Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
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
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
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.
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.
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
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
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
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