Halina Poświatowska

Halina Poświatowska (formerly Helena Myga; born May 9, 1935 in Częstochowa, † October 11, 1967 in Warsaw) was a Polish poet.

Life

Halina Poświatowska was born with a serious heart disease. A large part of her short life she spent in hospitals and convalescent homes. There she met her future husband, also a heart patient Adolf Ryszard Poświatowski, whom she married on 30 April 1954. The marriage lasted only two years, in 21 years Halina was a widow.

Thanks to a fundraiser in 1958, Halina underwent the United States of America a complicated heart surgery. After that, she spent three years there and studied at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Back in Poland she studied philosophy at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. After graduation, she remained at the university. Because of the deteriorating health condition, she underwent in 1967 in Warsaw again heart surgery. She died eight days later.

She was buried in Częstochowa on the St. Rochus Cemetery next to her husband.

On 9 May 2007, at her parents' house a museum dedicated to her, the house of poetry opened. On the main street of her home town of Częstochowa her a monument was erected in the form of a garden bench with the figure of the poet in natural size.

Work

Halina Poświatowska debuted as a poet in 1956 with a poem in a local newspaper. In 1957 she released her first book Hymn bałwochwalczy ( idolatrous hymn ), followed by 1963 Dzień dzisiejszy ( Today ), 1966 Oda do rak ( Ode to the hands), and posthumously in 1968 Jeszcze jedno Wspomnienie ( Another reminder). After her death, many unpublished texts were found in the estate. In the last year her autobiography Opowiesc dla yet appeared przyjaciela ( story for the friend ).

In the texts Poświatowskas love and death are intertwined inseparably. She was happy about every day, but the ever- impending death cast a deep shadow.

In Piper Verlag their works have been published in German translation.

Writings (selection )

• Whenever I want to live. Translated by Monika Cagliesi - Zenkteler. Piper Verlag, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-492-04397-6
• Story for a friend. Translated by Monika Cagliesi - Zenkteler. Piper Verlag, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-492-04225-2