Julian Tuwim

Julian Tuwim (Łódź, 1894 – Zakopane, 1953) was a Polish poet of Jewish background and one of the central figures of Polish-language literature in the first half of the twentieth century. He co-founded the Skamander group, which reshaped Polish poetry after the country regained independence in 1918. His name is still tied to lyric poetry, children's verse and satire.

He was born in Congress Poland, then under Russian rule, into an assimilated middle-class Jewish family. His surname comes from the Hebrew word 'tovim', usually rendered as 'good ones'. He was educated in Łódź and then in Warsaw, where he began studying law and philosophy. In 1905 the family fled to Breslau (now Wrocław) because of his father's involvement in the revolution of that year. Tuwim's early poetry broke with the mannered style of the turn of the century. It celebrated vitality, optimism and city life in all its banality and crudeness, drawing on everyday speech, slang and poetic dialogue. Over time his tone grew restless and bitter, and his command of verse became virtuosic.

Tuwim was also a constant satirist. He wrote sketches and monologues for many cabarets and, in his articles and verse, mocked obscurantism, bureaucracy and militaristic nationalism. His burlesque poem The Ball at the Opera (1936) is generally regarded as his finest satirical work. He contributed for years to the magazine Wiadomości Literackie. After the German invasion of 1939 he emigrated through Romania to France, where he obtained a Portuguese visa. He later went on to Brazil and the United States, and stayed there until the war ended. In exile he wrote Polish Flowers, an epic poem in which he looks back with nostalgia on his childhood in Łódź. He returned to Poland in 1946, when the country was under communist rule, and published little during the Stalinist years. He died in Zakopane in 1953. Today he is remembered above all for his children's poetry, such as The Locomotive, translated into many languages, and for turning everyday speech into literary material.