcoming June meeting will be directed to children. The poems of Maria Konopnicka will be read by the actors from Białystok. A known Polish filmic and theatrical actress made Vilnius amateurs of poetry sure that she will try for Polish actors’ comings to the city of Wilia.

The Vilnius who came for the Sunday poetic meeting with participation of Anna Dymna and Jacek Romanowski didn’t come back home for a long time yet. The Polish actors willingly signed autographs and communed with Vilnius audience.

Iwona Klimaszewska
Fot. Teresa Worobiej