The artist Marek Zulawski, translation & Polish-British culture

Hi,

In today's newsletter, a short translation from my father's autobiography about the one year anniversary of his brother Wawrzyniec's death.

It was marked by a ceremony in Chamonix in 1958, just next to where Warzyniec had died in an avalanche on Mont Blanc de Tacul. It's significant not only because he was visiting the place his brother had died for the first time, but I think it was the first time he'd seen his mother since it had happened. She was 75 at the time.

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My mother walked just ahead of me — powering uphill like a machine

'Mt Blanc as seen from Aiguille du Midi', a postcard from 1981

I am exactly 50 years old. Un homme bien distingué, as the local French press writes.  

I came to Chamonix from London to meet my mother here on the first anniversary of the death of her son, my brother Wawrzyniec. My mother had come from Warsaw with a delegation from ZAIKS, which Wawrzyniec had been president of. 

But I couldn’t find her at the hotel. Knowing my mother, I thought to myself that I'd surely find her in some café. And that's exactly what happened. She was sitting with Jurandot, Danka Schiele and some others — I saw them through the terrace window.

The ceremony unveiling the memorial plaque (funded by ZAIKS) at the cemetery in Chamonix was conducted with great solemnity. The president of the French Alpine Club spoke, as did the town mayor, and Jurandot on behalf of ZAIKS. Afterwards there was a reception at the town hall — journalists, photographers. My mother was then exactly the age that I am now.

The next morning, all of us went back to the same place, to Aiguille du Midi. 

Beneath the observation deck, which is reached by comfortable steps today, there was an ice-covered slope. The steps were not under a roof as they are now, and there lay on them old trampled snow. 

My mother walked just ahead of me — powering uphill like a machine — leaving far behind all the gentlemen from Warsaw. 

When we stepped out onto the terrace, she didn’t look around. She hadn’t come here like the others, to feast her eyes on the beautiful view. 

With instinctive certainty, she turned her tense face straight toward the cliffs of Mont Blanc du Tacul. In the upper part of the wall, one could still clearly see traces of a snow-filled vertical crevasse. 

It was dead, motionless, indifferent, final.

We gazed at it in silence for a good while, until suddenly the wind rose and a cloud veiled the sight. Snowflakes began to fall, it grew darker. The gentlemen from Warsaw retreated in panic under the station roof. 

My mother stood still. Melted snowflakes trickled down her face. Perhaps they were tears. And she stood there for a long time, her eyes fixed on that same invisible point.

“Mum, let’s go,” I said quietly. 

Her lips moved soundlessly, and then she gathered her strength and spoke clearly, as if to pierce the clouds and the darkness that had fallen.

“Eternal rest.”

And then she began to walk down.

Kazimiera Żuławska, her son Wawrzyniec Żuławski, and her sister Hana Hanicka, April 1944

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Self-promotion alert

Next week, I'll be in Osaka at the opening of the exhibition The Amazing Land of Quarks, Elephants & Pierogi. It'll be on for about three weeks. I'll be there for the first few days giving people guided tours and making an audio guide of the exhibition for visitors who come to see it after I've left.

I will probably post something about it in the next edition of this newsletter if there is anything nice about it online. Here is a video from when we did the exhibition in Dubai a few years ago. The Osaka version will be a bit bigger, featuring some cool and surprising Japan-Poland connections, and will also have a big AI tablet which you can talk to about Polish words. Should be a laugh 😁

I'm putting the invite to the opening below as an image - so if you think you know anybody who might be interested, you can just forward them this email.

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That's all for this week. Many thanks for reading. If you want to support the newsletter, please forward it to a friend or donate here.

Adam

Adam Zulawski

TranslatingMarek.com / TranslatePolishMemoirs.com / Other stuff

👉 Help fund the translation of Studium do autoportretu via Paypal 👈

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