Zuzanna Polina Gincburg (March 22, 1917–1944), known by her pen name Zuzanna Ginczanka, was a Polish-Jewish poet of the interwar period. Although she only published a single collection of poetry in her lifetime, her book O centaurach (About Centaurs, 1936) created a sensation in Poland's literary circles. She was arrested and executed in Kraków shortly before the end of World War II.
Life Zuzanna Ginczanka was born Zuzanna Polina Ginzburg ("Gincburg" in Polish phonetic respelling) on 22 March, 1917 in Kiev, then part of the Russian Empire. Her Jewish parents fled the Russian Civil War, settling in 1922 in the predominantly Yiddish-speaking town of Równe, also called Równe Wołyńskie by the inhabitants, in the Kresy Wschodnie (Eastern Borderlands) of pre-War Poland (now in Western Ukraine).For the date of Ginczanka's arrival at Równe (1922), see Mały słownik pisarzy polskich, pt. 2, ed. J. Z. Białek et al., Warsaw, Wiedza Powszechna, 1981, p. 66. . However, Professor Izolda Kiec states that Ginczanka's parents arrived at Równe in October/November 1917, bringing the several months' old child with them; see Izolda Kiec, Zuzanna Ginczanka: życie i twórczość, Poznań, Obserwator, 1994, pp. 34 & 176. .
Her father, Simon Ginzburg, was a lawyer by profession; her mother Tsetsiliya (Цецилия) Ginzburg, née Sandberg, a housewife.Jan_Śpiewak, Pracowite zdziwienia: szkice poetyckie, ed. A. Kamieńska, Warsaw, Czytelnik, 1971, p. 28. She was abandoned by both parents, first by her father, who after a divorce left for Berlin, and later by her mother, who left for Spain after a remarriage. The young girl then moved to Równe to live (modern-day Rivne, Ukraine) with her maternal grandmother, Klara Sandberg, by all accounts a wise and prudent woman, who was responsible for her upbringing.Sources differ as to the fate of her parents: Współcześni polscy pisarze i badacze literatury: słownik biobibliograficzny, ed. J. Czachowska & A. Szałagan, vol. 3 (GJ), Warsaw, Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne, 1994, p. 46. , . suggests that the parents were divorced (with the father going to live abroad and the mother likewise choosing emigration after remarriage). This is confirmed by Tadeusz_Wittlin, p. 241 (see Bibliography), who adds that her mother lived in Pamplona, Spain, after remarriage, while her father worked as an attorney in Berlin. (Neither source mentions the parents' names.) Łobodowski, on the other hand, while confirming that the mother settled in Spain, initially at Cordova and then at Pamplona, recalls having been told by Ginczanka that her father was "dead", adding that she was very reticent about her family in general; in: Józef Łobodowski, Pamięci Sulamity, Toronto, Polski Fundusz Wydawniczy w Kanadzie, 1987, pp. 1112. On the grandmother Sandberg, see Jan_Śpiewak, Pracowite zdziwienia: szkice poetyckie, ed. A. Kamieńska, Warsaw, Czytelnik, 1971, p. 28. Sandberg's house on the town's main street, with its ground-floor store, a pharmacy, was described as moderately affluent by the writer Jerzy Andrzejewski, Ginczanka's contemporary, who sought her acquaintance, and independently by the poet Jan Śpiewak, a fellow resident in the town.Jerzy Andrzejewski, "Stefan"; in: Sceptyk pełen wiary: wspomnienia o Stefanie Otwinowskim, ed. W. Maciąg, introd. E. Otwinowska, Kraków, Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1979, p. 105. . Jan Śpiewak, "Zuzanna: gawęda tragiczna"; in id., Przyjaźnie i animozje, Warsaw, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1965, p. 190. She became known as "Sana" by her closest friends.
Between 1927 and 1935, she attended a state high school in Równe, the Państwowe Gimnazjum im. T. Kościuszki.Współcześni polscy pisarze i badacze literatury: słownik biobibliograficzny, ed. J. Czachowska & A. Szałagan, vol. 3 (GJ), Warsaw, Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne, 1994, p. 46. , . In 1935 she moved to Warsaw to begin studies at Warsaw University,Józef Łobodowski, Pamięci Sulamity, Toronto, Polski Fundusz Wydawniczy w Kanadzie, 1987, p. 8. but her studies there soon ended, likely due to antisemitic incidents at the university.Krystyna Kłosińska, "Wypowiadam wam moje życie. Melancholia Zuzanny Ginczanki, Araszkiewicz, Agata." Gazeta Wyborcza, 29 January 2002 (review of the book by Agata Araszkiewicz, Wypowiadam wam moje życie. Melancholia Zuzanny Ginczanki published by Fundacja OŚKA, Warsaw 2001).
Ginczanka held a Nansen passport. Despite efforts made to obtain Polish citizenship before the outbreak of the war, she was unsuccessful.
Early period Ginczanka spoke both Russian, the choice of her emancipated parents, and the Polish of her friends. Despite living in a Yiddish-speaking town, she did not know that language. Her longing to become a Polish poet caused her to choose the Polish language. According to Ginczanka's mother, she began composing verses at the age of four, authoring a whole ballad at the age of eight.Letter of Ginczanka's mother to Kazimierz Wyka, written in Russian after the Second World War; cited in: Izolda Kiec, "Trochę wierszy, trochę fotografii, wspomnienia kilku przyjaciół", Czas Kultury (Poznań), No. 16, May 1990, p. 107. She published her first poems while still in school, debuting in 1931at the age of 14with the poem "Uczta wakacyjna" ("A Vacation Feast"), published in her bimonthly high-school newspaper Echa Szkolne (School Echoes), edited by Czesław Janczarski. During this period of her life, Ginczanka was also active as the author of song lyrics.Izolda Kiec (see Bibliography), p. 37.
Her "mainstream" poetry debut in a nationwide forum came in August 1933 in the pages of the Kuryer Literacko-Naukowy (Literary-Scientific Courier), a Sunday supplement to the well-known Ilustrowany Kuryer Codzienny (Illustrated Daily Courier), with the publication of the 16-line poem entitled "Żyzność sierpniowa" ("Fertility in the Month of August"—or perhaps, with greater poetic licence, "Fullness of August").Cf. Współcześni polscy pisarze i badacze literatury: słownik biobibliograficzny, ed. J. Czachowska & A. Szałagan, vol. 3 (GJ), Warsaw, Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne, 1994, p. 46. , . Cf. also Lesław M. Bartelski, Polscy pisarze współcześni, 19391991: leksykon, Warsaw, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 1995, p. 110. . In this poem, the 16-year-old poet speaks with the voice of a mature woman wistfully looking back on the world of young people in the bloom of life with its ripeness for love (hence the title), from the knowing and indulgent perspective of one whose life has come to fruition long before. The last two lines, moreover, give voice to the catastrophic sonorities that would forever remain the signature trait of Ginczanka's poetry, often couched in sanguinary imagery as they are here:W gałęziach gruszy zawisł wam księżyc, jak choinkowe złociste czółno, a w wargach malin milczą legendy o sercach, które skrwawiła północ Zuzanna Ginczanka, "Żyzność sierpniowa" (lines 1516), Kuryer Literacko-Naukowy, vol. 10, No. 35 (Supplement to the Ilustrowany Kuryer Codzienny of 28 August 1933), p. 2.The Moon stranded in pear-tree branches like a golden pirogue on a Christmas tree, on lips of raspberry the legends fall silent of the hearts bloodied by a midnight's decree
Encouraged by Julian Tuwim to participate in the Young Poets' Competition (Turniej Młodych Poetów) organised the following spring by the most important literary periodical in Poland at the time—a weekly, the Wiadomości Literackie (Literary News)—she won an honourable mention (third class) with the poem "Gramatyka" ("Grammar"), printed in the issue of 15 July 1934, devoted in part to the results of the competition. She was 17 years old; most if not all of the other 22 finalists (like Tadeusz Hollender, b. 1910, and Anna Świrszczyńska, b. 1909, who won first prizes, or Witold Makowiecki, b. 1903, who won an honourable mention, first class, and Juliusz Żuławski, b. 1910, honourable mention, third class) were her seniors in age.See Wiadomości Literackie, vol. 11, No. 29 (556), 15 July 1934, p. 3. Many of the names of the other finalists cannot be further identified: they are people who didn't make a mark in later times. Seven weeks later, in its edition of 2 September 1934, the Wiadomości Literackie revisited its poetry competition by publishing a list of additional book prizes awarded to the winners, mentioning that for her contribution, Ginczanka would receive a collection of Michelangelo's poetry, translated by Leopold Staff."Turniej Młodych Poetów", Wiadomości Literackie, vol. 11, No. 36 (563), 2 September 1934, p. 6. Cf. Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, Poezje Michał Anioł Buonarroti, tr. & ed. Leopold Staff, Warsaw, J. Mortkowicz, 1922.
Ginczanka's poem, which opens boldly with a punctuation mark (a left parenthesis), deals with parts of speech, describing each in a poetic way beginning with the adjective, then taking on the adverb, and ending with a philosophical-philological analysis of the personal pronoun ("I without you, you without me, amounts to nought"; line 30):a pokochać słowa tak łatwo: trzeba tylko wziąć je do ręki i obejrzeć jak burgund pod światłoZuzanna Ginczanka, "Gramatyka" (lines 24), Wiadomości Literackie, vol. 11, No. 29 (556), 15 July 1934, p. 3.for words freely do love incite: you just take them in hand and assay like burgundies against the light
To this period also belongs Ginczanka's poem "Zdrada" ("Betrayal", although the word can also mean "treason"), composed at some point in 1934.
Warsaw period Upon her arrival in Warsaw in September 1935 at the age of 18, Ginczanka, by then already notable, quickly became a "legendary figure" of the bohemian world of artists of pre-war Warsaw as a protégée of Tuwim, the doyen of the Polish poets at the time. This connection opened the doors for her to all the country's most important literary periodicals, salons, and publishing houses.Józef Łobodowski, Pamięci Sulamity, Toronto, Polski Fundusz Wydawniczy w Kanadzie, 1987, p. 9. Wacław Iwaniuk, Ostatni romantyk: wspomnienie o Józefie Łobodowskim, ed. J. Kryszak, Toruń, Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, 1998, p. 60. . Matuszewski (see Bibliography). Her detractors bestowed on her the sobriquet of "Tuwim in a petticoat", Tuwim w spódnicy; Witold Gombrowicz, known for inventing his own private names for all his acquaintances, nicknamed her "Gina".Polski słownik judaistyczny: dzieje, kultura, religia, ludzie, vol. 1, ed. Z. Borzymińska & R. Żebrowski, Warsaw, Prószyński i S-ka, 2003, p. 482. . On Gombrowicz's moniker for Ginczanka, see Joanna Siedlecka, Jaśnie Panicz: o Witoldzie Gombrowiczu, Warsaw, Prószyński i S-ka, 2003, p. 171. .