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VETY ROUGH TRANSLATION AT PRESENT
Wladyslaw Szlengel in the archives of the digital library collection Polona of the Polish National Library
by
Peter Uncinus, Monterey USA
Katarzyna Zimek (katarzyna.zimek at uw.edu.pl), Warsaw, Poland
June 2015
The text will be published in the Polona blog of the Polish National Library.
It is Thursday May 21, 1936. "Kurjer Warszawski" ("Warsaw Courier") in its evening issue publishes current weather conditions based on the bulletin of the National Weather Service ("Państwowy Instytut Meteorologiczny"). The temperature in Warsaw at 2pm was 12 degrees Celsius, there was a little rain http://polona.pl/item/19112977/4/ but the winds were weak. The cabaret "Cyrulik Warszawski" ("Barber of Warsaw") is playing today and tomorrow a comedy "Kot w worku" ("Cat in the bag") and in the cinema "Baltic" the movie "Królewska faworyta" about the turbulent history of Madame du Barry will be screened tonight for the first time. The main role is played by the famous Mexican actress Dolores del Rio. In the evening, in the local "Radio Warsaw" program, recent songs released by the gramophone compnies Syrena-Record and the Odeon will be played; several tangos "Takie jest życie" ("Such is life") with the lyrics by Andrzej Włast, "Barkarola miłości" ("Barcarolle of love") with the music of Jerzy Petersburski and a comic tango "Panna Andzia ma wychodne" ("Miss Angie has a day off") composed by Boleslaw Mucman with lyrics of Wladyslaw Szlengel.
Program "Tańce i Piosenki" ("Dance and songs") May 21, 1936 10.50-11.30pm „Antena, Illustrowany Tygodnik”, 3 (20) http://polona.pl/item/9242110/30/
Szlengel's song has a catchy tune and in a short moment a houswife who is listening to the radio is humming the refrain before her bedtime:
Today Miss Angie has a day off.
Not a servant
but a great lady.
Today she wears fashionable feathers
Today there is dance on Chlodna Street.
Then she turns the radio's knob to the left, you can hear a faint flick of the receiver being turned off, she turns her bedside lamp of and falls asleep. Wladyslaw Szlengel, who wrote "Miss Angie has a day off", is then 24 years old. He lives on Walicow 14 in Warsaw, writes lyrics for Syrena Record that are performed by Polish greatest singers - Adam Aston and Tadeusz Faliszewski among them. He creates foxtrots, tangos which will be played in the future by all Warsaw orchestras and organ-grinders from the streets of Warsaw Old Town with their parrots that pull the fate from the basket. in 1936 Shlengel is on the verge of a rising career, but a few years later he will find himself isolated and imprisoned by the Nazis in the Warsaw ghetto.
Advertising for the polka-foxtrot "Panno Zosiu ja funduję" ("Miss Sophie - can I invite you") with lyrics by Szlengel and foxtrot "Jak zabawa - to zabawa" ("It is fun - when it is fun") written together with Jerzy Ryba (writing under the pseudonym Jerry) in "Nasz Przegląd" ("Our Review") on October 15, 1936.
http://polona.pl/item/21695880/7/
Szlengel began as a lyricist somewhere in the early 30s in cinema-theaters in the poor districts of Wola, Praga and affluent Śródmieście. Mia Carino the reviewer of "Trubadur Warszawy" writes about the revues in Warsaw's cinema-theater "Italia". Thanks to her we know that the revue "Nasze Bobaski" ("Our babes") written by A. Lachowicz and W. Szlengiel was one of the best received in a cinema-theater at Wolska 32. Skit "Serca się czują" ("Our hearts feel each other") performed by Zosia Duranowska and a public darling W. Jankowski aroused the audience laughter and applause. Dance numbers were arranged by the ballet master J. Fabian. Decorations were responsibility of Ludwik Wiechecki. Good and harmonious orchestra under the baton of J. Bauman and Wlodarczyk performed the music. In 1933 Szlengel's text was used in the program "Coś do łóżeczka" ("Something in the bed") in a huge cinema-theater "Hollywood" with 2,000 seats on Hoza 29 Street in the center of Warsaw. From these Warsaw cinema-theaters originated many Polish song hits, some of them tangos sung in Poland even today. The program consisted of a movie, and then of revue consisting of 16-20 numbers - songs and skits. In the Praga district there was a theater "Bomba" ("The Bomb") in which the program consisted of sixteen "explosions". Similar artistic arrangement was featured in elegant cabaret-only places such as "Morskie Oko" ("Sea Eye"), "Perskie Oko" (Persian Eye) or "Qui Pro Quo".
"Trubadur Warszawy", February 27, 1932 advertisement of a revue "Nasze Bobaski" written by A. Lachowicz i Wł. Szlengel http://polona.pl/item/7984341/4/
Fragment of theater bill for revue "Coś do łóżeczka" (available from Cyfrowe Mazowsze digital library) from the cinema-theatre "Hollywood" published probably at the end of 1933. It was one of the first cabaret skits by Wł. Szlengel. Before the revue the movie "Żebrak z Bagdadu" with Loretta Young was shown.
Let's go back to 1936. It is March. His mother - Mala Wermus Szlengel - is still alive, but she will die "after a long and severe suffering" in three months time (iShlengel's father died in 1934).
Announcement of death of Władysław Szlengel mother. "Nasz Przegląd", August 1, 1936.
http://polona.pl/item/9239244/13/
One day Henryk Bielicki, a journalist of Polish Radio, calls 516-19, Szlengel's Warsaw phone number, and invites himself. They do not know each other too well, but Szlengel initially agrees to Bielicki's visit request but later, due to illness, cancels and stays at home in his apartment on Waliców 14 Street. Nevertheless, evidently concerned about Szlengel health Bielicki makes a surprising visit anyway. It turns out that the radio receiver stops working after his visit. However, Szlengel manages to mend the radio and listens to a radio program. To his surprise the radio broadcasts play "Three miles from the shore", which Szlengel recognizes as his own, although before the show it is mentioned that the author's name is that of Henbiela. Szlengel recollects that two years earlier he provided a manuscript of his radio play "People at the bottom" to Bielicki. Unhappy, he hires Mr. Lesman, better known as Jan Brzechwa, an expert on copyright and legal counsel of ZAiKS, later known for his poems for children and the creator of many songs - famous prewar tango "Nietoperze" ("Bats") are with the lyrics by Brzechwa. Mr. Brzechwa files the case in the District Court in Warsaw. At the end of September 1936 Szlengel wins the case. Plagiarist is sentenced to three months in jail but his sentence is suspended. He appeals the verdict pleading not guilty, claiming that the witnesses testimony was false. His lawyer, Mr Rosciszewski, in his defense speech, asks the court not to give faith to Jewish witnesses. However, the judge approves the lower court sentencing insisting that the court does not assess the value of the testimony of witnesses based on their religion. It was the first in Poland radio plagiarism case.
Trail report of a radio plagiarism case. "Nasz Przegląd" z January 8,1937 roku. http://polona.pl/item/9198135/8/
A separate paths which are worth a stroll on Polona's digital archive are Szlengl's poems. He published them in several newspapers, among them in "Nasz Przegląd" - the most important Polish-language Jewish newspaper in prewar Poland, and in leftist "Robotnik" ("A Worker") newspaper, the central publication of P.P.S with its heading "Workers of the world unite!".
Nordic World Championships was held Feb. 11-19, 1939 in Zakopane. It was organized by the international Ski Federation FIS Poland was not very successful at these competitions but Stanisław Mursarz took fifth place in ski jumping on the Wielka Krokwia. Szlengel was probably a spectator during these competitions. He wrote a poem F. I. S. http://polona.pl/item/9205171/8/
Beautiful goal, the top goal
Reach the snowy white-peak
There white mountains mix with whiteness of the clouds
Next go down in a delicious run
Get air in the lungs
Gain the momentum
/…/
But tomorrow I will return to the City
and of this white and gold will die.
That same winter ski foxtrot was written by Szlengel together with Józef Lipski. They remade version of the popular American song dedicated to horseback riding (orig. Horsey! Horsey !, in German Reiten ist ein schöner Sport) to "Narty, Narty" (Ski, Ski).
Ski, ski, with a style
even as you fall you have sex appeal
sings on Syrena-Records recording Mieczysław Fogg.
The last poem of Wł. Szlengel before the war was "Cisza" ("Silence") published in „Nasz Przeglądz” on August 12, 1939.
http://polona.pl/item/9207270/20/
Silence
(Watercolor of summer)
There is nowhere to escape, to hear your own thoughts
noise reaches everywhere - stubbornly lingers.
I escaped from the city but they came here for me
bridge players breathing their contracts - more dangerous than death.
Every night the harsh gramophone sound defies the nightingale -
every evening hatred in the park continues -
fake singing at dawn wanders through the meadows
and under my feet there are children … thousands … millions of children …
Because children have their most important affairs
and only dusk brings them back to the cages of their homes.
The moon is knocking at the windows … intrusive … and curious
Jasmine, lurking outside the window, so malicious -
The forest is drunk of strong moonlight
sways and raves - wanton drunk -
calls, among the night, of birds, dogs and children
scare away the anxious whispers of love …
And I'm here inside these noises -
in cries - cries - songs - and wonders
Touched by birds singing - and discordant sounds
I am looking for the lost words - in vain …
The Earth ia trembling under the blue skies of torrid August …
behind the wall - apple tree is dying outside the window
and I write a letter to You … that I am tired and suffer
seeking my own thoughts in a shattered silence.
Szlengel's poems written in the years of 1940-1943 have a different dimension than those written before the war. Circulated in the ghetto handwritten they were recited during the literary evenings by the author and by others who shared his fate in a Ghetto. One of the exceptions was the poem "Rzeczy" ("Things"), which was printed on the Warsaw's Aryan side in the summer of 1943. In that time Szlengel was already dead - murdered by the Germans.
[..]
From Umszlag through the city
until the Marszalkowska Street
in the empty houses
life is growing
a Jewish life
In the abandoned houses
bundles on their shoulders
suits and quilts
and plates and stools
still smoldering fires
spoons that lie idle
thrown there in a hurry
are family photographs …
Piotr Uncinus
Katarzyna Zimek (lp.ude.wu|kemiz.anyzratak#lp.ude.wu|kemiz.anyzratak)
Czerwiec 2015, Monterey-Warszawa