Not Only Suffering. On A Trial of Pain by Wojciech Kudyba

Abstract

The article is an attempt to discuss and review the book by Wojciech Kudyba, entitled A Trial of Pain. On poems by Joanna Pollakówna (Próba bólu. O wierszach Joanny Pollakówny), a dissertation devoted to one of the most prominent female poets of the second half of the 20th century. Having found numerous interpretative intuitions that I share with the author and drawing attention to the fact that he has opened new and interesting perspectives (the themes of spirituality, the concept of clearance), I dispute with Kudyba, above all, over the purposefulness of focusing on the issue of suffering. What I also disagree with is the bipartition of his work that underlines the differences between individual poems of Pollakówna. This idea distorts the tendency to reconcile opposing opinions and find “the wobbly balance”.