In May 1946, the artist Marek Zulawski returned to his homeland of Poland.

During his many years away, his former home city had been devastated by the Nazi Germans in retaliation for the Warsaw Uprising.

He had been in London when World War II broke out in 1939. He remained there, contributing to the war effort through designing posters and broadcast journalism with BBC Radio's Polish section.

When he came back for an exhibition of his work at the National Museum in Warsaw, he brought his notepad and sketchbook. The resulting notes and drawings went into his autobiography 'Study for a Self-Portrait' published decades later in Polish.

Here for the first time in English is this unique record of his trip. A confrontation with an almost unrecognisable place ravaged by unspeakable horrors that was somehow returning to a semblance of normality.

«Warsaw is a reanimated ruin, a corpse that has refused to stay in its grave, opened its empty eye sockets, heaved up its rotten bones, and spread out those fingers twisted by an executioner's pliers. It is filled with unbelievable energy, like Frankenstein's monster. Its crowds are enormously active, with no trace of apathy and everything done with a trot. Trams and trolleybuses are taken by storm at every stop. Whoever is strongest, wins. The bars, cafes and restaurants set up within the concrete carcasses of buildings are always full. Nobody seems to notice the weakened ceilings hanging menacingly above them. It’s as though everybody has agreed to pretend that Warsaw still exists and this new colossal fiction has become more powerful than reality.»

For more about Marek Zulawski, visit TranslatingMarek.com

Zulawski Adam

Book translations