Poet Julian Tuwim: biography and creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Even in childhood, we get acquainted with the cheerful poems of Julian Tuvim: about pan Trulyalinsky, aunt Valya and glasses, the alphabet that fell from the stove, the fool Janek, about vegetables that the hostess brings from the market. The kind and cheerful lines of Tuwim's poems remain in our memory for a long time. The wonderful children's poet Samuil Marshak introduces us to these verses.

Some children and their parents did not even suspect that their favorite lines of poetry were written not by Marshak, but by someone else. Few in Russia know about Tuwim, let's try to fill this gap.

Yulian Tuwim: biography, creativity

His life was full of contradictions. Many people believe that Julian Tuwim is a children's poet. Unfortunately, few people know that he wrote for adults, he did a lot of translations. It was this man who introduced Poland to Russian classical literature. The poetry of Alexander Pushkin, Boris Pasternak, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Afanasy Fet and even "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" was opened for the Poles by Julian Tuvim.

His date of birth is September 18, 1884. Hewas born in the Polish city of Lodz in a Jewish family, but always considered himself a Pole. From birth, the boy heard Polish speech, his grandfather worked in a Polish magazine, his mother sang songs and read poetry in Polish. The family did not live well and not very friendly, but the boy was happy, how can one be happy and carefree only in childhood.

At school, Julian liked the humanities, but the exact sciences were given with great difficulty, especially mathematics, because of her Tuwim even stayed in the second year in the sixth grade. After graduating from school, he entered the University of Warsaw, first at the department of law, and then transferred to the philological department, but he never finished it. Poetic activity interfered and distracted from study all the time.

By the beginning of the Second World War, he was already married, there were no children in the family, but the couple raised an adopted daughter. To save their lives, they were forced to flee Poland. The Tuwims spent seven long years in exile. What countries have not been visited during this time: Romania, France, Brazil, Italy, America. They returned to Poland only a year after the end of the war. Only thanks to the lyrics and his inexhaustible wit, Julian Tuwim survived these difficult years. The biography of this man contained a lot of grief and worries, but despite this, he was always an optimist and infected those around him.

Favorite activities

He really liked chemistry, he liked to conduct various experiments. One of these experiments almost ended in tragedy, an explosion occurred in the home laboratory. ThereafterJulian decided to choose a less explosive hobby and began collecting stamps and butterflies.

But his favorite pastime was working with words. He liked to rhyme them, to come up with new combinations. He could write down in verse a formula in mathematics and an excerpt from a historical text. Despite the fact that Tuwim liked to rhyme words, he did not start writing poetry right away. For this, some reason, a shock, was required. This happened when Julian became acquainted with the poetry of Leopold Staff. His poems struck the young man's imagination, excited his soul, and he had a desire to write poetry himself.

Poet Julian Tuwim

First published in an experantist journal, he translated two of Staff's poems into Esperanto. He will be translating throughout his life. In two years he will write his first poem "Request".

Favorite poets, whom Tuwim always wanted to look up to, were Arthur Rimbaud, Kokhanovsky, Slovatsky, Alexander Pushkin, Alexander Blok, later Vladimir Mayakovsky. Of the prose writers, Tuwim really liked the stories of Nikolai Gogol, especially the St. Petersburg cycle.

For some time the author wrote for the stage: vaudeville, humoresque, but real poetry still won. Tuwim lived in an era of social upheaval: the October Revolution in Russia, the First World War, the Second World War, the occupation of Poland, so his poems were of a political nature. He could not stay away from what was happening, and all his thoughts, his indignation at what was happening, foundoutput in verse. Friends did not understand him, and enemies hated him, but the poet could not do otherwise. Once having embarked on the path of serving the truth, Tuwim was not going to turn off it.

The most favorite genre was still satire, he was very fond of writing epigrams, aphorisms. Biting lines made readers die of laughter and buy any publications where Julian Tuwim could be printed. At the end of his life, he almost stopped writing poetry, and even those that he wrote, he put in a drawer, many of which the Poles could read only after his death. Tuwim's poems are filled with philosophical meaning and make you penetrate into the very essence of the things he writes about.

Life principles of a poet

1. Never evaluate a person by nationality, but only by what he is: smart or stupid, cunning or simple, evil or kind.

2. Never stand aside from social problems. Politics cannot be a profession, if a person has a conscience, he cannot stand aside from it.

3. To endure all life's hardships with humor.

Flowers of Poland

Yulian Tuwim began to write his largest work in exile. "Flowers of Poland" - this poem is as significant for the Poles as for the Russians "Eugene Onegin" by Pushkin and for the English "Don Juan" by Byron. Its critics called it an encyclopedia of Polish life. He wrote almost nine thousand lines, but, unfortunately, Tuwim did not have time to finish this work.

Polish poet Yaroslav Ivashkevich called Tuwim a sorcerer,who knits bouquets of flowers. And about the poem itself, he said that you can listen and read it endlessly, enjoying the gentle melody of the lines.

Ilya Ehrenburg and Tuvim

Yulian was very fond of Russia, Russian culture, he always regretted that he did not spend the years of his forced emigration in this country.

In 1922 he met the Russian writer Ilya Ehrenburg. They easily found a common language, it was very interesting for them to communicate, however, they met infrequently. Ehrenburg spoke of Tuwim as a great master with the purest soul and said that “I loved few people so tenderly and superstitiously…”

Deserved recognition

Everything that this amazing, talented person undertook, he did brilliantly. Satirical works, poems for children, journalism, brilliant translations - what Julian Tuwim did throughout his life. Poetry… After all, it was she who was the main thing of his whole fate, he devoted his whole life to her, so short, but so bright.

At home, Tuwim's talent was highly appreciated. He was posthumously awarded the Order of the Rebirth of Poland. He is remembered and honored even years after his death, 2013 was declared the year of his memory in Tuwim's homeland.

Fresh, like a sip of water from a spring, full of cheerful humor, the poems of Julian Tuwim are rightfully included in the golden treasury of poetry for children. More than one generation will grow up on them, and today's children will read the poems of this wonderful poet to their children.