Commemorating 80th anniv beginning WWII – publishing of poem Chicago Tribune

     

      Thank you very much.     

We reached our goal and the list is closed. We hope hundreds of thousands of readers enjoy this magnificient poem in Friday (8/30) and Sunday (9/1) edition of Chicago Tribune.  Please see the poem and our generous sponsors below.


8/30/19 – 9/1/19

August 23, 2019

 

Dear Friends,

 

Chopin Theatre plans to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II by placing an ad in the Chicago Tribune with the famous poem, The End and the Beginning, by Nobel Prize Winning poet Wislawa Szymborska.

The half page ad will appear on Friday 8/30/19 and Sunday 9/1/19. The cost is over $3,000 with a total circulation over 300,000. Considering multiple people may read each paper, circulation could be around half million readers.

We are asking co-sponsors to donate $100 to contribute to the cost of the ad.  Simply logon to PayPayl.com and send payment to our special email Paypal@ChopinTheatre.com.  Or call 773-396-2875.  To be fair to everyone, only the first 29 contributions will be accepted and listed, in alphabetical order, at our website and in our newsletter.

 

Sincerely

Zygmunt Dyrkacz, Artistic Director

Lela Dyrkacz, Managing Director

          

On the 80th Anniversary

of the Outbreak of World War II

September 1, 1939

The End and the Beginning

After every war

someone has to clean up.

Things won’t

straighten themselves up, after all.

 

Someone has to push the rubble

to the side of the road,

so the corpse-filled wagons

can pass.

Someone has to get mired

in scum and ashes,

sofa springs,

splintered glass,

and bloody rags.

Someone has to drag in a girder

to prop up a wall,

Someone has to glaze a window,

rehang a door.

Photogenic it’s not,

and takes years.

All the cameras have left

for another war.

We’ll need the bridges back,

and new railway stations.

Sleeves will go ragged

from rolling them up.

Someone, broom in hand,

still recalls the way it was.

Someone else listens

and nods with unsevered head.

But already there are those nearby

starting to mill about

who will find it dull.

From out of the bushes

sometimes someone still unearths

rusted-out arguments

and carries them to the garbage pile.

Those who knew

what was going on here

must make way for

those who know little.

And less than little.

And finally as little as nothing.

In the grass that has overgrown

causes and effects,

someone must be stretched out

blade of grass in his mouth

gazing at the clouds.

 

 

Wisława Szymborska

1996 Nobel Prize in Literature

Miracle Fair: Selected Poems of Wislawa Szymborska translated by Joanna Trzeciak.

Permission by publisher W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

 

            Thank you

for supporting this timely masterpiece.

Without you, this wouldn’t happen.

(in alphabetical order)

 

 

Halina Abend

Designer

 

Zbigniew Banas

Founder

DKF Kornelia Film Club

 

Carole Bilina

Business Woman

 

Janina Dyrkacz

Zygmunt’s 1st Ex Wife

 

Roman Dziarski, PhD

Professor of Microbiology & Immunology

Indiana University

Thomas Finerty

Former Vice President

Chicago Urban League

 

Jo and Joel Hormuth

Visual Artists

 

Jessica Jagielnik

Director, Music Development

Holy Trinity High School

 

JRH Consultants

 

Kosciuszko Foundation Chicago Chapter

 

John J. Kulczycki

Professor Emeritus – History

University of Illinois at Chicago

 

Mark Kupiec

Law offices of Mark Kupiec & Associates

 

Christopher Lee

President

Bulley & Andrews Masonry Restoration

 

Dr. Blazej Lojewski

Family Practice

Thaddeus Makarewicz Esq.

Law offices of T. Makarewicz

 

Dr. Zbigniew Malecki

Illinois Masonic Hospital

Bozena Nowicka McLees

Director, Polish Languages & Literature

Loyola University Chicago

 

Alton Miller

Professor

Former Press Secretary Mayor Washington

 

Conrad Nowak

Co-Chair

Warsaw Sister Cities / Chicago Sister Cities International

 

Paczolt Insurance Alliance

Dawid Piwinski

Group Manager

Avanade

 

Poets Club of Chicago

Polish Arts Club of Chicago

Geraldine Balut Coleman

President

 

Mike Puican

Treasurer

Guild Literary Complex

 

Robert Radkowski

Vice President & Head Midwest District

Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union

 

Travis Rejman

Co-Founder & Executive Director

The Goldin Institute

 

Blanka Rosenstiel

Founder and President

The American Institute of Polish Culture

and Chopin Foundation of US, Miami Fl

 

Julie Stagliano

Board of Directors

Women’s Global Education Project

 

Magdalena Suszko

Regulatory Affairs

Abbot Laboratories

 

Third Coast Translators Collective

 

 

 

 

Tags

Literary Polish 2019