Tree

In the literature, the theme of the tree, quite widely present in different eras, Most often it is taken from the Bible and supplemented by circulation, Widespread ideas derived from art and religion (Holy Gaje, trees, np. oaks) different nations, peoples. As a rule, in this approach, remains a reflection of human fate (The trees live with man, wrote Żeromski), symbol (ambiguous) power, human size, nation, also the renewal of life, annual fruiting rhythm and dying. It is like a connector between heaven and earth. Individual species of trees have various symbolic meanings in European literature, np. royal, very hard olive tree, Always green, This is a symbol of peace, fertility.

A tree from Różewicz's poem is a reflection of human misfortune, The same cruel fate experiences them – total, A criminal war carrying the death of every form of life:

What can I tell you
on the branch of the tree
which burned
which he won't sing

Różewicz recalls the song, He combines two worlds contrasting: reality from the last World War and after it. The war brought the extermination of the first of these worlds, She deprived a man of happiness, joyful, trusting carefree. Nobody dances around the tree anymore, in this way to express the joy of life, emphasize the affirmation of nature, In this way, to praise the nature of a loved one. Now poets are not dancing like children, They don't sing. After the war, others became, Nothing triggers spontaneous joy in them, The black shadow of a recent Apocalypse is laid on everyone. There is also no tree, under which it was danced, It is hard to find idyllic images in the landscape infected with death, burned, dangerous. The iron heavy rally fell on this landscape, The burned tree does not hum, but creaks. Nay, It ceased to be a sign of joy, life, it no longer casts a soothing shadow. His naked, The charred branches have become a place of execution:

And our tree
at night it surprised
And hung on it
despised body

A tree in the new world, symbol of vitality, forces of nature, staje się narzędziem śmierci. Was destroyed, He was deprived of his former functions and a new role was assigned. In the poem it is somewhat a sign of the world, in which after the war apocalypse there is practically no joy, luck, Nothing is certain, It's hard to talk about any eternal bastard, order. Everything was destroyed. A tree of joy has died, Earlier it suffered like a man. It will no longer be a shelter for birds, will not remain a symbol of the reviving life, He is only a gallows, on which the despised human body was hung. In the post -war landscape it became a reminder of the extermination.

The basics of the old world were destroyed, People have changed, So others had to become the poets themselves, The question is asked in Różewicz's text: What can I tell you / on the branch of the tree. What poem can a modern poet can offer, Can he be a joyful hymn praising the world, man, who turned out to be capable of denying the essence of the humanity of the crime, or a poet burdened with tragic memory can dance under another, survivor of the conflagration, tree? The poet himself survived, But the war permanently mutilated his psyche, deprived of faith in the world, people, Former value systems. Poets of past generations (The image of their happiness repeated in the poem is essentially important in the structure of the song) They could be childishly naive, After all, they lived in spiritual harmony with the world, which symbolizes the tree – which was once and a sign of life, cyclical revival of nature, her unchanging order.