June 23, 1934, Saturday

Drohobych. Bruno Schulz replies to Zenon Waśniewski’s letter, in which he refers to the suggested meeting in Lviv and the plan to buy the Polish National Class Lottery ticket for the company.

Schulz regrets that he cannot come to Lviv* because of his family obligations. “My sister (the older one, a widow) suffers from a severe neurotic illness and I cannot leave her,” he explains to Waśniewski. “I will probably have to put her in a resort in Truskavets1, but for the time being she is resisting any offer of a trip”2. In the face of these difficulties, he invites Waśniewski to Drohobych3. He also expresses the hope that during the holidays he would be able to visit him, as he writes, “in Zwiniącz” (actually in Zwiniacz), where Waśniewski intends to spend part of the holidays with his wife’s family4.

In his letter, Waśniewski raises the issue of jointly buying a ticket of the Polish National Class Lottery. Schulz tells him of an unusual coincidence. “Imagine”, he writes, “that on the day I received your offer [...] a shopkeeper, whom I visited for some paper, offered me a quarter of a ticket for 10 zlotys. I had no money and I didn’t buy it. Maybe it was a chance, the ticket offer? No one has ever offered me a ticket”5. Both offers concerned the nearest, 30th lottery draws, scheduled for July 17, 18 and 19. Schulz did not take advantage of both opportunities, although the matter of the lottery and the common ticket would return several more times in his correspondence with Waśniewski.

Meanwhile, he complains about the fate of a manual labour teacher and the fact that he should take part in a three-week holiday course in Żywiec devoted to “metal works” which he “cannot do”6. Thanking for the “words of consolation and persuasion” he found in the letter, he briefly informs Waśniewski: “Unfortunately, my depression persists”7. (sr) (transl. mw) 

See also: March 15, 1934, March 24, 1934, April 2, 193[4], April 24, 1934, June 5, 1934, August 28, 1934, September 14, 1934, September 30, 1934, October 6, 1934, October 15, 1934, November 7, 1934, November 15, 1934, December 19, 1934, January 28, 1935, March 16, 1935, [March 25, 1935], June 24, 1935, July 13, 1935, August 3, 1935, [August 7, 1935], June 2, 1937, August 4, 1937, [5 January 1938], April 24, 1938. (transl. mw) 

  • 1
    It seems that this intention was never put into life. Therefore, the reference to his sister was perhaps made to objectify the refusal.
  • 2
    Letter from Bruno Schulz to Zenon Waśniewski dated June 23, 1934, [in:] Bruno Schulz, Dzieła zebrane, volume 5: Księga listów, zebrał i przygotował do druku Jerzy Ficowski, uzupełnił Stanisław Danecki, Gdańsk 2016, p. 71.
  • 3
    The meeting in Drohobych would never actually take place.
  • 4
    This plan would never be put into practice either. Zwiniacz, mentioned in the correspondence, is a village in the Czortków county. The distance from Drohobych to Zwiniacz is two and a half times longer than to Lviv. Waśniewski often spent holidays in Zwiniacz. His wife’s sister, Michalina Mysłowska (1899–1977), lived there with her family. Waśniewski often painted the local area, including the manor house in Zwiniacz. In a footnote to this letter, Jerzy Ficowski gives the erroneous information, “in his brother’s estate” (Bruno Schulz, op. cit., p. 354).
  • 5
    Ibid.
  • 6
    The course was supposed to start on July2. Schulz did not take part in it. “[...] I was refused admission on the eve of my departure”, he writes in a letter from August 28, 1934.
  • 7
    Ibid.