SEARCH WORDS
THING ABOUT THE RAPHAL GOD
You woke up a dream planet on February
And in 1 string of a minute
You've become the stone of sound
You were and continued faithful
Your country, your city
Semper fidelis You topped
And the Holy Trinity alone
You didn't leave, you're with us.
In your Lviv, in your Vilnius
Yours is only Song of Songs
First Love Song Over Everything
Years ago, 1 June afternoon, I was invited to the Radio Lviv to present the book "Polish Photography". Radio Lviv was no alien to me, but here I survived my debut in poesy in 1941. The poem was delivered in Polish by a well-known Lviv actor at the time, as the Lions were under russian occupation, and it happened just before the German army attacked 22 June 1941. I was 10.
After the presentation of "Polish Photography" on June afternoon I left the studio, I found respective people in the rooms, among them 2 ladies, Bożena Rafalska, then the editor-in-chief of the "Lwów Meetings" in a lively conversation with my wife Alina Borkowska - Szumańska. erstwhile I came forward proudly to say hello to Bożenka, it turned out that the ladies did not discuss my poetry, presented just now, but about...cats. It turned out that both ladies are enthusiasts of these animals and from the studio, we were invited by Bożena to her editorial office at 9 Rylewa Street.
Bożena Rafalska was born in 1949 in Lviv. She graduated from Maria Konopnicka Polish School in Lviv. In 1975, after studying Polish at the Pedagogical Institute in Vilnius, she stayed in Lithuania, started working in the only Polish paper in the russian Union at the time - "The Red Flag". For a time she was editor of the Polish Union magazine in Lithuania "Our Newspaper". In the late eighties of the 20th century, during the period of the revival of Poland in Ukraine, she returned to her native Lviv and took advantage of the Vilnius experience she became the originator and founder of the first Polish paper in Ukraine - "Gazeta Lwowska". She was her editor-in-chief for 10 years. She gave the paper a unique character and unique climate, tying Polishness to the universal tradition of Lviv. In 2001 she founded a monthly magazine "Lwów Meetings", devoted mainly to the culture, art and artistic life of Poles in Lviv, the land of Lviv and Ukraine.
She was a large lover of Zbigniew Herbert's poesy and a friend of the household of this large poet, a lion. In October 2004, she issued the peculiar number "Lwów Meetings" "Zbigniew Herbert and Lviv peculiar edition on the 80th birthday of Poet 1924-2004". Our editorial colleague Mariusz Olbromski wrote a unique text "The Poet of Faithfulness", a rich survey of the life and work of this Poet. "The poet of faithfulness" by Mariusz Olbromski is simply a universal historical and monographic record, in many threads completely unknown, most likely already serving Polish historians as a priceless document. Bożena Rafalska in this peculiar issue presented any completely unknown works by Poet, as well as a rich monographic text "Back to the City of Zbigniew Herbert's Days in Lviv (16-17 March 2002)". Rafalska writes in this text: ... "It was a symbolic return of the poet to the city in which he was born, a city that had a powerful impact on his life and became 1 of the motives permanently present in his work.. During the session about Zbigniew Herbert, Poles and Ukrainians, scientists and friends of the poet spoke...literary part, recitation of the technological session at the University of Lviv movedly concluded with the recitation of Herbert's poesy by the tiny actors of the theatre "Baj", operating at the school no. 10 (St. Mary Magdalene), and led by a highly well-deserved teacher and Polish woman, Maria Ivanova... In the evening a performance with candles was held in the Prochova Baszta (now the Architects' Club), during which Herbert's poesy and his spiritual friends Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, Tadeusz Gajcy, sang Piotr Szczepanik... "I never thought I'd sing my master's poesy to a Lviv audience" - said Piotr Szczepanik...On Sunday, March 17th - the second day of the Herbert celebrations - the Holy Mass celebrated by His Eminence began. Marian Jaworski at St. Anthony's Church in Lyczak, where Zbigniew Herbert was baptized in 1924. . It was the parish church of the Herberts, where they lived in his nearest neighbourhood, and Herbert's grandma "the holy grandmother, Mary of the Balabans, Maria Experienced", belonged to the 3rd Franciscan order and it was to St. Anthony that she went to pray. In an extraordinary sermon, the Cardinal said of the poet: "The work of Zbigniew Herbert is simply a evidence of religion in the order of values, while defending them.. . It proclaims values that must be discovered and implemented together with it...".After Mass, the plaques commemorating Zbigniew Herbert's baptism were unveiled by the poet Halina Herbert-Żebrowska, and the dedication was made by the Cardinal...".
Bożena Rafalska in Lviv inspired and implemented crucial cultural projects, specified as described "The Days of Zbigniew Herbert", Polish-Ukrainian edition of his poetry, or commemoration of places in Lviv related to the poet. She participated in the Festivals of Polish Culture in Ukraine, engaged in the promotion of young Polish artists: poets, photographers, painters, literates. She inspired a number of cultural activities for Polish-Ukrainian cooperation, the best evidence of which is simply a rich series of Polish literature in translation into Ukrainian, published by the Kamier Publishing home from Lviv, with which she worked. She was the founder and associate of the board of the Lviv Association of Friends of Fine Arts, a associate of the Association of Polish Journalists in the East and the Federation of Polish Organizations in Ukraine. In Lviv, she ran the Polish gallery "Her own hand" which is an highly crucial place on the Polish cultural map of this town.
W Vilnius had quite a few friends. A fewer years ago, erstwhile she got sick and needed money for surgery and treatment, friends organized help. There was a poetry-musical evening at the time called "Tracks of the words of the winged Vilnius-Lviv" performed by actors of the Polish Theatre in Vilnius.
At this point we should mention the wonderful book by Bożena Rafalska and Mariusz J. Olbromski "In the footsteps of winged words...reminiscences of Polish writers and poets on the Borders of the confederate Republic" published by the Museum of the National Przemysl Land. In 1 of the next issues of "Kurier Galician" I will make literary criticism of this wonderful work.
We were friends with Godina, I became a regular correspondent for "Lviv Meetings". Bożena visited us in Krakow all month, publishing a paper in Przemyśl, coming to Krakow to us and to our 7 home kittens. We took Krakow walks, mainly on Planty and Wawel.
The next time we set up our meeting, Bożena asked me with a fragment of my poem: "You have received 2 cities in a gift, and which are more beautiful, or the Lions in a dream cathedral, or royal graves..."?
I remember in 2009 erstwhile she asked me why I hadn't written anything about Captain Witold Pilecki? There was then an excellent chance to uncover the Rotmaster's bust in Dr. Henry Jordan's Kraków park. At the time I wrote a study on Rotmaster "The Flag Song in tribute to Rotmaster" located in "Lwów Meetings" No. 5 2009.
When I came to Lviv, always at the Art Gallery in Rylewa 9 Bożena organized my meetings. She besides included in the "Lviv Meetings" cyclical texts about my meetings with poesy as a permanent column. titled "Thursday Nights by Candles - Meetings with poesy of Alexander Szumański".
Editor-in-chief of "Kurier Galician" Marcin Romer offered me a peculiar issue about my work, e.g. on "Thursday evenings by candlelights - meetings with poesy by Alexander Szumański" by Bożena Rafalska"
God’s End
THE LEGENDARY OF THE RAPHAL GOD IS DEAD
This is simply a large failure for Poland, for hope, independence, sovereignty and forgotten border culture. Bożena Rafalska, a postgraduate of the University of Vilnius, was the first step in the postwar reality of Lviv to reactivate "Gazeta Lwowska", being its chief editor for many years. She later established in Lviv the unique "Lvivian Meetings", appearing monthly, which is simply a treasure of cognition about the end culture. Privately, she was a long-standing friend of ours for the alleged cut and misery. She has given me many honors of her productions in her editorial "Lwów Meetings" at 9 Rylewa Street (Badenich 9). I had the honour to represent Bożena Rafalska, as a writer of the "Lwów Meetings" at the yearly "World Forum of Polish Media" beginning each year in Tarnów, organized by editor Stanisław Lisa, president of the Małopolska Forum of Cooperation with Polonia. The speech of Red Bożena Rafalska in the legislature of the Republic of Poland was loud erstwhile she asked Maciej Płażyński to increase aid for east Polish media.
The ceremony of Bożena Rafalska took place on Thursday, March 26, 2015 in Lviv.
Memoirs of "Vilnotes"
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On Monday, March 23, in Lviv, the late Bożena Rafalska, a Vilnius-Livian journalist, animator of the cultural life of Poles in Lviv, passed distant forever. The journalistic master of the pen, all her life, served the communities of Poles left behind the east border in the Kresach region, forever combining their mad journalistic energy Vilnius and Lviv. She left at 66, after a severe illness.
Holy Mass for the soul of the deceased was celebrated, on 27 March (Friday) at 6 p.m., in the church under the call of the Holy Spirit in Vilnius.
The departure of Bożena Rafalska is simply a immense failure for Polish affairs in the Kresach. Hi, her memory!".
Developd by Aleksander Szumański
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