With 2021 designated the Year of Norwid in Poland, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s office has held a number of nationwide contests over the past year, including for best book about the national bard, best artistic illustration for a Norwid poem, and best Norwid-themed T-shirt.
The winners were announced on Wednesday at an awards ceremony attended by Morawiecki as well as Culture Minister Piotr Gliński and Education and Science Minister Przemysław Czarnek, among other officials, the state PAP news agency reported.
'The bard who connects us'
Addressing the gathering in Warsaw, the Polish prime minister said that Norwid left behind a body of comprehensive work that “builds a person" in many ways, "while also building humanity, societies and nations.”
He added that Norwid's life and work taught him that "a man ought to be measured by the depth of his spirit” and “that no man is an island but rather a part of a greater whole—not just in the here and now, but also as a link between past and future generations."
Norwid "demanded much from himself and he demanded much from others, and so he is, and can be, a wonderful guide for us, a unique beacon, the bard who connects us," Morawiecki also said.
'Norwid’s wisdom and magnificent work'
His culture minister emphasised that, besides being a poet, Norwid was also a philosopher.
Gliński, who is a deputy prime minister as well as culture minister in Morawiecki's government, said that despite the pandemic, Norwid’s bicentenary "has been a successful year,” full of commemorative events, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
“We can draw on Norwid’s wisdom and magnificent work also when seeking to interpret contemporary times,” Gliński told reporters, adding that “this is a beautiful task for teachers and our schools, for places where we interact with our youth.”
At the ceremony, distinguished Norwid scholars received state medals for studying the bard’s work and for promoting his legacy, the PAP news agency reported.
Cyprian Kamil Norwid. Image: Polona
Born on September 24, 1821, Norwid spent most of his life abroad, mainly in Paris, where he died on May 23, 1883.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP