{"id":81216,"date":"2015-01-05T18:10:44","date_gmt":"2015-01-05T23:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=81216"},"modified":"2016-01-04T17:40:18","modified_gmt":"2016-01-04T22:40:18","slug":"stanislaw-baranczaks-this-is-not-a-conversation-for-the-telephone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/05\/stanislaw-baranczaks-this-is-not-a-conversation-for-the-telephone\/","title":{"rendered":"Stanis\u0142aw Bara\u0144czak\u2019s \u201cThis Is Not a Conversation for the Telephone\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"z3736801V\"<\/a>

Bara\u0144czak in a photo from Ostatni wiersz z Widok\u00f3wki z tego \u015bwiata<\/i>, 1988.<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019ve been thinking today of Stanis\u0142aw Bara\u0144czak<\/a>, the Polish poet and translator who died in 2014 at sixty-eight<\/a>. He was known for flouting state censors with poems that mocked the euphemistic language of communism, and his work was seditious enough that in the seventies he was barred from publishing in Poland, though he continued to publish underground. By the early eighties, his politics had cost him his job as a professor in Poznan, and he decamped to the U.S. to lecture at Harvard. In a famous speech he likened life as a dissident to breathing underwater, with a nod to a science-fiction story by Stanis\u0142aw\u00a0Lem:<\/p>\n

\n

Bubbling sounds were the only acceptable means of communication, the official propaganda emphasized the advantages of being wet, and occasional breathing above water was considered almost a political offense\u2014although everyone had to do it from time to time \u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I wonder what Bara\u0144czak would\u2019ve made of the new PEN International report, published this morning, on writers and government surveillance. It suggests that free expression around the world\u2014even in the U.S., where what we\u2019ve come to call \u201ccontent producers\u201d aren\u2019t in the habit of fearing violence from the state\u2014is in some ways more embattled now than it\u2019s been since the Cold War.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth reading the report in full<\/a>, though it will make you gnash your teeth and hurl invective at various institutions, chiefly the NSA. (And why shouldn\u2019t you? You\u2019ve already got their ear.) PEN International polled 772 writers from fifty countries, with some classified as \u201cfree,\u201d some as \u201cpartly free,\u201d and some \u201cnot free.\u201d But those gradations hardly matter, it seems, when it comes to freedom of expression. Of the respondents, 75 percent in free countries, 84 percent in partly free countries, and 80 percent in not free countries said they were \u201cvery\u201d or \u201csomewhat\u201d worried about surveillance. Some were so worried that they were afraid to say how worried they were:<\/p>\n

\n

As a final indication of the way the current \u201csurveillance crisis\u201d affects and haunts us, I should say that I have had serious misgivings about whether to write the above and include it in this questionnaire. It is clear to me from the information I have given you that my responses to the questionnaire, and presumably also therefore this statement, can be traced back to me. It may be that this information will be hacked by security agencies. Surely anyone who thinks thoughts like these will be in danger\u2014if not today, then (because this is a process) possibly tomorrow.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s a dismal state of affairs. Worse still: even in the \u201cfree\u201d countries, 34 percent of writers told PEN they were inclined to self-censor\u2014they avoid or consider avoiding certain subjects in their work.<\/p>\n

Two of Bara\u0144czak\u2019s poems appeared in The Paris Review<\/em>\u2019s Spring 1983 issue, both of them focused on surveillance. Here, in memoriam, is \u201cThis Is Not a Conversation for the Telephone\u201d:<\/p>\n

\n

This Is Not a Conversation for the Telephone<\/p>\n

Well let\u2019s assume it\u2019s yes, but this is not a conversation
for the telephone, you know, our ears
have vigilant listeners, so let\u2019s just prepare it in
a language foreign to them and us, and don\u2019t say \u201cyes\u201d
before you translate it;<\/p>\n

well let\u2019s admit it\u2019s yes, but this is not
convenient for the moment, you know, our
walls have sensitive ears, so let\u2019s just preserve it
for later, keep it and don\u2019t say
\u201cyes\u201d before you wait it out;<\/p>\n

well let\u2019s agree it\u2019s yes but this is not
a condition forever, you know,
our souls have thin walls, so let\u2019s just presume
it for today, for a while, and don\u2019t
say \u201cyes\u201d before you delete it;<\/p>\n

well it must be no, but this
is not a conclusion for a real,
you know, our listeners have sensitive souls, so let\u2019s
pretend for now that we protest, and
don\u2019t say \u201cno\u201d before you apologize.<\/p>\n

Translated by Valeria Wasilewski<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Dan Piepenbring is the web editor of <\/em>The Paris Review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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