August 23, 2019

 

Dear Friends,

 

Chopin Theatre plans to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II by placing an ad in the Chicago Tribune with the famous poem, The End and the Beginning, by Nobel Prize Winning poet Wislawa Szymborska.

The half page ad will appear on Friday 8/30/19 and Sunday 9/1/19. The cost is over $3,000 with a total circulation over 300,000. Considering multiple people may read each paper, circulation could be around half million readers.

We are asking co-sponsors to donate $100 to contribute to the cost of the ad.  Simply logon to PayPayl.com and send payment to our special email Paypal@ChopinTheatre.com.  Or call 773-396-2875.  To be fair to everyone, only the first 29 contributions will be accepted and listed, in alphabetical order, at our website and in our newsletter.

 

Sincerely

Zygmunt Dyrkacz, Artistic Director
Lela Dyrkacz, Managing Director

          

On the 80th Anniversary
of the Outbreak of World War II
September 1, 1939

The End and the Beginning

After every war
someone has to clean up.
Things won't
straighten themselves up, after all.

 

Someone has to push the rubble
to the side of the road,
so the corpse-filled wagons
can pass.

Someone has to get mired
in scum and ashes,
sofa springs,
splintered glass,
and bloody rags.

Someone has to drag in a girder
to prop up a wall,
Someone has to glaze a window,
rehang a door.

Photogenic it's not,
and takes years.
All the cameras have left
for another war.

We'll need the bridges back,
and new railway stations.
Sleeves will go ragged
from rolling them up.

Someone, broom in hand,
still recalls the way it was.
Someone else listens
and nods with unsevered head.
But already there are those nearby
starting to mill about
who will find it dull.

From out of the bushes
sometimes someone still unearths
rusted-out arguments
and carries them to the garbage pile.

Those who knew
what was going on here
must make way for
those who know little.
And less than little.
And finally as little as nothing.

In the grass that has overgrown
causes and effects,
someone must be stretched out
blade of grass in his mouth
gazing at the clouds.

 

 

Wisława Szymborska
1996 Nobel Prize in Literature

Miracle Fair: Selected Poems of Wislawa Szymborska translated by Joanna Trzeciak.
Permission by publisher W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

 

            Thank you

for supporting this timely masterpiece.
Without you, this wouldn't happen.
(in alphabetical order)

 

 

Halina Abend
Designer

 

Zbigniew Banas
Founder
DKF Kornelia Film Club

 

Carole Bilina
Business Woman

 

Janina Dyrkacz
Zygmunt's 1st Ex Wife

 

Roman Dziarski, PhD

Professor of Microbiology & Immunology
Indiana University

Thomas Finerty
Former Vice President
Chicago Urban League

 

Jo and Joel Hormuth
Visual Artists

 

Jessica Jagielnik
Director, Music Development
Holy Trinity High School

 

JRH Consultants

 

Kosciuszko Foundation Chicago Chapter

 

John J. Kulczycki
Professor Emeritus - History
University of Illinois at Chicago

 

Mark Kupiec
Law offices of Mark Kupiec & Associates

 

Christopher Lee
President
Bulley & Andrews Masonry Restoration

 

Dr. Blazej Lojewski
Family Practice

Thaddeus Makarewicz Esq.
Law offices of T. Makarewicz

 

Dr. Zbigniew Malecki
Illinois Masonic Hospital

Bozena Nowicka McLees
Director, Polish Languages & Literature
Loyola University Chicago

 

Alton Miller
Professor
Former Press Secretary Mayor Washington

 

Conrad Nowak
Co-Chair
Warsaw Sister Cities / Chicago Sister Cities International

 

Paczolt Insurance Alliance

Dawid Piwinski
Group Manager
Avanade

 

Poets Club of Chicago

Polish Arts Club of Chicago
Geraldine Balut Coleman
President

 

Mike Puican
Treasurer
Guild Literary Complex

 

Robert Radkowski
Vice President & Head Midwest District
Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union

 

Travis Rejman
Co-Founder & Executive Director
The Goldin Institute

 

Blanka Rosenstiel
Founder and President
The American Institute of Polish Culture
and Chopin Foundation of US, Miami Fl

 

Julie Stagliano

Board of Directors
Women's Global Education Project

 

Magdalena Suszko
Regulatory Affairs
Abbot Laboratories

 

Third Coast Translators Collective