1959

In 1959, Jerzy Ficowski visited Drogobych for the first time. The visit takes place during his trip to Kiev and the Bracław region, that is to the places where Ficowski’s father came from. During this sentimental journey, taken under the pretext of writing a novel, Ficowski decides to illegally deviate from the route and visit Bruno Schulz’s hometown. Little is known about the course of this visit and its results. In an interview with Tomasz Fiałkowski and Jerzy Illg conducted for Tygodnik Powszechny, Ficowski only mentions a taxi trip he took in the company of two Ukrainian women, former students of Schulz. “There were two ladies in the cab and there were three more passengers missing. We had to have all seats taken, because the sum on the counter was divided into five, and each paid a fifth. I asked both ladies in Russian if this taxi was going to Drogobych. They looked at me with disgust and turned their heads. I mumbled to myself, but already in Polish. “Well, I do not know who to ask”. And they said to me: “Why didn’t you speak Polish right away?”. I said I didn’t know, and that it would be a lot easier for me, because my Russian was bad. And I said I was going to Drogobych. They said, ‘Here you go, sit down, we also go to Drogobych, we live there. Do you have family there?’ ‘No’, I say. ‘I am going there to look for traces of a Polish writer who once lived in Drogobych’. ‘What was his name?’. ‘Bruno Schulz’. ‘He was our drawing teacher, sir’. They were Ukrainian, not Polish. But they preferred to talk to me in Polish”¹. (mr) (transl. mw)