Stanisław Jerzy Dołżyk

“The Eighth Circle” is another cycle of paintings inspired by the legendary bard. It consists of compositions created to Kaczmarski’s song “Epitaph for Vladimir Vysotsky,” and to those of Vysotsky’s songs that Kaczmarski had in his repertoire.

On 10 April 2004, at around 6:30 p.m., Jacek Kaczmarski died in a hospital in Gdańsk — an outstanding poet and singer, author of some seven hundred poetic texts, five novels and an opera libretto; for many young people, a Master and a great authority.

He graduated in Polish philology from the University of Warsaw. He first came to public attention in 1976, when he won the Warsaw Song Fair. He worked with the “Pod Egidą” cabaret and co-founded the group “Piosenkariat.” The stage formula he remained faithful to all his life took shape in 1980, when together with Przemysław Gintrowski and Zbigniew Łapiński he presented the programme “Mury” (Walls) at Warsaw’s “Na rozdrożu” theatre. The programme — a closed cycle bound by a theme or set within the same set of issues — became Kaczmarski’s characteristic way of communicating with his audience. He wrote in a classical style, most often in syllabo-tonic verse, but broke with convention where irregularity matched the content of the poem.

After meeting Vysotsky in 1974 I understood that a song is not merely the skill of writing lyrics and composing music. It can be a way of expressing the deepest, most fundamental things. […] I think everything I wrote between 1974 and 1978 was under Vysotsky’s influence, both in its poetry and in the way it was performed.

His fascination with Vysotsky showed in translations of his songs, paraphrases and allusions, as well as in imitating his vocal expression and in a particular shaping of his artistic worldview.

Songs written after Vysotsky:

• Ze sceny / From the Stage (1977, after Песня певца у микрофона)
• Nie lubię / I Don’t Like (1976, after Я не люблю)
• Obława, Obława II / The Wolf Hunt I and II (1974 and 1983, after Охота на волков, Охота с вертолетов)
• Czołg / The Tank (1987, inspired by an idea Vysotsky noted in his diary)
• Linoskoczek / The Tightrope Walker (1982, inspired by Канатоходец, dedicated to Vysotsky)
• Koń wyścigowy / The Racehorse (1987, after Бег иноходца)
• Epitaph for Vladimir Vysotsky. Its two slower passages are a variation on his song Банки по-белому, keeping the original melody.

Translations of Vysotsky:

• Cios w cios (1974)
• Pada ciemność (1974)
• Wydarzenie w knajpie (1976)
• Siedzimy tu przez nieporozumienie (1973)
• Cud (1977)
• Piosenka o radości życia (1977)
• Góry (1974)
• Statki (1974)

Kaczmarski also dedicated one of his most famous works to Vysotsky — “Epitaph for Vladimir Vysotsky.”

— Anna Sobol