Bakos Katalin - Manicka Anna szerk.: Párbeszéd fekete-fehérben, Lengyel és magyar grafika 1918–1939 (MNG, Warszawa–Budapest, 2009)

I. PÁRBESZÉD FEKETE-FEHÉRBEN - Bakos Katalin, Anna Manicka: Valami történik közöttünk. Szubjektív előszó a Párbeszéd fekete-fehérben. Lengyel és magyar grafika

discussion for those born when we were. "Nado bylo gavarit' po russki" [Russian: "One had to speak Russian."] You also studied Polish, didn't you? KB: No, I didn't learn Polish, but it was never alien to me as I had learnt Russian. Russian was the first foreign language for me, and I was among the few who did not refuse to learn it as the majority did in protest against the imperialistic Soviet Union. As for me, I was interested in languages, in the primary school just as a game, without distinct aims. In the secondary school, too, it was no mere cramming because we had an excellent teacher who taught Russian as the language of wonderful writers, Pushkin, Lermontov, Yesenin, Tolstoy, Chekhov. Later I learnt German and English. It was good to be able to rely on a basic Slavic vocabulary when one of my first trips abroad took me to Prague. I speak English with you, but when I hear Poles speaking among themselves, I can understand a lot. One of the first words I learnt was "herbata"; for the Polish people tea is the cultic drink, like coffee in Hungary. Looking at a map or inscriptions I never tried to translate the words but kept tasting their flavour - provided that I could pronounce them. My favourites are Nowy Świat and Krakowskie Przedmieście leading to the Old Town, which radiate the atmosphere of the 19th century for me. Or the magnificent Łazienki park with the squirrels. The consonant clusters are impossible tongue-twisters for Hungarians. For example, the wonderful sound of the word meaning "book-shop" is quite unutterable for me. I never translate "mleczny bar" as milk bar into Hungarian because it would never mean the same. Krisztina acquainted me with these simple self-service restaurants where popular dishes of the Polish cuisine are served and which, to my greatest delight, survived the great political change. AM: What I can say in Hungarian is "köszönöm" [thank youj, "viszlát" [good bye], "bocsánat" [sorry] (which reminds me of the Polish bocian, the stork), and "kijárat" [exit] (so notices in the Budapest Underground. Looking for my way out I used to tell myself in Polish "kija rad by człowiek wziął na te tłumy" - "I could do with a stick to stick out the crowd"). Incidentally, your underground system is fantastic: you have three lines while Warsaw has only one, at that unfinished. I can also say "utca", the street... Do you know that in spite of the famous Polish saying that "with the drinking glass and the sword the Pole and the Hungarian are like two brothers' sons", I know very little about Hungary? KB: There are lots of similarities and points of contact in the history of the two countries. It's usually just a few mosaic fragments we remember of these relations at a time, but all of us have some familiar image of the other. We learnt about the role of Jagiełło kings in 14-16th century Hungarian history already in the primary school. Not everyone remembers the school curriculum, but all Hungarian tourists in Krakow visit Jadwiga's tomb in the Wawel, for Jadwiga - Hedvig - was the daughter of Louis the Great, king of Hungary, who married Vladislav I of the Jagiełło House. Many people regard it as a common trait of Polish and Hungarian history that both nations had to fight for independence several times. Hungarians know that Poland was divided between great powers for a long time, just as Hungary was cut into three parts during the Ottoman occupation (1541-1699). Fewer know that the territory of Poland deprived of liberty was shared by Austria, Russia and Prussia from 1 795 to 1918. The Warsaw Pact was also a tie between us. What it meant needs no explaining in either country: this military strategic agreement ratified the presence of Soviet forces in East-Central Europe. Later, after the great change, the Visegrád Conference initiated the idea of free cooperation among the now independent Central European countries liberated from the supremacy of the Soviet Union. AM: What I remember from my history classes is that Stephen Báthory Duke of Transylvania, King of Poland (1 533, r. 1576-83), was one the most eminent Polish elected kings. I remember that, having never learnt Polish, he used Latin to communicate with his subjects. His war against Moscow left the whole of Livonia under Polish rule, which must have checked Russian appetite and ambitions in the area. There is a painting by Matejko, Báthory at Pskov. Since Matejko painted "for the encouragement of the hearts", it must have been Russians whom Báthory was besieging there.