WOJCIECH PLOCHARSKI

Unspoken
Doctrine

2015

Megalopolis
The first speech Against Aphobus by Demosthenes
I would call bourgeois, merchant or market-based ...
During the process, this future Greek orator
criticizes father's relatives and friend - that badly managed assets,
which (after bereavement) he had received from them as an adult youth.
His father was an armorer and a manufacturer of sofas,
Demosthenes precisely, like an accountant,
proves guardians dishonesty counts
in talents, minae and drachmae. He accuses them of theft.
The case ends in settlement probably, while the speech itself
brings to mind the bourgeois climate of Balzac's Eugnie Grandet,
the novel younger by more than 2000 years.
Another speech, For the Megalopolitans, concerns
the management of military alliances - favorable for Athens.
The role of this polis is to be profiting from influencing the balance
between neighbours - Demosthenes would like.
He believes that Athens, mediating in a dispute between Sparta and Megalopolis,
restrain imperial tendencies among neighbours.
This speech, in turn, brings to mind Thucydides,
but it still smacks of a novice orator's epigonism.
In both cases, however, the young speaker is in favour of the weaker
in their dispute with stronger.
MMXV

Bad Breath of Caesar

Plutarch describes the life of Pompey the Great rather chaotically,
dryly and without involvement. The writer of Chaeronea
is also a shaveling, installed in Roman Establishment,
and an apologist of virtues: Pompey is for him rather a devoid of ideals trifler
collecting only military triumphs.
However, Plutarch is able to muster the shadow of compassion
describing the last moments of this leader on the Egyptian coast Pompey defeated by Caesar at Pharsalus, and seeking asylum - is beheaded
after a decision taken by a group of tutors [sic] of adolescent ruler of Egypt.
The historian treats differently invincible defender of republican virtues,
Cato the Younger. Clearly sympathizes with this Senate talker guided
by the primacy of the common good over corruption and private interests.
Cato is a kind of personification of the Roman conscience. Plutarch says:
"For this reason all the great men were hostile to Cato, feeling that
they were put to shame by him."
... Having tyrant breath on his neck, Cato - having read
a scroll containing Plato's dialogue
on the soul leaves, in operatic manner, the Roman political scene in Utica
on the Carthaginian coast.
***
Utica, once a port on the Gulf of Tunis,
is located near the new highway between Tunis and Bizerte.
It symbolizes the values, in the name of which
the ancients were able to not only speak for hours.
MMXV

The Way of Kings

Zamoyski Palace in Warsaw is distinctive, gray building
at the junction of two streets: Nowy wiat and Krakowskie Przedmiecie.
It is surrounded by atmosphere of science...
From its windows, across the street, we see Staszic Palace,
which is home to the Academy of Sciences, near,
the king of astronomy, Copernicus, is sitting on the throne.
This view has accompanied me throughout the years of journalism studies;
the Zamoyski Palace is in fact part of the University of Warsaw.
Imagine exercises and lectures held just above the historic Royal Route
Previously, it was the road connecting the residences of monarchs in the south
with the Old Town.
The promoter of my master thesis was Prof. Assoc. Andrzej lisz,
scientist and erudite, historian of the press - the ruler of the minds.
I do not recall another lecturer at the university
with such literary and fluent narrative.
***
On Saturdays, in the student group, we were heading along the Royal Route
to the Old Town wine bar U Fukiera where, in turn, vermouth reigned.
MMXV

The Tales of Oppman

The twenty first century is still a teenager.
Likes, among others, electronic gadgets,
comics, simple film fantasies, literary fairy tales,
in a word - awesome tales.
100 years ago, a man named Artur Oppman,
a resident of the Old Town in Warsaw,
supplied - exactly - such stories... Farther back,
also E. T. A. Hoffmann was a resident of this area.
It is believed that a few streets away, at Freta Street,
the idea of his well-known fairy tale Nuknacker und Mauseknig,
came into being.
In turn, Oppman lived at 8 Kanonia Street.
Several of his incredible legends of the Old Town (among others)
are in the collection Klechdy domowe (Domestic Tales), 1970 illustrated with ingenious woodcuts.
These stories - including some by Oppman made an impression on generations, improved imagination,
shortened the distance to the past The Old Town
has inspired many legends with a thrill, fairy tales and fantasies.
I drive that way from time to time by bicycle.
The distance between houses of Hoffmann and Oppman
is a fairly easy trip back in time.
MMXV

Journey to the Ends of the Solar System

A few days ago, I went scuba diving to Eastern Masuria.
In the depth, under the sunken wooden jetty,
an impressive pike was lying in wait, as earlier
in the same place. It kicked,
when in the confusion I touched it for a joke.
After a series of dives, in the evening,
we went for a walk around a birch grove. A roe-deer
jumped out of the bushes; after a few leaps
it could watch us already from a safe distance
at the edge of the thicket.
Hmm, I grew up at the street
which was in fact the avenue of birches, and on the wall
I had a painting depicting the birches in the park.
***
When (after returning) I look at the pictures of Pluto from the spacecraft flying beside, I can ascertain with ease:
in that space there is no nature as we know it.
MMXV

Apartment with Vegetable Motif

In politics, I support the moderate center. I happened
to give my support to the center-right parties, as well as center-left.
However, I do not engage fully. My attention span
has a rather characteristics of this concern,
which eg. a joiner has in relation to all legs of the table.
In one of the past Sundays, we popped into the royal castle in my city.
Attentive service led us to the apartment of prosocial literary man;
this flat is not accessible for visitors. The writer (who started as a librarian)
lived there with his family in the 20s of the twentieth century.
As a novelist, he was writing in a visionary style
about "glass houses" and "homeless people", and his book Ashes
is not worse than books by Dumas. Duplex apartment is lined
with wallpaper with vegetable motif; creaky parquet floors,
furniture and paintings of the era also recreated there...
***
If you are traveling the world and visiting the sights,
visit a royal castle on the Vistula. Then ask courteous service
to lead you - also - to the apartment of the author,
who lived above the rooms of kings.
MMXV

Dypsis madagascariensis
One could say that I am a man of the forest, I mean ...
I know the woods, fields, meadows, lakes etc. from my walking and cycling rambles.
Among the plants, therefore, I feel at home, because I grew up among them,
and then I was contemplating this kingdom willingly.
In my climate zone (which is the temperate zone)
the monarch is definitely a powerful and wide-spreading oak,
towering pines and beeches are the aristocracy,
the nobility are smaller coniferous and deciduous trees; this whole court
rises above the soft and rustling carpet of mosses, ferns and grasses.
The same rustling and soft language of plants I heard in India,
Mauritius, in California, the Caucasus, on the Mediterranean islands
In Tenerife recently I stood in the shade of the exotic palm trees
imported there, among others, from the New World and oceanic archipelagos.
***
Birds, animals or humans - moving the seeds of trees - export their
intelligent strategy. That's why real pen people
feel among the plants at home.
MMXV

The Youth of Herder

On Saturday we went to Morg, where Herder,
the Enlightenment philosopher and writer was born.
The town lies in the western Masuria; here are the remains of Teutonic castle,
the Baroque palace, the Gothic town hall.
Herder lived in Morg to 18 years of age. In his memories
he describes this place with a wistful but restrained tenderness,
chastises for nosiness his parish boss
(he came into contact with books in this man's library), clearly
likes the folklore of Polish neighbours from the suburbs, finally as a "dunce" - sets off for further study at university to Konigsberg.
In another citation he admits that became a clergyman,
because in his day it was the only way to reach the masses.
In my time the media were such a way...
I come back from time to time to Herder, whose Enlightenment mission
is noteworthy. He influenced the Romanticism
and smartened up the Germans with his ardent zeal of a provincial,
he touched many Slavs too.
And although today his thoughts concern the past in humanistic debate,
this inspiring, lazy calm of periphery still lasts in the town.
MMXV

Rooms with a View

We got probably the best rooms - on the top floor,
in the central part of the building, with a large terrace.
The living room had a view of La Gomera, and the bedroom towards banana plantations and El Teide. The two-roomed space
was furnished with practical simplicity. On the one hand,
we had lazily ongoing life of the resort, on the other quiet, agricultural province.
Meals varied and aesthetically given a lot of Spanish cuisine; ethnic music
in the background, sometimes a non-aggressive pop.
The building located on the outskirts,
thus, the sounds of the resort - limited.
The hotel's events take place in an isolated hall.
Near the northern wing of the building - a mini-garden
with exotic plant species. Local cats lurking there
with their effective strategy for survival. In the morning,
when the sun rises over El Teide,
from the plantation you hear the blackbird's matutinal concert.
MMXV

Humboldt's Mirador
It is customary to think that the road to hell goes down.
Tenerife is different.
To get to hell, you have to ride the winding and narrow road
to a height of nearly 3,000 meters above sea level.
This route is also a solid lesson in botany,
passes across several floors of vegetation from subtropical banana plantations
through the magnificent pine forest to alpine bushes.
When the plant zone ends, there begins a unique,
gravel-rocky landscape of another planet.
This is the zone of the fallen giants.
They rolled down from the top of El Teide
and froze in the grotesque, sullen poses.
Meanwhile - from the side of the Humboldt viewpoint,
lying below - El Teide brings to mind
a view of subtropical paradise, gently inclined
towards the ocean
On the winding approaches,
cyclists climb toward the top (fallen giants
of this sport also train here). Sweaty,
they roll uphill laboriously to their Hades - and
roll from the top towards the paradisaic plantations.
MMXV

Machismo
I said goodbye to Pausanias in Sparta.
I realized that we are on a pilgrimage track,
and my guide to the ancient Hellas
abuses a devotional tone in his narrative. Besides,
he was copying - in the heat - all the inscriptions of pedestals for statues ...
Intricate, but, in the end, triumphant history of Messenia or
vivid description of Olympia - the city of sport - I accepted with solemn emotion yet.
However, I had to break this further counting monuments,
in the framework of some undisclosed expiation of my guide:
my balanced picture of ancient Greece was threatened.
On the beach with black volcanic sand I returned
to Plutarch's Lives Cicero, Cato, Lucullus, Crassus - this series
introduced me to the world of oratory, institutional mess,
mixture of law and lawlessness, clumsy conspiracies, power struggles,
unfortunate and victorious military expeditions
And I'll tell you one thing: this is the literature for men.
Something like regular roar of the waves, towards which
you go through the hot sand.
MMXV, Tenerife

Afro-Asian Connection
The road to Pergamon reminds the trail to Bizerte.
In both cases, you cross the crowded cities - Izmir and Tunis.
... Bizerte, the Tunisian seaside town, is dominated
by protruding drawbridge - the guidepost
visible from a complex system of streets, in the port
with European nineteenth-century buildings.
The Pergamon cone dominates the Turkish Bergama,
the symbol of ancient momentum...
Carthage, in turn, reminds a broken vessel with a successful past.
Ephesus, whereas, is like a well-preserved amphora,
which has fallen into desuetude.
The ruins of massive Priene hung
over the picturesque valley of Maeander river;
residues of organized Phoenician Kerkouane dozing at the Mediterranean beach...
Colosseum in El Djem is a lonely and
lofty monument of civilization in the middle of Arab town.
The amphitheatre at Miletus - D-shaped the ancient audience's laughter
on the background of Byzantine buildings.
***
However, my good-natured laughter
awakened the ubiquitous Turkish sleeveless undershirt,
and the gracious Carthaginian policeman
comparing my surname
to the name of the Asian school of philosophy.

The Gold of the Achaeans

Pausanias describes two stories that must
awaken the imagination of dreamers who read it.
Describing Megara from the 2nd century, and a stone on the acropolis
which sounded like after hitting a kithara
he recalls a similar phenomenon
from the west bank of the Nile in Luxor.
One of the so-called Colossi of Memnon,
that is, according to the people,
the statue of the semi-mythical son of Eos - Pausanias writes was also emitting, at dawn,
the sound corresponding to the lyre or khitara
Today we know that after renovation in Roman times
this - one of the two statues (in fact) of Amenhotep III fell silent.
The cause of those "groans" was the hot air, which, in the morning,
was escaping through the cracks like steam from a kettle.
Silent, several meters high statues of Pharaoh are kind of vestibule
to the Valley of the Kings in Western Thebes.
Heinrich Schliemann - originally a half-archaeologist,
and later the hero of archaeology - also read Pausanias.
I see this look in his mercantile eyes, when he stumbles there upon
a description of the Achaeans graves filled with gold.
This report - after nearly 17 centuries - was for him a vestibule
leading to the valley of the kings of Mycenae.
Also for me it was a characteristic signal. Hmm, maybe, not like
the sound of the kithara, but like the sound of the precious metal.
MMXV

Under the Laurel

The key to a successful democratic, political transformation is pluralism in the media.
My country has passed such a transition in the 90s.
I was a journalist describing live this privatization of the media market,
including the first processes of granting licenses for radio and television.
The country decided then to move away from a state monopoly in this field,
and I just helped - describing very carefully through a small, national news agency further, pioneering actions of officials in this area.
I was able to establish solid contacts with the leading representatives of the bodies
that regulate the media market; they were willingly handing me the news almost exclusively.
Soon I acquired a sizable group of imitators, who - racing - also were making
this important theme famous, eg. in the press; it was nota bene already pluralistic.
The result of the transformation of radio and television market in my country
was the appearance in a short time - in the first phase - nearly 150 private radio broadcasters
and a significant group of television operators (including several nationwide).
I mixed in this cauldron (along with others) for the pure satisfaction of cognitive - in fact,
without expecting laurels. But soon my temples - figuratively - were decorated with them.
***
Shortly as a foreign correspondent I often drove across the Polish-Belarusian border
near Grodno and in Brest. The car radio, which was rumbling from pluralism
in my own country, on the highway to Minsk was rather silent.
MMXV

The Dialoque of the Statues

I fly to Delhi with Belarussian programmer;
regiments of them work in India.
Our Aeroflot plane big like a barn transports us to our destiny
in comfortable conditions.
Kostia escorts me to the moment of taking luggage.
Gives valuable advices and hints.
Malik transports me in his taxi
through the night Delhi to the tourist office,
from where I'll go farther north.
Some beggars get enough sleep on pavements,
a motorcyclist's wife holds in the clinch
a sizeable commodity the rush of the machine
dispels her coloured sari.
At dawn, we set off with a thick driver
on a further journey.
He shows me on the road his parents' farm
with many buffaloes - tooth-to-jowl - in farmyard.
We pass slim brick factory chimneys;
at first I look at it as the towers of the temples.
In Kurukshetra we merge into traffic
with dozens of vehicles...
In the evening, I visit in the scanty light
the site of the mythical battle
between clans of Kauravas and Pandavas.
I record with my camcorder the famous talk
between Arjuna and Krishna.
This dialogue of the statues is eloquent silence.
At night, at the hotel,
only the mosquitoes buzz disturbs it.
Protracted sound of a distant sitar
or violin string.

Iphigenia in Tauris
Teachers probably saw me as a useful pupil:
in primary school, they were entrusting to me, for example
the role of the dance team leader; I was dancing kujawiaks, obereks
and krakowiaks. Then I was performing also with the choir
and in stagings of fairy tales.
In secondary school, I was tipped to interschool, scientific Olympics, but
I was also the leader of a band. At a concert in the auditorium of high school
I played simultaneously the electric organ and piano with revelatory applause of lively audience.
In this assembly hall, hung a huge painting, from 1893, by
the man named Heinrich Grtner - Iphigenia in Tauris.
Imagine a rectangle with dimensions of 3 x 5 meters, painted correctly,
but with a bit ponderous, German hand.
This oil on canvas shows
the seaside contemplation of the daughter of Agamemnon,
involved in a complex fate of her mythical family, what
- in literature - for example, Euripides and Goethe commented on.
In the same classy auditorium, one of the teachers of literature
also offered me the role of Mephisto in the planned staging.
It was the only time I refused my educators.
MMXV

In the Erechtheion
I assume that each of us - as a child - was dreaming of traveling time machine.
... I have this state to this day.
Not so long ago I boarded a ship to Piraeus with someone named Pausanias 1 I've hired him as a guide. We approached the shores of Attica
near Cape Sounion. From Piraeus, we moved on foot to Athens,
dropping into Phaleron. Again - on the road to Athens we passed the tomb of the comedy writer, Menander. In the end, we entered
the agora from the Kerameikos Quarter.
Ancient Athens greeted us with the forest of statues, a labyrinth of temples,
altars, public buildings. My guide was describing to me
their meaning and history... But his lengthy digression
on highly complex events in the time of the Macedonian supremacy
in Hellas, I recognized as superfluous, uncivilized rasp in our trip.
I was intrigued, however - as a tourist - by a barbaric object that
Pausanias showed me in the sanctuary of Asclepius.
This Sauromatic breastplate was made (by wild men) with hooves
cut into slices; so formed specific scales
were combined via tendons; finally, the breastplate - as a votive went to the temple...
Earlier, we also contemplated attentively the heroic paintings
in the Painted Porch, which was the cradle of Stoic philosophy.
On the Acropolis we breathed a spiritual atmosphere of elegance and prestige,
which we know from self-respecting urban centers. The statue of Athena
inside the Parthenon was the aesthetic culmination of our trip,
although my guide told me about it without emotion.
Inside the Erechtheion, we stopped at the well - as it turned out with sea water. Apparently, when the south wind blows,
you hear in it the sound of waves.
MMXV

1 Pausanias (c. AD 110 c. 180) was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD. He is famous for his
Description of Greece ( ), a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand
observations.

Magical Chisel of Chaeronea

Solon, Kimon, Nicias, Lysander and Demosthenes ...
Plutarch writes the Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans
in the language of fairy tales for adults: his fluent style
in the manner of Herodotus (shortcuts in terms of communicative narration,
however, happen to him) is a kind of chisel
forming statues of heroes for educational purposes.
There are great deeds, sacrifice, heroism,
but also cunning, cleverness, bravado. Plutarch wants to be seen
as an expert in the psychology of war: teaches that this
how you are perceived by your opponent - has an impact
on his morale. But also writes about stratagems, snares and traps,
into which too confident guys fall.
... Each of the Lives... is seasoned with a pinch of magic,
which introduces the average reader in a mood of solemn reverie;
Plutarch also stimulates the imagination in describing
the ancient method of encrypting messages - scytale
(the text was written on the strip of a phloem wound around a wooden stick,
and was read after wrapping it on another, of the same diameter) ...
He carefully smooths the statue of Lysander, the vanquisher of the Athenians
from Aegospotami; proves with power, that this selfless
and patriotic Spartan commander didn't become rich during the Peloponnesian War.
Wittily cleanses Demosthenes from allegations of corruption.
Cites the story of a soldier who had to hide the money
in the crannies of the monument of this famous Athenian speaker
and after some time he found it... intact.
Don't we like such stories?
MMXV

Geography of Tartarus and Atlantis

Logic and mathematics - in the free reasoning are sisters. Since antiquity they enable researchers
the investigation to the unknowns.
And so, knowing the two values of the right-angled triangle,
we can get the third, unknown value. This we know
since the time of Pythagoras. Since the time of Plato,
we know, however, that you can carry out the proof
for the immortality of the soul - only
on the basis of the known values.
We appreciate Plato's mathematical mind
in his dialogues: Meno and Euthyphro;
we yawn, in turn, when he prates
about the geography of Tartarus and Atlantis.
Phaedo combines this rigor of mind with imagination.
The thought of the author reaches peaks there,
just to give importance to the case of Socrates, who,
nota bene, could avoid the quagmire agreeing to cooperate with the people.
***
In the Phaedo, Plato boldly argues the immortality of the soul
using soulless "mathematics". The question arises
whether this is not only proof for
the forbearance of the ancient pantheon.
MMXV

The Wise Man From the School of Eros

The construction of this literary work
resembles a matryoshka doll or a drawer system.
Course of action brings to mind a student jag;
none of the participants in this drunkenness
does not even have a master's degree,
not to mention the card of a professor.
But they philosophize!
Topic of the debate is Eros, but, as if,
in the narrow sense.
The first speeches of participants fare quite gray they probably are to constitute the background
for the epic speech of the main character (Plato probably
tells them to cite his juvenilia).
Socrates pretends he is embarrassed
by the frank and artless speech of Agathon. He's a little worried,
that the playwright was awarded for his play
in front of 30 thousands spectators in the theater.
... At the beginning of his speech he uses a juggler's trick,
which denigrates Eros, previously bleached by Agathon. Then
meticulously rebuilds (through the mouth of Diotima) the image of the deity
by the emotional apotheosis of a sage who is at the same time...
the top student in the school of Eros.
It is the culmination of Plato's Symposium. The rest
is made for undisputed solidifying the image of a beloved teacher.
MMXV

Unspoken Doctrine
Being in India I saw many gymnosophists,
as the ancient Greeks called them.
Pyrrho of Elis built on this example
his almost tacit doctrine.
But I was not intrigued by the lifestyle of sadhus or yogis;
I was rather interested in time,
which seemed to flow there several times slower
than in Europe.
Pyrrho proposed practice,
or refraining from judgments, in order to achieve peace of mind
called . Skepticism - in a free interpretation is (in its own way) the praise of the time, because this
verifies the majority of the judgments.
The Pyrrhonists were looking for serenity,
the Gymnosophists in turn - at least liberation. Meanwhile,
Epicurus - this philosopher of the middle class - focused
on worldly happiness. In Epicureanism,
the time should flow beautifully, and therefore slower. And here
we come back to India, where the cult of time
seems to be the unspoken doctrine...
***
... Hmm, in the approach to my views, however
- jokingly - I recommend , in order to achieve peace of mind
called .
MMXV

Pizzicato Technique
As a pupil of the music school I had to perform, every six months,
some showcase piano pieces in the philharmonic concert hall of the city
in the midst of a thousand lakes.
In recent years of learning I was a student of prof. Iza Garglinowicz pianist, educator and former director of the music school.
She introduced me to the world of piano technique with consistent,
good-natured persistence; before semestral concerts
I practiced not once on the demanding grand piano
in her modest apartment on the ground floor at the square of the Consulate.
I'm not the type of reproducer, so - after the conquest of music basics I moved further my own trail ...
However, I did not forget about this consistent, good-natured persistence,
which, my nearly 80-year-old, genteel educator gave me.
***
Already in a global world, I released in the popular international music stores
many works illustrating my own direction.
In 2006 I started to distribute a series of more complex compositions
in pizzicato technique; in effect, another known educator Belgian composer of Polish origin - congratulated me.
MMXV

Cordial and Indulgent Smile

You read Diogenes Laertius' book with good-natured pity
until the lecture on speech, parts of speech and word in the doctrine of the Stoics.
In the earlier narrative, the author rather does not impress
with the depth of the investigator's mind, aside from the chapter
about Aristippus of Cyrene. He refers to Socrates and Plato
rather superficially; also speaking of Aristotle
he's limited to economical, routine prostration.
He livens up when talks about the Cynics,
mostly on Diogenes of Sinope, although
this kind of meticulous commitment (in my opinion)
gives - in the case of this well-liked and popular philosopher quite discouraging description of intrusive contestation
Diogenes Laertius writes in a lively style, which, however,
from the beginning of the Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
awakens cordial, but also indulgent smile. Since the detailed message
about the views of the Stoics on the word,
there is a jump of respect for the narrator;
it lasts for the rest of the work.
***
This part, however - for skilled readers is stylistically different from the rest of the material,
as if it came from someone else's treatise, imbued
with substantive depth of the investigator's mind.
From that moment on,
even - so far - wooden epigrams of Laertius obtrusively crowning almost any of the Lives take on a metallic shine.
MMXV

On the Deck of a Ship

I'm in Crete.
I've seen the most important archaeological sites. I've put my signature
when driving winding roads, I've admired the Aegean and
the Libyan Seas from the peaks. And I've watched sympathy for the bulls.
My portable radio.
Through the stethoscope ... I analyse the Greek music. Hmm,
invisible souls inside the Muslim forms - hidden
in religious fervour ?
Greek dinner in Keratokambos; idyllic salad, melana-fish,
retsina ... Underwater view: trembling, solar net on the pleated sand. Ferryboat
to Suntorini. The ballpoint pen in the hand is putting its signature
while driving on the Rent a Bike folder.
***
We're admiring the Aegean Sea from the deck of the ship.
I'm thinking about the famous Disk of Phaistos
and 2 euro coin.

Forms in Paris
Airport caverns, railway station glasshouses, starfish crossroads,
marzipan forms of Metropolitain ...
This metal lighthouse tells the way;
you can admire the huge writing-desk,
carved ingeniously - controlling the city centre. The second one
has modern design and shines
in the camera viewfinder.
Beset by the cuneiform writing, you recognize
the bold shape of Hammurabis Code.
A painting by Pierre Prudhon illuminates your face, the circle illuminating Mona Lisas face - arches the corners of her lips.
Fruitless attempts of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation
on Oscar Wildes tomb. Victor Noirs magical ridge the hill for female pilgrims. Pilgrimages,
equipped with peruvian caps from booths,
conquer the bold shape of metal lighthouse ...
***
It tells the way to marzipan forms of Metropolitain,
starfish crossroads, railway station glasshouses and airport caverns.

(Barcelona) Abstracci
Solemn decadence of Vienna, the massiveness of buildings
in Stockholm, neon Paris...
And the city of snails and termites, exotic houses,
inspired by the warm breath of Africa A puff of cubism
from port booth?
Masked balconies, window flows down the wall...
the shellfish is gone - let's photograph, at leisure tans at olympic port, glittering,
bronzed.
Close at hand - army of ants
crowds in the plundered library
inside.
In the north, they bustle about under the sharp
termitary. Tonight
will create their street-snakes and
march along the spines of gothic books.
The snail will stay on the beach... this massive building of solemn decadence, reposing
under the nightly sky neons i.e. the army of glittering ants, refined details.
And abstract art.
MMIV

Critique of Socrates
A critic might say that Socrates and Plato
are kind of chatty hair-splitting, which affected
the centuries of intellectual dilemmas in European culture ...
This world of dilemmas and waffle faded,
as if, in the 21st century. Today - I suppose - transparent,
black and white philosophy of Aristippus of Cyrene
would have raised greater intellectual revival;
or the fate of the Athenian strategos, Alcibiades - his frenzied deviousness
had an impact on half of the Peloponnesian War.
Aristippus teachings - as you know - Diogenes Laertius describes,
who nota bene, writing this report, gains momentum as a writer ...
Aristippus was a philosopher-adjutant of the tyrant of Syracuse
and basically - for me - is the archetype of the wise jester
of the Renaissance royal court. This is the protagonist
of the self-controlled hedonism.
Meanwhile, the fortunes of Alcibiades - eg. in Thucydides is a story of the thirst for influence, but not in black and white decorations;
the strategist goes over to the enemies of Athens
and reappears on the forefront of troops of this polis. He was undertaking
astonishing decisions and is not an exemplar for educators.
***
Socrates, in turn, was a lazy educator of Aristippus and Alcibiades
In fact - they abandoned the hair-splitting for simplicity and deed.
MMXIV

One Thousand Three Hundred Dollars

Who does not like awards? ... Hmm, but always the best are the ones
that come from the fate ...
At the end of the last century (I wrote about this before)
I was a correspondent for the news agency in Minsk, Belarus.
I was hiring an apartment in a building with thick walls,
located in the bend of the meandering river.
After a busy day of work, late in the evening,
I usually analyzed - in the Belarusian and Russian TV the potential impact of, among others and my journalistic reports,
in the words of the post-Soviet officials ... Vocational routine,
on which, however, depends to keep your finger on the pulse of events.
However (suddenly), one day in the summer president B. Yeltsin dismissed
the government of a young democrat
(in further result, after a specific, two-year interregnum V. Putin comes to power),
I remember it because I used to watch those changes
with a glass of Coecoe pcoe, over the can of cephalopods
from the long-range fishing of the Russian fleet...
***
A year later my country, along with others, became a member of NATO.
I remember it well because, more or less in this period after returning to Warsaw, I drew in the lottery
the first prize at the traditional prom of journalists.
MMXIV

The Day After the Feast of Vulcan

Pliny the Elder went on his quadrireme from Misenium
to rescue someone named Rectina and others,
endangered by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.
He did not arrive there, because the threat has increased,
and the shallows prevented mooring to the shore. He chose Stabiae,
where he had a friend, but unfavorable winds prevented their retreat
from the port endangered by the nature
Pliny, the Roman naval commander,
as well as a scientist and naturalist... keeps a cool head.
Waiting for a change of wind, he washes, and even takes a nap.
However, he succumbs to the forces of nature by the sea,
with a pillow over his head (to protect against volcanic fallout),
and his last moments Pliny the Younger
recounts in a letter to Tacitus ...
***
Pliny the Elder a philosopher of nature - permanently
involved in the course of natural history,
which he described.
MMXIV

This. Is. Sparta.

As a schoolboy I used to work in the summer at haymaking and harvest,
I planted potatoes and collected them during diggings not once,
also worked at the threshing grain;
I happened to hoe young pine forest
and collect resin on vacation, we were loading a waste paper
and unloading coal in the boiler room at school, and as a student
I moonlighted in the roles of the messenger and the night janitor...
... Xenophon describes the education of the young Spartiates
in his clumsily written treatise Lakedaimonion Politeia.
He writes about toughening youth,
outside the home, through competition and discipline.
A patriarch authoritatively establishes the principles
Young people have to be quick, agile, cunning and enduring,
and the columns of their army manoeuvrable.
***
This model was attractive in the oligarchy, creatively developed
also in the past centuries. My model came almost by choice,
mastigophroi whips did not threaten me.
MMXIV

In a Cloud of Asian Incense

English Baroque composer Henry Purcell had a lot of luck
when his works - after a few centuries found their way into the hands of Alfred Deller.
This British singer polished, in some manner, in the 20th century
(through his interpretations)
these in fact quite strict, slow, creaky and monotonous compositions frequently based on similar to each other,
very melancholic melodic motifs.
In his versions, Deller applied in a novel way
a variable, unstable tempo - rubato.
Wistful aria The plaint (O let me weep)
is for many the pinnacle of this ingenious trend.
Purcell's compositions, processed by Deller Consort,
were an illustration of my late student years decorated from time to time in the dormitory
with a sweet wine and clouds of exotic smoke.
Today, I rarely listen to these simple,
but moving and maudlin musical works.
At home we listen rather to mostly modern compositions,
where the tempo rubato is not stolen time.
MMXIV

Reports from Epipolae

A good army has good connectivity, communication,
attaches importance to information, in other words,
reports and dispatches from the front.
The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
is right rich in such detailed data on:
the number of troops, distances, amount of ships, etc.
This distinctive military information - you can hypothetically assume firstly reached the commanders, then their state superiors,
and post-conflict could get to the archives. Thucydides was able
to take, inter alia, his meticulous information
precisely from wider databases.
... Since the description of the Sicilian expedition
his narrative is clearly alive, more dynamic,
as if he knew the Syracuse environs from own experience.
I was on the Epipolae plateau in this ancient city,
so I know that Thucydides described those events reliably,
at least in accordance with genius loci.
The next phase of this Greek competition, ie. the Decelean War,
brings, on the pages of his tale,
a number of almost statistical information,
mainly related to maritime assets of the parties to the conflict ...
You can't gain such information, reaching out only to witnesses.
MMXIV

Another Characteristic Glass of Turkish Tea

The Uluburun Shipwreck is a well-documented,
late 14th century BC shipwreck of the Late Bronze Age period,
from the south coast of Turkey in the Mediterranean Sea.
The wreck is the oldest ever discovered. It's located
in the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology.
Euromos was an ancient city in Caria.
Probably dating from the 6th century BC.
The ruins contain numerous interesting buildings,
the most outstanding of which is the temple of Zeus Lepsinos.
The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was a tomb
built in the 4th century BC for Mausolus,
a satrap in the Persian Empire. The structure
was created by the Greek architects and sculptors; it was so unique
that became one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World...
Time to put aside the notes. We are on the terrace overlooking the bay.
I'm drinking another characteristic glass of Turkish tea...
The sun is setting over the twin peaks resembling the Faun.
Gmbet Bay, MMXIV

A Cigar at the Club for Notables

A little bit about Britten ... This 20th-century British composer
wrote during the war his Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings. It contains two tracks
(has eight parts) of an intelligent depth: Elegy and Dirge.
This is the music illustrating some examples of British poetry,
relating to night and its aspects. Nasty content in the first case - a toxic W. Blake's poem,
in the second - gallows ditty from a medieval fair.
Elegy - musically - it is a solemn, hypnotist's meditation
based on a melodics of semitones,
Dirge is almost melorecitation,
on adventurously deformed musical background.
Both songs are of the highest quality,
at least worthy of aromatic smoke
from a cigar at the club for notables.
MMXIV

View from the Temple of Athena

Ancient Latmian Gulf was once a branch of the sea,
today is a large, scenic lake surrounded by spectacular rocks.
We are in Herakleia, under the mountain Latmos, where - according to myth someone named Endymion, a shepherd of Caria, sleeps his eternal sleep.
Selene (incarnation of the Moon), travelling at night in the sky,
has a stop over the Latmian grotto; she visits then this immortal young man retained in a state of sleep by Zeus. These trysts
resulted in fifty daughters: a year, approximately, has as many weeks.
Standing at the Temple of Athena, dating back 2300 years and almost intact by
the tooth of time, I'm looking out over the red roofs of the Turkish village of Kapikiri
towards the so-called Endymion's grave; his cult survived ancient times
and prospered here until the end of the Byzantine Empire.
I'm listening to a sudden, vigorous symphony of roosters, dogs and donkeys
from all over the village,
ascertaining with a wink, that this myth still takes place on the Turkish flag.
MMXIV

Defeating the Titans

Let me start from the beginning.
We were returning from the ancient Halicarnassus
(now Bodrum in Turkey)...
I have Hesiod's Theogony in my portable computer,
therefore - I plunged into reading at a cruising altitude.
This is a spectacular work intended for listeners who are hungry
for surreal, epic visions
embedded in melodious culture of the word ...
... The aftermath of the Titanomachy,
i.e. overcoming the awful Typhon by Zeus,
it's - in my opinion - the most dynamic fresco, dramatic chord of the lyre
announcing the completion of this work.
The last couplet - by chance sounds like an invitation to the Muses, with an incentive
to report the history of the human race
***
Shortly after returning I get to know reports
on the probe landing on a comet. The images show the original,
shapeless matter, gloomily travelling in the dark. Hmm...,
it's possible that Hesiod sang about this.
MMXIV

The Bookmaker of Amphipolis

When talking about Amphipolis, I see Brasidas - the Peloponnesian chieftain...
Thucydides described his military campaign against this colony of Athens.
The Spartiate was killed during the battle against the Athenians in the area and was buried
in the city, at the entrance to today's market - Thucydides reports.
Amphipolis awarded him a cult of a hero.
Contemporary sources - not explicitly - offer evidence of the discovery of Brasidas' burial.
Its hypothetical place looks modestly. In turn,
another tomb - discovered in 2012. on a nearby hill - commands respect.
According to archaeologists, was built about a hundred years after Brasidas
for dignitary from the time of Alexander the Great; researchers maintain that tumulus
was designed by his adjutant architect, Dinocrates.
Headless sphinxes - meticulously rendered by the sculptor and powerful Caryatids made - as for me - under the influence of Egyptian inspiration
this is only the vestibule of discovery. Archaeologists
want to dig out rooms, covered with soil, to the end of 2014.
Probably they will not find Brasidas there, who was killed
during the battle against the Athenians in the area and was buried
in the city, at the entrance to today's market.
But for sure it will be another Greek Lion of Amphipolis.
... A queen, heir to the throne or a general? I bet on a warrior.
MMXIV

Kingdom of Ebonite
I was spending my holidays in the early school years like a young master
Well, I was spending the summer on the fertile loess uplands in the neoclassical, 19th-century manor house with a high portico supported on Ionic columns
and with mythological polychrome (at a decent level). A little feral park,
with well-preserved old trees, unfolded around ...
To call home - located a few hundred kilometers to the north,
I was climbing up the long, wooden and creaky stairs to the office on the first floor.
There was an antique crank phone in ebonite housing,
probably remembering the heirs of pre-war times.
Connected to the telephone switchboard I waited endlessly in clerical chair,
playing with the office clips and glancing - between the columns of the portico at the river valley in the distance ...
Thirty years later, I landed on the Belarusian town's market;
the celebration of the 200th centenary of the birth of Polish writer lasted there.
The hosts of this opportunity even repainted only the facades of houses at the market square
and painted the grass in a juicy green colour.
As a reporter, I had to give correspondence to my own country. Although,
Nokia already reigned in the Polish newsrooms, the era of mobile phones in Belarus
did not yet arrived. Finally, I gave news from the public telephone parlor - probably
remembering the heirs of pre-war times.
Inside was a series of booths with antique telephones in ebonite housings...
I dictated the text to typist by this device from the first half of the 20th century.
And I felt in some ways like the young master spending his holidays on the picturesque uplands,
sown with noble mansions and cottages of the poor.
MMXIV

Breaking News
At the bottom of your TV screens for example, when you watch international news channels you often see changing strips with facts: yellow, red, white, etc.
These are usually urgent or important news of the day from such news agencies as
Reuters - known to you - and others.
Weekend duties in the newsroom of such, for instance, regional agency take place in a peaceful atmosphere. On Saturday and Sunday
you have there mainly to deal with events in areas such as:
crime, accidents, church, party congresses, folk festivals, culture.
From abroad, on the other hand, you edit armed conflicts, religious holidays,
political meetings and so on.
At this moment - I remember of the more interesting news a text edited by me
about how one of the popes was chauffeuring the mummy of his predecessor
around the Vatican square, or, for example, news from Asia:
trampled pilgrims as a result of a peculiar ritual.
***
In the summer, during one of those on-call duties, I was the person
who gave the media the news of the death of Polish writer C. Miosz. As editor
I threw into the network the urgent information received from the correspondent.
MMXIV

The Discreet Charm of Sovereignty

A little about behind the scenes, relationships with literature ...
In the period of storm and stress,
already as the author with successes in the field of pop culture,
I sent my innovative works for someone named Giedroyc - then, a respected dinosaur,
who combined the 90s with the pre-war literary world.
... You will not believe, but he answered me. In the note I received, even used
the bureaucratic shortcut: "v. weak". Although
he wanted me to grate the nose, however, it ennobled me.
I - a schoolboy - have corresponded with the editor of the Paris Kultura ...
The monthly, from the end of the war, was the center
of Polish migr political and literary thought.
Giedroyc, along with colleagues, advocated the sovereignty
of Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine - as a stabilizing factor in European geopolitics.
It's been a few years. I landed in Minsk, where as a correspondent inter alia often, though discreetly I was promoting this logical and natural idea.
Giedroyc had to read these correspondences and probably
eventually began to appreciate my pen. Through one of the diplomats
gave me the suggestion of writing to Kultura.
***
I refused. However the topic of sovereign Belarus was scrolling up
in a natural way in my work further. I was asking Belarusian interviewees
about the reception of the monthly in their country wanting cunningly to give this topic rank of the motif in the discussion.
In one of the news I quoted even someone's literal regret
that it is unfortunately still "v. poor".
MMXIV

Diderot's Apprentice
You have in front of you the student of Diderot and Montesquieu, and Voltaire. I attended
their lectures under the titles: Jacques le fataliste et son matre, La Religieuse,
Lettres persanes,
Zadig, Candide and LIngnu.
They stood - in the charming, colorful and clever manner - for civil liberties, which
eventually were included in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789.
... 200 years later, I landed (as a graduate of the University of rationalism,
with journalistic transcript in the pocket) in the middle of a similar to the French,
revolutionary tumult in the soft version. For nearly a decade I covered live
the transformation of the system (including the media), the dissatisfaction of the people
or the germination of pop culture
Then, I was always guided by the liberties and citizens' good,
while many others oriented themselves according to furrowed brow of a politician.
They could not narrate - in the charming, colorful and clever manner - about citizens' affairs,
because - earlier - they attended lectures in only one day of the week.
MMXIV

Life of an Artist
Some of you may know that I have a musical activity
on my account, also in the field of entertainment. The registry of the Association of Authors
contains dozens of my songs, mainly from the days when I was writing lyrics and composing music
for myself and other artists. You can find on the internet my author's album
Cyfry, issued in the team Przyjaciele.
... After its market premiere I gave a series of intimate concerts in various caves
in my metropolis: in two good theaters,
prestigious community centre on the historic market square of the Old Town,
arty pub at the academy of fine arts,
student cave near the university,
psychedelic underground club at one of the central squares
and in others.
At that time I was sharing life of an artist with the work of the journalist - and so effectively. Soon
we recorded costume telecast - in another city, which is considered
the traditional, bohemian mecca. Its repeated broadcasting in the national channels,
including in the television for diaspora, strengthened my journalistic position.
MMXIV

The Taste of Ukrainian Fatback

I went through more important, substantive echelons in informative journalism:
from a reporter, by journalist and foreign correspondent to the news editor.
But in the end I missed some spangle in the crown.
The employer (usually from a political recommendation) procrastinated, was paying little, so...
we shook hands in farewell, and soon I became editor-in-chief
in foreign-language web portal for Eastern European recipients.
I conducted recruitments in Warsaw and Kiev, employing Ukrainians and Russians.
A few years before Euromaidan - our Russian-language MailOnline (or maybe even TMZ)
took off. It pushed in the Ukrainian market, where there were only a few lazy players,
overwhelmed by eastern routine. Shortly they began to imitate the style of our flashy titles,
and soon we had them already (as they say in cycling) on the rear wheel.
From that time... I remember fondly solyanka and raw, sliced fatback
served in a decent bistro on the edge of Maidan Nezalezhnosti
(probably at Shevchenko Ln.).
***
Shortly I started fling with politics - implementing an internet campaign
for a candidate in the presidential election, in my own country. Earlier,
alarmed, local players in Kiev bought our websites from smart owner.
MMXIV