“Ovid’s Old Age”: Jacek 
Kaczmarski and the Sung 
Poetry of Exile
Paweł Borowski and Henry Stead*
INTRODUCTION
Ovidian exile reverberates through European literature. First 
expressed in the Augustan poet’s own Tristia and Epistulae ex 
Ponto, the exilic tradition these works engendered has influenced 
the work of some of the most important Polish writers. These lite-
rary engagements have attracted sustained attention among Polish 
scholars, but they do not feature prominently in recent internati-
onal publications on the reception of Ovid’s exile.1 In an attempt 
to bridge these two strands of scholarship, we introduce Jacek 
Kacz marski (1957–2004), a contemporary Polish poet and musi-
cian, heavily influenced by Ovid and classical culture.2 In his 1987 
sung poem “Ovid’s Old Age” (“Starość Owidiusza”), Kaczmarski 
presents a musical and lyrical interpretation of the last days of Pu-
blius Ovidius Naso during his exile (43 bce–17 ce).3 In addition to 
1 For Polish studies, see Milewska-Waźbińska and Domański, Owidiusz: 
Twórczość – recepcja – legenda; and Bocheński, Nazo Poeta. For the most di-
verse collection of recent scholarship in English, see Ingleheart, Two Thousand 
Years of Solitude: Exile After Ovid.
2 Kaczmarski’s wide-ranging inspirations have been only partially discussed. 
Apart from his engagement with visual arts, especially early modern Euro-
pean painting (cf. n. 22), he is also famous for drawing upon Russian poetry 
and literature, see “Wyśpiewać Rosję, przeczekać sowiety – Rosja w twórczości 
Jacka Kaczmarskiego,” available online.
3 Zbigniew Herbert’s “Dlaczego klasycy” is perhaps the best known contemporary 
Polish poetic engagement with the classical exilic tradition. This poem is briefly di-
scussed in Milewska-Waźbińska Barbara, “Exulowie wszystkich czasów,” 421–427.
* University of St Andrews, School of Classics, Swallowgate, Butts Wynd, St 
Andrews ky16 9al, uk; pb86@st-andrews.ac.uk, has22@st-andrews.ac.uk.
doi: https://doi.org/10.4312/clotho.2.2.5-38
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 76
providing an English translation of this poem (below), our paper 
will illustrate how Kaczmarski’s artistic response to Ovid and his 
exilic experience can be read both as a deeply personal poem and 
as part of a more universal and complex interplay between Polish 
art of the socialist era and classical anti quity.4 Ovidian exile plays 
a central role in Kaczmarski’s depiction of the political and cul-
tural displacement of Polish emigrants in the 1980s.5 “Ovid’s Old 
Age” is one of almost two dozen sung poems in which Kaczmarski 
responds to classical antiquity. Therefore, in our analysis, we shall 
also attend to Kaczmarski’s relationship to antiquity more broadly 
and attempt to reveal how classical history, myth, and literature 
informed Polish poetry during the socialist era.6
“Ovid’s Old Age” was written and released in 1987 on an al-
bum called Kosmopolak, recorded in Munich.7 Kaczmarski had 
been on tour in France in December 1981, when martial law was 
announced in Poland after a long period of anti-communist 
 strikes and protests. During this period of martial law (1981–
4 For more on the relationship between the Greek and Roman classics and com-
munism, see Karsai et al., Classics and Communism; Movrin and Olechowska, 
Classics and Class, and Movrin and Olechowska, Classics and Communism 
in Theatre. For more on specifically Polish communist classics, see Elżbieta 
Olechowska’s Classical Antiquity on Communist Stage in Poland. For British 
communist classics both inside and outside the academy, see Hall and Stead,  
A People’s History of Classics, 476–495 and 514–531. For early Soviet recep-
tions of classical antiquity, see Stead and Paulouskaya, “Classics, crisis and 
the So viet experiment”; and for a growing digital archive of the intersections 
between classics and world communism, see the collaborative research project 
Brave New Classics, available online.
5 This paper in part builds on work by Milewska-Waźbińska, whose article 
about Polish poets exiles, especially Kaczmarski, establishes some of the key 
points of reference between Ovid’s work and “Ovid’s Old Age,” which are 
noted throughout the text.
6 “Powtórka z Odyseji,” “Przybycie Tytanów,” “Starość Tezeusza,” “Wykopali-
ska,” “Upadek Imperium Lekcja Historii Klasycznej,” “Kasandra,” “Pompeje,” 
“Pompeja Lunapar,” “Przechadzka z Orfeuszem,” “Kołysanka dla Kleopat-
ry,” “Lament Tytana,” “Młody Bacchus,” “Oliwo Wino i Czas,” “Petroniusz 
Bredzi,” “Meldunek,” “Lot Ikara,” “Upadek Ikara.” Additionally, there is also 
a number of songs responding to the biblical tradition: “Hiob,” “Kara Baraba-
sza,” “Wieża Babel,” “Arka Noego,” “Wygnanie z Raju,” “Strącenie Aniołow,” 
“Przejście Polaków przez Morze Czerwone,” “Sara.”
7 See the memoirs of directors of the music label Pomaton, which later acquired 
the rights to all of Kaczmarski’s musical output, on the website www.kaczmar-
ski.art.pl.
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 76
1983), ten thousand people were imprisoned in internment cen-
ters across the country, and the immediate impact on cultural 
activity was devastating.8 Polish creative practitioners and the 
general public observed a year-long boycott from television and 
radio, taken over by the military. Literature and performances 
continued to be monitored and were subject to censorship. At the 
time, Kaczmarski was heralded by many as the bard of the oppo-
sitionist movement, which made it unsafe for him to return to 
his country, where the state’s control and potential repercussions 
by the socialist regime would have severely affected his personal 
and artistic life. Instead, he became brief ly involved in politi-
cal activism in France and toured intensively. He spent most of 
the 1980s in Munich working for Radio Free Europe and trave-
ling around the globe, giving concerts to Polish minorities.9 Six 
 years into his emigration, Kaczmarski began work on Kosmopo-
lak, which in addition to “Ovid’s Old Age” contained “The Last 
Days of Norwid” (“Ostatnie Dni Norwida”), in which he explored 
another figure of the displaced artist, in this case, the Polish poet 
Cyprian Norwid (1821–1883).10
Ovid was one of the most famous Roman poets whose popu-
larity in Rome was well established before his exile to Tomis, a 
Greek colony on the Black Sea. Trained in rhetorical studies and 
having performed some minor judicial posts as a Roman eques-
trian, Ovid abandoned public service. He gained cultural promi-
nence with such works as Ars Amatoria and Metamorphoses, but 
was banished by Augustus in 8 ce in uncertain circumstances. 
Certainly, a carmen [poem] was one reason for the exile.11 The 
other was an unspecified error – perhaps some involvement in 
one of the imperial household scandals. Ovid was never pardo-
ned and died in his exile.12 In any case, the shape of Ovid’s fate 
8 Olechowska, Classical Antiquity on Communist Stage, 72–4 and 106.
9 Gajda, Jacek Kaczmarski, 140–192. Cf. also Kozioł, “Jacek Kaczmarski,” on 
culture.pl.
10 Kaczmarski talked about his interests in the cultural displacement and a 
general sense of estrangement in relation to also other poems, such as “Opo-
wieść Pewnego Imigranta” or “Ostatnie Dni Norwida” in an interview with 
Jolanta Piątek, “Za dużo czerwonego,” Radio Wrocław, published in Odra in 
2001–2002.
11 Ingleheart, Introduction, 4–5 convincingly suggests that Ovid’s Ars Amatoria 
caused offense to Augustus and his anti-adultery program of reforms.
12 For a detailed account of Ovid’s life and his exile, see Ingleheart, Introduction, 
1–5 with notes. Cf. Hinds, “Ovid,” in ocd.
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 98
particularly attracted Kaczmarski, and the young poet saw many 
parallels to his own experiences.
Kaczmarski’s relationship with Ovid and the Ovidian exilic 
tradition was formed through direct and indirect literary inter-
actions with antiquity. Despite the now well-documented ac count 
of the plight of the traditional classical education behind the Iron 
Curtain,13 as a well-educated and avid reader, Kaczmarski would 
have been exposed to Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Ars Amatoria, 
which were typical essential reading for a 1970s Polish undergra-
duate.14 Since he wrote his master’s thesis on the Polish Enlight-
enment, he must also have been familiar with the classicism as-
sociated with that period.15 However, at school, he only learned 
the basics of Latin, which means that he depended on vernacular 
translations for his classical reading.16 The most readily availa-
ble Polish translations of Ovid in the late 1970s and 1980s were 
Przemiany [Metamorphoses] by Jan Michalewski from 1932, Me-
tamorfozy czyli Przemiany [Metamorphoses, or Transformations] 
by Bruno Kiciński from 1826/43 (reprinted in 1953),  and Owide-
go Nazona, Wiersze na wygnaniu pisane to jest Rzeczy smutne, 
Klątwa na Ibisa, Listy z Pontu (includes Tristia, Epistulae ex Pon-
to and Ibis) by Przybylski from 1802, which was reprinted, revisi-
ted and complemented by later poets and classicists through out 
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.17 
Kaczmarski also read Naso the Poet (Nazo Poeta), a fictional 
account of Ovid’s life written by Jacek Bocheński (b. 1926) in an 
Aesopian language and published in 1969 as the second volume in 
a series that was highly popular among Kaczmarski’s intellectual 
13 See Movrin and Olechowska, Classics and Class, and Karsai et al., Classics and 
Communism, passim.
14 Based on the information provided in an email exchange with Kaczmar-
ski’s biographer, Dr. Krzysztof Gajda. See also Gajda, Jacek Kaczmarski, 
76–80.
15 Lorentz and Rottermund, Klasycyzm w Polsce, 6–41; Axer, “Central‐Eastern 
Europe,” 132–155, esp. 148–50; cf. Torlone et al., Handbook to Classical Recep-
tion in Eastern and Central Europe, 162–164, note the mention of Kaczmarski 
as one of the post-war poets using classical myth and history to comment on 
violence of the communist era.
16 Note, however, that when commenting on his poem about Caesar’s conquests 
of Gaul, Kaczmarski referred directly to the “cold” tone of Caesar’s writings in 
Latin, see the second interview in a series “Za dużo czerwonego.”
17 For the complex history of these translations, see Witczak, “Polskie tłumacze-
nia ‘Tristiów’ Owidiusza,” 139–153.
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 98
circles.18 In Bocheński’s book, where Augustus is modeled on the 
Polish communist leader, Gomułka, and Ovid is a rock star,19 the 
author accentuates the conf lict between emperor and poet, bra-
vely drawing analogies to the soviet apparatus of the secret police 
and questioning the role of poetry in an autocratic system.20 Ka-
czmarski’s depiction of Ovid’s exile also draws on these themes. 
Bocheński’s work was a crucial mediating reception and one in 
which Kaczmarski surely found parallels with his role as a politi-
cally engaged creator of sung poetry. Especially important for the 
interpretation of Ovid’s nostalgia for Rome in “Ovid’s Old Age” 
is Augustus’ notion in “Naso the Poet” that poets are responsible 
for praising their (communist) country, that this is their civic 
duty. Kaczmarski’s Ovid praises Rome but not because he feels 
an obligation, but because he misses it so terribly that the image 
of his home becomes idealized. But more on that later. 
One can also detect notes of Eugène Delacroix, Ovide chez les 
Scythès (1859), in Kaczmarski’s creative palette. Delacroix por-
trays the Roman poet in a rustic, almost underdeveloped setting, 
which, as we shall see, resonates with Kaczmarski’s Ovid.21 
18 On Bocheński, see Marciniak, “Veni, Vidi, Verti,” 357–388; Ziolkowski, 
Ovid and the Moderns, 159–163. Kaczmarski might have also accessed an-
other fictionalised story of Ovid written in French by Vintilă Horia (Dieu 
est né en exil), but Kaczmarski’s biographer has not found any evidence to 
prove it (based on private correspondence with Dr. Krzystof Gajda).
19 For Bocheński’s own account see Marciniak, Veni, Vidi, Verti, 377–378.
20 Deleixhe, “Powieść historyczna pod czujnym okiem cenzora – analiza 
tekstów.”
21 For Kaczmarski’s inspirations drawn from European paintings and draw-
ings, see Grabska and Wasilewska, Lekcja historii Jacka Kaczmarskiego, 
2011. Kaczmarski’s education in painting analysis was part of the training he 
received at Warsaw University and from his parents, professional artists; see 
Gajda, Jacek Kaczmarski, 81–3. Cf. “Za dużo czerwonego,” part 3, in relation to 
the paintings of Jacek Malczewski. Among paintings depicting ancient themes 
that are attested as sources of inspiration for Kaczmarski’s poetry is Caravag-
gio’s Young Sick Bacchus, which became “Młody Bacchus,” see Gajda, Jacek 
Kaczmarski, 66. In the context of Ovid, it is possible that Kaczmarski knew or 
saw the famous painting Ovide chez les Scythes by Eugène Delacroix either in 
the National Gallery London or during an exhibition in Zurich in Kunsthaus 
05/06/1987 – 23/08/1987 (05/06/1987 – 23/08/1987) and was at least partly react-
ing to its depiction of Ovid. 
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 1110
Kaczmarski found in Ovid’s figure the inspiration to express his per-
sonal experience and comment more generally on the condition of 
the émigré. The Roman poet’s exilic experience – the central theme 
of the poem – plays a fundamental role in Kaczmarski’s processing 
of his position as an émigré poet. Kaczmarski mythologizes himself 
by identifying his exilic experience with the situation of the lyrical 
subject of his poem. He embodies Ovid as an archetypal figure of 
suffering to understand and ease the pain of his politically forced 
emigration.22 He admitted as much in an interview and claimed 
that he sought consolation for his difficulties exploring the Ovidian 
myth.23 This concrete personal interest in Ovid allows Kaczmarski 
to investigate other important and more universal themes in “Ovid’s 
Old Age”: landscape, imperialism, displacement, “national” poets in 
exile, nostalgia, and the force of poetry. 
In many respects, Kaczmarski’s response to Ovid as an exiled 
figure confirms the key observations made by Ingleheart (2011) about 
the potency of the Ovidian myth as being “uniquely susceptible to 
being adapted to a wide range of aesthetic, intellectual, and political 
22 On self-construction in responses to the Ovidian exile and its myth, see Ingle-
heart, “Introduction,” 8, 19, and Dellner, “Children of the Island,” 223–237, who 
analyses Eavan Boland’s search for consolation in Ovid.
23 See “Za dużo czerwonego,” part 3, quoted after www.kaczmarski.art.pl. 
Among Kaczmarski’s difficulties in this period was alcoholism, which he 
confesses in the interview. Cf. Gajda, Jacek Kaczmarski, 189–191, 213–217.
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 1110
agendas.”24 Kaczmarski comments on a wide range of issues from 
the perspective of a composite lyrical subject, which can be mainly 
identified with the mythical Ovid as imagined by Kaczmarski. He 
dramatizes Ovid’s dislocation and emphasizes the sorrow caused by 
exile. He creates his distinct vision of Ovid’s exile that is profoundly 
shaped by his own political and personal context where the problems 
of poetic creativity, linguistic isolation, and cultural estrangement 
became especially acute.25 The blurring of ancient and modern time-
lines in the depiction of Ovid allows Kaczmarski to comment on 
displacement, the role of poetry, and personal tragedy in the shadow 
of Soviet and Augustan imperialism. Finally, in the context of the 
artistic project, Kosmopolak, for which the poem was produced, we 
can interpret Kaczmarski’s use of Graeco-Roman literary tradition 
as an attempt to remind his audience that the Polish people, though 
under Soviet oppression and with its own distinct national culture, 
were also still part of European culture.
The following section offers a thematic analysis of “Ovid’s Old 
Age,” which interprets the contextual and universal importance of 
the poem and serves as an introduction into a broader discussion 
on Kaczmarski’s relationship with the classical world. There are 
obvious stylistic and biographical parallels between Ovid and Ka-
czmarski; they were both deeply self-reflective, exiled from their 
native land, and had expansive artistic ambitions. Besides, they 
both suffered from confrontation with oppressive autocratic re-
gimes that marked their artistic creation. Such parallels explain 
Kaczmarski’s initial attraction to Ovid’s poetry, but the notori-
ously learned Polish  poet’s engagement with the classical world 
extended beyond Ovid. His poems and songs betray a long-lived 
passion for Greek and Roman antiquity, which he encountered pre-
dominantly through translated literature and the visual arts. As 
“Ovid’s Old Age” illustrates, his poems transcend the personal, 
intimate level and elevate the figures’ concerns to a more abstract, 
social, even universal level.26
24 Ingleheart, “Introduction,” 9.
25 “Ovid’s Old Age” also confirms that “the exiled Ovid appears to be particu-
larly ‘good to think with’ in times marked by autocratic regimes,” Ingleheart, 
“Introduction,” 16. 
26 Polish original text from www.kaczmarski.art.pl. Translation by Paweł Bo-
rowski. The divisions every four lines reflect the rhythm and cadences of the 
poem in a sung form.
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 1312
i.
1. Cóż, że pięknie, gdy obco – kiedyś tu będzie Rumunia
2. Obmywana przez fale morza, co stanie się Czarne.
3. Barbarzyńcy w kożuchach zmienią się w naród ambitny,
4. Pod Kolumną Trajana zajmując się drobnym handlem.
ii.
5. Umrę, patrząc z tęsknotą na niedostrzegalne szczyty
6. Siedmiu wzgórz, które człowiek zamienił w Wieczne Miasto,
7. Skąd przez kraje podbite, z rąk do rąk – niepiśmiennych
8. Iść będzie i nie dojdzie pismo Augusta z łaską.
iii.
9. Nie ma tu z kim rozmawiać, zwój wierszy wart każdej ceny.
10. Ciała kobiet ciekawych brane pośpiesznie, bez kunsztu
11. I bez szeptów bezwiednych – chłoną nie dając nic w zamian 
12. Białe nasienie Imperium w owcą pachnącym łóżku.
iv.
13. Z dala od dworu i tłumu – cóż to za cena wygnania?
14. Mówiłem wszak sam – nad poezją władza nie może mieć władzy.
15. Cyrku w pustelnię zamiana spokój jednak odbiera,
16. Bo pyszniej drażnić Cesarza, niż kupcom za opał kadzić.
v.
17. Rzymu mego kolumny! Wróg z murów was powydziera
18. I tylko we mnie zostanie czysty wasz grecki rodowód!
19. Na nim jednym się wspieram tu, gdzie nie wiedzą – co Grecja
20. Z szacunkiem śmiejąc się z czci, jaką oddaję słowu.
vi.
21. Sen, jedzenie, gra w kości do bólu w schylonych plecach,
22. Wiersz od ręki pisany dla tych, którym starczy – co mają.
23. Piękna tu nikt nie obieca, za piękno płaci się złotem.
24. Pojąłem, tworząc tu, jak z Ariadny [sic] powstaje pająk:
vii.
25. Na pajęczynie wyrazów – barwy, zapachy i dotyk,
26. Łąki, pałace i ludzie – drżący Rzym mojej duszy –
27. Geometria pamięci przodków wyzbyta brzydoty,
28. Zwierciadło żywej harmonii diamentowych okruszyn.
viii.
29. Stoją nade mną tubylcy pachnący czosnkiem i czuję,
30. Jak zmieniam się w list do Stolicy, który nikogo nie wzrusza.
31. Kiedyś tu będzie Rumunia, Morze – już Czarne – faluje
32. I glebą pieśni się staje ciało i świat Owidiusza. 
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 1312
i.
1. So much for pretty, when it’s alien – one day it’ll be Romania  
2. Washed by the waves of a sea that will become “Black.” 
3. Barbarians in sheepskins will form an ambitious nation,
4. Under Trajan’s Column conducting petty transactions. 
 
ii.
5. I will die looking out, yearning for the out-of-sight summits 
6. Of the Seven Hills, which Man transformed into the Eternal City,
7. From where, through conquered lands, passing from hand to illiterate hand, 
8. Augustus’ letter of pardon, always coming, will never arrive. 
 
iii.
9.  No one to speak to here; a scroll of poems worth any price.  
10. Bodies of curious women dealt with fast, with no art, 
11. And no spontaneous gasps – they absorb but give nothing back, 
12. The Empire’s white seed in a bed that smells of sheep.
 
iv.
13. Far from the court and crowd – what a price to pay for exile? 
14. After all, I used myself to say: over poetry Power shall have no power.  
15. Yet, the switch from Circus to hermit’s cave steals peace of mind, 
16. For riling Caesar sits better than adulating fuel merchants. 
 
v. 
17. My Rome’s columns! From the walls, the enemy will tear you 
18 And I will remain the sole guardian of your pure Greek lineage!  
19. It is my only consolation, here where they are ignorant of Greece,  
20. Laughing politely at my reverence for the word. 
 
vi. 
21. Sleep, food, dice, till my bowed back hurts, 
22. A handwritten poem for those to whom it suffices what they possess.  
23. No one will promise beauty here, beauty is paid for in gold.  
24. Writing here, I understand how from Ariadne [sic] came a spider: 
 
vii. 
25. On the web of words – colors, odors, and touch,  
26. Meadows, palaces and people – trembling Rome of my soul,  
27. Free from ugliness the geometry of our ancestors’ memory, 
28. A mirror of the living harmony of diamond particles. 
 
viii. 
29. The natives stand over me stinking of garlic – and I feel  
30. How I transform myself into a letter to the Capital that doesn’t move anyone.  
31. Someday this will be Romania, the Sea already breaking Black, 
32. And into the song’s soil is turned the body and world of Ovid.
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 1514
TRANSFORMATIONS
The poem’s central stylistic theme of transformation alludes to 
Ovid’s grand-oeuvre, the Metamorphoses, where mythical charac-
ters are regularly changed or transformed.27 In this way, Kaczmarski 
creates an “Ovidian” feel to the poem. His artistic engagement with 
the theme is also explicitly attested in another poem interacting with 
Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Ars Amatoria: the ironic portrayal of a 
female accountant in “Metamorfozy Sentymentalne” (“Sentimental 
Metamorphoses”). But more importantly, he uses the language of 
transformation to underscore the volatile nature of exile and, by 
proxy, of human existence under autocratic regimes more generally. 
The instances of transformations discussed in more detail in indi-
vidual sections are not merely decorative but also convey an impor-
tant message: the world under autocrats is continuously in flux. The 
poets have to adapt, even when their exile makes everything even 
less predictable.
The opening and closing lines anticipate profound changes in the 
exilic landscapes. Scythia will become Romania (1, 31), Pontos will 
become the Black Sea (2, 31), the barbarians will develop into an am-
bitious nation (3), and even the “Eternal City” of Rome will continue 
to change after Ovid’s death, with the addition of Trajan’s column 
(4) and, eventually, the enemy’s dismantling of the walls (17), sym-
bolizing the city’s fall. The very moment of banishment is commu-
nicated through a “transformation” of the Circus (Maximus), frequ-
ented and described by Ovid,28 into a hermit’s cave, or “hermitage,” 
to which he was reduced in exile (15). There is a certain irony to this 
transformation because, as noted above, initially, the poet welcomes 
it as liberating, only to discover later that it comes with a significant 
drawback – political and cultural displacement. Ovid’s world is the-
refore unpredictable, and a poet under an autocratic regime cannot 
fully predict how his circumstances will really change. The nature of 
poetry is also changing. The metaphor of Arachne turning into a spi-
der and weaving webs of words (24–5) evokes cultural displacement 
but also a heightened sense of poetic sensibility fuelled by nostalgia. 
Ovid himself – who produced so many accounts of the transforma-
tions of others in Metamorphoses – is being changed too through 
27 This deliberate stylistic choice confirms that Kaczmarski must have had good 
knowledge of Ovid’s writings. Cf. possible reference by Kaczmarski to Ex 
Ponto, in Milewska-Waźbińska, “Exulowie wszystkich czasów,” 167–8.
28 Esp. Ars Amatoria 1.135 and Amores 3.
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 1514
his exilic condition. His despair reduces him to a letter begging for 
pardon (30). Finally, the (dead) body and the world of Ovid – both 
the products of exile – turn into a fertile soil that will inspire future 
poetry and consolation for generations of poets émigrés to come.
 
LANDSCAPE, SPACE AND TIME
The opening and closing lines of the poem (1–2 and 31–2) set Roma-
nia and the Black Sea as the poem’s main stage. The first line stresses 
the dichotomy between natural beauty (“cóż, że pięknie” – lit. “so 
what if pretty”) and displacement of the lyrical subject (“gdy obco” 
– “and yet foreign”). It also introduces one of the main themes of the 
poem, the sense of alienation and estrangement.29 In lines 1–2, the 
lyrical subject anticipates the change of the Dobruja region, coloni-
zed as Moesia by the Romans in the 1st c. bce, to a modern nation-
-state (“kiedyś tu będzie Rumunia” – “one day it will be Romania”) 
and of the sea’s name from Pontos to the Black Sea (“morza, co stanie 
się Czarne” – “sea that will become ‘Black’”). In lines 3–4, he pre dicts 
that the ancient inhabitants of Romania will form an “ambitious na-
tion.” Kaczmarski thus imposes his modern knowledge on the anci-
ent context of Ovid’s exile to blur the distinction between past and 
present, lyrical fiction, and historical reality.30 The passage of time 
throughout the poem is especially evident in the closing lines (31) 
where the sea is already Black (“Morze – już Czarne – faluje” – “The 
Sea already breaking Black”), indicating the transition from Ovid’s 
ancient to Kaczmarski’s contemporary geography.
The blurring of geographical and temporal boundaries empha-
sizes the universality of the experiences explored in the poem and 
their applicability to Kaczmarski’s circumstances. The lyrical sub-
ject embodies Ovid, who uses first-person verbs (5: “umrę” – “I will 
die”) to describe the exilic experience. It is perhaps also the voice 
of Kaczmarski embodying the Ovidian figure. The precision of the 
29 For Kaczmarski the exile was not limited to one concrete space, but similarly 
to Ovid longing for Rome, his object of nostalgia was the center of his native 
culture and language, Warsaw.
30 For the fictional blend of lyrical and historical character of the poem and the 
multifaceted character of the lyrical subject. Cf. Milewska-Waźbińska, “Exu-
lowie wszystkich czasów,” 167: “Słowa te są sygnałem historyczno- literackiej 
fkcji, którą buduje w wierszu. Historia miesza się tu ze współczesnością, 
literatura z faktem, fikcja z rzeczywistością.”
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 1716
word “umrę” foreshadows Ovid’s death with a certainty that only 
the contemporary author and audience can have. Ovid himself is 
left helplessly hoping for the emperor’s pardon until the end of his 
days (7–8). Such word choice creates a sense of intimacy between 
the audience and the lyrical subject, and between Kaczmarski in the 
present and Ovid’s figure in the past.31 The depiction of the setting 
 where Ovid spends his last days does not aim, therefore, for a faith-
ful reconstruction of historical geography and reveals that Kaczmar-
ski is not interested in the historical figure of Ovid per se. His poem 
focuses instead on a mythical figure of an exiled poet whose fate can 
resonate across time and space and help Kaczmarski understand his 
own political emigration experiences. This timeless rusticity chimes 
with Delocroix’s mythic scene.
The landscape also features prominently as a barrier that esta-
blishes the distance between the lyrical subject and the object of his 
nostalgia. Lines 5–8 situate Ovid helplessly awaiting a pardon letter 
from Augustus as an old man isolated from his intellectual circles. 
There is tragedy in the fact that the great Roman poet is confined 
to a distant country looking with longing for Rome but unable to 
culturally interact with it anymore. The sense of displacement is 
powerfully conveyed by the geographical distance between the eter-
nal urbs (Rome) founded on seven hills that are invisible from Ovid’s 
location, which is surrounded by a very different type of landscape, 
the sea (5–6). The contrasting depiction of the “familiar” hills versus 
the “vast and unknown” sea can reflect the lyrical subject’s sense of 
angst and can also serve to heighten his sense of isolation from the 
known and intelligible world.32 Kaczmarski does not qualify these 
landscapes so explicitly, but his depiction of Ovid’s suffering is built 
upon the profound dichotomy of the uncouth world in which the 
ancient poet found himself and the cultured world to which he used 
to belong. 
The vast space isolating Ovid from his home underlies the hope-
lessness of his position. The image of doomed hope is conveyed by 
lines 7–8 that protractedly describe Ovid awaiting the imperial par-
don to end his exile. Neither we nor Kaczmarski can know whether 
31 Cf. Ingleheart, “Introduction,” 6–7.
32 For the creation of “civilized” and “barbaric” literary spaces in works respon-
ding to Ovidian exile, see Ingleheart, “Introduction,” 17–18, and Michalopou-
los, “The Love-Artist,” 265. For an example of textual analysis of the Black Sea 
as a “threatening” landscape that heightens a sense of isolation in Iphigenia 
among the Taurians by Euripides, see Bray, Interrogating Liminality, 52–71.
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 1716
such a letter was ever sent, but Ovid’s hope is evoked by the image 
of a pardon letter, passed from hand to hand, but never arriving. 
The phrase “z rąk do rąk – niepiśmiennych. Iść będzie i nie dojdzie 
pismo” (“from where, through conquered lands, passing from hand 
to illiterate hand, / Augustus’ letter of pardon, always coming, will 
never arrive”) delays the delivery by using the future continuous 
tense (“iść będzie” – “it will be arriving”) which stretches time and 
reflects Ovid’s never-ending wait.33 The same phrase also manipu-
lates space. The distance between the seven hills of Rome, invisible 
from Romania, and the Black Sea, feels especially impassable and 
impenetrable for a pardoning letter because none of its handlers are 
literate enough to realize its cultural importance. The image of a 
letter coming from Rome to Tomis through illiterate hands depicts 
an axis of culture and civilization, with Rome at the epicenter, and 
Ovid in Scythia, at the farthest outskirts of the known world.34 The 
conquered lands filled with illiterate peoples evoke the empire’s scale 
and contrast with Ovid, whose personal culture and independence 
doom him to be utterly lost and hopeless in the face of the limitless, 
unintelligible, and utterly alien space that separates him from home. 
His transformation into the letter lost in the middle of that unboun-
ded space compounds this sense of isolation. One can see in Ovid’s 
desperate hoping against all the odds a reflection of Kaczmarski’s 
own exilic experiences. To  Kaczmarski in 1987, there seemed little 
chance in socialist Poland for the political change that would allow 
him to return to his country.35
 
IMPERIALISM 
Lines 3–4 evoke the transformation of the barbarians wearing sheep-
skins into an ambitious nation, trading under Trajan’s column. The 
juxtaposition of the nation’s ambition with their disparaging econo-
mic activity (“drobny handel” – lit. “small-scale business”) signals 
skepticism or even irony towards the inferior position ascribed to 
33 We have attempted to render this effect by using the present participle, which 
felt more natural in English.
34 For a literary polarisation of Tomis and Rome as an essential element of 
responses to the Ovidian exile, see Ingleheart, “Introduction,” 17–18.
35 “Za dużo czerwonego,” part 2: “To był 1987 rok, taki okres ciszy przed burzą, 
wydawało się, że już naprawdę nic z tego nie będzie, tylko żałoba, pleśń i 
rozkład.”
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 1918
the provincials within the scheme of the empire. The barbarians do 
not become cultured men in Rome but are reduced to small traders 
under Roman rule. The transition is evoked by Trajan’s co lumn, 
 which depicts the conquest and exploitation of Dacia (a  region 
neigh boring Moesia Inferior, where Ovid was in exile) almost a hun-
dred years after Ovid’s death. The evocation of Trajan’s column fore-
shadows military coercion through which the peoples inhabiting the 
coast of the Black Sea will be forcefully incorporated into the empi-
re.36 The notion of the Roman conquest of lands between Rome and 
Tomis is also expressed in line 7 (“przez kraje podbite” –  “through 
conquered lands”). All these references to the military character 
of the Roman empire can be interpreted as Kaczmarski’s ironic 
commentary on imperialism and colonial exploitation that elevates 
him above Ovid’s imperialistic perception of the local people. Here, 
Kaczmarski’s Ovid presents the perspective of rulers, which consi-
ders Romans and their culture as superior to the people living in the 
peripheries of the empire, far away from its center, Rome. 
While setting the stage for Ovid’s suffering and longing for his 
home, Kaczmarski conveys his critical stance towards seemingly be-
neficial aspects of living in an empire, reminding us that the gravi-
tational pull of its capital was founded on brutal military conquest. 
His view is undoubtedly informed by contemporary experiences and 
perceptions of economic emigration in socialist Poland, and in the 
Eastern Block more generally, where many every-day commodities 
had to be procured through small-scale trade, often abroad.37 The 
economic difficulties of ancient and modern “provincials” living in 
the shadow of imperialism are related to Kaczmarski’s sensitivity 
to the question of imperialism in antiquity and in modern times.38 
36 The region was secured permanently by Roman force in 29 bce (Liv. Per. 
135, Cassius Dio 51.23–6, Florus 2.26, 13–16, Zonaras 10.32). For the historical 
background of the Black Sea region before and during Roman conquest, see 
Musielak, Społeczeństwo greckich miast zachodnich wybrzeży Morza Czarnego; 
for the overview of the province of Moesia, encompassing Tomis, where Ovid 
was exiled, see Cary and Wilkes, “Moesia,” in ocd.
37 Krywult-Albańska, Przyczyny i okoliczności emigracji z Polski w latach 1980 na 
przykładzie emigracji do Kanady, 3–5; Kornai, Niedobór w gospodarce; Staniszkis, 
Patologie struktur organizacyjnych (próba podejścia systemowego); Górny and 
Stola, “Akumulacja i wykorzystanie migracyjnego kapitału społecznego,” 98.
38 Kaczmarski later differentiated between Soviet imperialism the conquests 
of Alexander the Great or Caesar. He found the former more contemptible 
than the latter, which he partly justified as a civilizing mission. See “Za dużo 
czerwonego,” part 2.
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 1918
His ironic depictions of historical figures and events can be found 
in several other sung poems and serve as a bitter commentary on 
the nature of imperialism, military power struggles, and colonial 
conquests.39 In this poem, it is the image of the descendants of the 
Getae and Scythians who trade in the literal shadow of Roman im-
perialism, cast by Trajan’s column. From this perspective, Kaczmar-
ski’s response to Ovid can be seen as part of a more general trend to 
treat Ovid’s figure as an occasion to discuss or critique the repressive 
nature of twentieth-century regimes.40
 
CULTURAL DISPLACEMENT
As was the case of another 1.3 million Polish people, Kaczmarski lived 
as an émigré in the 1980s and could not come back to the count-
ry without fear of political repression.41 In 1987, when he composed 
“Ovid’s Old Age,” he had already been “displaced” for six years, living 
first in Paris, then in Munich.42 During this time, as an artist creating 
in his native tongue, he must have particularly suffered from cultural 
and linguistic isolation.43 Kaczmarski thus purposefully reconstructs 
the emotional state of the exiled Ovid, longing for Rome and hoping 
for his exile to end, to understand his own situation and experiences. 
In his 2001 interview with Jolanta Piątek, he admitted that he used 
his source material depending on his own need and context: “partly 
to improve my frame of mind, partly as an attempt to understand the 
nature of exile – in the case of Ovid, it was political exile.”44 
39 E.g., “Jałta,” “Sen Katarzyny ii,” “Historia Lekcji Klasycznej,” “Kniazia Jaremy 
Nawrócenie.”
40 Ingleheart, “Introduction,” 15–16.
41 For Polish emigration in this period, see Krywult-Albańska, Przyczyny i 
okoliczności emigracji z Polski, and Pleskot, “Polish Political Emigration in the 
1980s,” 49–64.
42 Gajda, Jacek Kaczmarski, 148: in Paris, Kaczmarski had relatively comfortable 
living standards compared to most political émigrés.
43 For the very Polish character of Kaczmarski’s poetry and its reception by fo-
reign poets and friends, see Gajda, Jacek Kaczmarski, 154. However, Kaczmar-
ski had a large audience abroad, especially in France, where generations of 
immigrants produced a large minority of Polish speakers, see Gajda, Jacek 
Kaczmarski, 157.
44 Interview “Za dużo czerwonego” was conducted in Radio Wrocław in 2001 
and published in Odra. Retrieved from www.kaczmarski.art.pl and translated.
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 2120
The four lines depicting isolated Ovid in Tomis illustrate how 
Kaczmarski’s exilic experiences found their expression in the figure 
from antiquity. The renowned poet Ovid has no one to talk to (9: 
“Nie ma tu z kim rozmawiać” – “No one to speak with here”) and 
suffers from a lack of artistic stimulation in a place where poetry is 
so rare that any script becomes priceless (“zwój wierszy wart każdej 
ceny” – “scroll of poems worth any price”). Among the sheepskin 
wearing barbarians (3) who smell of garlic (29), Ovid is wholly iso-
lated from the high culture in which he participated in Rome. Ka-
czmarski himself was obviously also partially culturally separated 
from the artistic activities in Poland, but his “exile” allowed him 
to participate in Polish cultural activities abroad, for example, to 
meet some of the most renowned Polish actors and filmmakers.45 
Nonetheless, since Kaczmarski’s own literacy and poetic prowess 
were rooted in his native language, the foreign people surrounding 
him might have seemed as illiterate as Ovid’s Scythian compa-
nions who knew no Latin and were “ignorant of Greece” (19). These 
 unusual circumstances for an artist prompted Kaczmarski to align 
himself with Ovid’s artistic fate and depict him as linguistically 
displaced.
The solemn tone of 19–20 underscores Ovid’s expression of 
discontentment with his cultural displacement. The lyrical subject 
seeks solace in the Graeco-Roman culture that permeates his poetry, 
which proves to be the only reliable source of “support” during his 
exile (19: “na nim jednym się wspieram” – “It (the lineage) is my sole 
consolation”). During exile, cultural identity becomes much more 
important than anything else. The significance of the cultural he-
ritage cherished by Ovid is contrasted with the supposed ignorance 
of people who ridicule his reverence for poetry (20: “śmiejąc się z 
czci, jaką oddaję słowu” – “laughing politely at my reverence for the 
word”). These lines are full of bitter irony and resemble Ovid’s ex-
pression of frustration with the Getae laughing at his use of the Latin 
language (Ov. Trist. 5.10.38).46
It is important to note that Kaczmarski changes the emphasis 
slightly in this image: his Ovid is concerned with the lack of under-
standing for the value of poetry and the importance of language in 
general. Whereas the passage from Ovid’s Tristia depicts the more 
45 Gajda, Jacek Kaczmarski, 148, 151–3, 163–7. Kaczmarski became friends with 
Andrzej Seweryn and had frequent contacts with internationally renowned 
filmmakers, such as Andrzej Wajda and Agnieszka Holland.
46 Milewska-Waźbińska, “Exulowie wszystkich czasów,” 169–170.
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 2120
mundane ridicule of the local people in every-day miscommuni-
cation with Ovid, it does not undermine the role of poetry in ge-
neral. The difference in emphasis can be explained by the fact that 
Kaczmarski himself spoke fluent French while he found himself in 
exile and did not have communicative problems. For this reason, it 
might have been more personally relevant to focus on Ovidian exile 
as not just a linguistically alienating experience, which is a more 
generic emigratory experience, but primarily as a cultural displace-
ment where the poet’s core values are challenged. The resulting pic-
ture is one of contrast between Ovid, who represents the purest form 
of classical poetry, and the barbarians who ignore the most funda-
mental aspects of his culture (19: “tu, gdzie nie wiedzą – co Grecja” 
– “here where they are ignorant of Greece”). No doubt, through this 
image, Kaczmarski conveys his own exilic experiences of being fun-
damentally misunderstood abroad, especially when he was ascribed 
the constraining role of a national bard (see below), which changed 
the interpretation of even his apolitical songs.47
Ovid’s cultural displacement is further underscored by an image 
of non-intellectual pleasures replacing his poetic activity. The list 
of Ovid’s key activities is composed of a series of abruptly uttered 
words (21: “Sen, jedzenie, gra w kości” – “Sleep, food, dice”) which 
evoke the lack of sophistication in his daily life. Instead of spend-
ing time writing, he gambles excessively (21: “do bólu w schylonych 
plecach” – “till my bowed back hurts”). When he does write, it is a 
cheap commission, produced hastily, and for an easily satisfied au-
dience (22). By evoking bodily, visceral sensations, such as eating, 
suffering from back pain, or writing on a knee in a bent position, 
Kaczmarski draws his audience into the experience of a poet reduced 
to the physical world. This reduction is particularly difficult because 
it distances Ovid from the intellectual world of poetry, which be-
comes the cornerstone of his identity in exile (19). The reduction of 
the poet to a sore gambler is a powerful development of the image of 
cultural alienation that helps the audience to identify with the exiled 
Ovid, and by proxy, with Kaczmarski. 
Kaczmarski’s depiction of the Scythians as disinterested in 
Graeco -Roman culture and literature corresponds with Ovid’s 
com plaints (Ov. Trist. 4.1.94).48 His new audience is too content with 
what they already possess and therefore are not as interested in the 
47 Gajda, Jacek Kaczmarski, 168–9.
48 For linguistic isolation, see Milewska-Waźbińska “Exulowie wszystkich 
czasów,” 166.
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 2322
hope and mirage that Ovid’s poetry could offer. The striking con-
trast between the locals’ materialism and the spiritual experience 
that could be accessed through poetry underlies the next lines. No 
one will promise beauty because one must pay for it in gold (23). 
This makes for an intellectually and lyrically poor, almost hostile 
environment. Ovid cannot achieve aesthetic satisfaction among 
the people who are only interested in material goods. His cultural 
displacement is all the more profound because no one around him 
shares the same aspirations and expectations from daily life.
The last line of this section evokes a mythical figure from Ovid’s 
Metamorphoses, whose tragic displacement can only be understood 
by the lyrical subject in exile. This is also perhaps the most ambi-
guous part of the poem because of the uncertainty whether the fi-
gure should be identified as Ariadne, who helped Theseus navigate 
the Minotaur’s maze, or Arachne, who was turned into a spider. 
Arachne was punished by Minerva for her hubristic challenge of 
the goddess’s craft and the resulting masterly tapestry that depicted 
 crimes of the gods (Ov. Met. 6.1–145). Did Kaczmarski confuse Ari-
adne with Arachne? Judging by how closely Kaczmarski was enga-
ged with Ovid’s work, it seems improbable that he did not distin-
guish the two figures. We could try to explain this lapsus by the 
fact that, like most of Kaczmarski’s poems, it was supposed to be 
sung out loud, which could obscure the minuscule phonetic dissi-
milarity between the two names. This explanation’s weakness lies 
in the fact that Kaczmarski had excellent diction and would have 
been quite capable of distinguishing between different sounds. Un-
fortunately, there are no accessible manuscripts of the lyrics to verify 
which name Kaczmarski had originally written and whether it was 
changed later when copying the lyrics.49 While there are several cre-
ative defenses of Ariadne, it is most likely a simple mistake. The two 
names are similar and, especially for the non-specialist, exist within 
the same interpretative realm, i.e., classical myth.50 Faced with  these 
interpretative difficulties, we read the line as: “Pojąłem, tworząc tu, 
jak z Arachne powstaje pająk” (“I grasped, composing here, how 
Arachne turns into a spider”), which makes the most sense in the 
49 Checked against the largest online database of Kaczmarski’s manuscripts, 
available on www.kaczmarski.art.pl.
50 He would not be the first, and certainly will not be the last to mistake 
the two names. See, e.g., Hall and Stead, People’s History of Classics, 76, 
where Miles Aston also mistook the two in a poem, published in Dublin, 
1728.
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 2322
context of its place in the poem.51 One of the reasons for  which Ovid 
was banished by “divine” Augustus was a song, carmen.52 Similarly, 
Arachne met her punishment after she created the most beautiful 
and highly detailed tapestries. After her transformation by Minerva, 
she continued to weave with the same skill she had before, but ephe-
meral cobwebs rather than tapestries. Ovid, too, retained his poe-
tic skill but, after banishment, had been reduced to writing among 
peo ple who could not appreciate his art. In the same way, Arachne’s 
fellow spiders were incapable of comprehending the sophistication 
of her weaving skills. The metaphor primarily communicates Ovid’s 
and Kaczmarski’s alienation and the feeling of being misunder-
stood as poets, but it recalls the brutal physical manifestations of 
metamorphosis. Towards the end of the poem, it will be juxtaposed, 
however, with the image of resilient poetry that, despite hostile sur-
roundings, retains its power to offer solace by conjuring images of 
a lost home (see the section on nostalgia and exilic poetry below).
Ovid’s displacement is not confined to linguistic alienation and 
the reduction of his poetic activity but also encompasses changes 
in intimate, personal life. Directly referring to Ovid’s works on 
love life, Kaczmarski dramatizes the poet’s erotic life in exile. In 
Tomis, sexual conquests, so vividly depicted in Amores and Ars 
Amatoria, become devoid of the art that characterized intimate 
encounters in Rome. The bodies of local women are taken hastily 
and without sophistication, without art (10 “brane pośpiesznie, bez 
kunsztu” – lit. “taken hurriedly, with no art”) and produce nothing 
but disappointment (11 “chłoną nie dając nic w zamian” – “they ab-
sorb, giving nothing in return”). They “absorb” (“chłoną”)  white se-
men of the empire without reciprocity, without sighs. These women 
might be prostitutes or ordinary “curious” local women, “curious,” 
perhaps about Ovid as a famous poet or simply because at the out-
skirts of the empire, his Roman status makes him privileged (“ciała 
kobiet ciekawych” – “Bodies of curious women”). Controversially, 
the lyrical subject reduces them to “bodies.” Their human agency 
is removed, leaving space but for a distraction for Ovid, who is 
nostalgically comparing them to his artful sexual relationships in 
Rome. There is also a jarring power dynamic set up in the image 
of “curious women’s bodies” attracted to Ovid’s “imperial semen.” 
51 For fans’ divided interpretations of this passage and various explanations of 
how “Ariadne” can make sense in the poem’s context, see www.kaczmarski.
art.pl.
52 Cf. n. 23: Ingleheart, “Introduction,” 4–5.
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 2524
Do they want to have children with a Roman citizen to improve 
their legal status? Or are they simply attracted to the famous in-
ternational poet? There seems to be a value judgment hidden in 
these lines, and the sexual exploitation can be read in parallel to 
lines 3–4, which strongly suggest a skeptical stance towards Roman 
imperialism. Kaczmarski compares Ovid’s poetic “art of love” in 
Rome with the crude objectification of women as purely sexual 
objects during his exile.
Is this sexual image an expression of Kaczmarski’s disap-
pointment with his exilic fame and popularity among female 
fans? Kaczmarski’s promiscuity is no secret, and his preference 
for considerably younger women further problematizes the al-
ready unsavoury image.53 The uncertain nature of our sources, as 
well as dynamic developments in the poet’s intimate life, make 
it difficult to define with precision how much of his depiction of 
Ovid’s erotic life can be read as Kaczmarski’s self-reflection on 
his own extramarital sexual experiences with women abroad.54 
However, it is not improbable that Kaczmarski subtly confesses 
his dissatisfaction with the sexual life that the exilic conditions 
offered to him, for example, when touring in the us in 1987.55 
Adding to this picture’s complexity, the description of beds as 
smelling of sheep (12) repeats the notion of barbarity and per-
haps even inferiority of the people surrounding Ovid. This is a 
perverse picture of “simple” women attracted by artistic fame, the 
basis of which they cannot understand, and by the superiority of 
a Roman, who, as the conqueror sent to the province, takes their 
bodies as his spoil.56 Therefore, displacement is not just a lingui-
stic problem but an overall bodily experience that alters even the 
most intimate aspects of a poet’s exilic life.
53 See, e.g., Gajda, Jacek Kaczmarski, 103 for a latter account of Kaczmarski’s 
 conversation about his intimate relations with younger women.
54 Kaczmarski certainly did not shy away from tackling intimidate relations and 
details of intercourse in his poetry, see, e.g., “Potępienie rozkoszy” or “Wyzna-
nie kalifa, czyli o mocy baśni.”
55 See Kaczmarski’s self-reflection on a two-month tour as hedonistic and 
excessive in “Za dużo czerwonego,” part 4, where Kaczmarski refers to alcohol 
consumption and heavy partying.
56 Kaczmarski’s attitude towards marital fidelity in his 20s was qualified by his 
friends as “relaxed.” He had an active sexual life, often involving younger 
female fans, and extra-marital romances which eventually ended his first 
marriage with Inka Kardyś, see Gajda, Jacek Kaczmarski, 202–211.
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 2524
POLITICAL DISPLACEMENT
There is no doubt that Kaczmarski sought in the myth of Ovid’s 
exile an analogy to his emigration and positioned himself as an 
exiled poet suffering from political displacement.57 The character of 
the self-identification of Kaczmarski with the lyrical subject of his 
poem – an imaginary Ovid – is underlined by self-mythologiza tion. 
Kaczmarski’s life in western Europe can hardly be compared to his 
rendering of the Ovidian experience of displacement in the cultu-
ral backwaters of the world.58 Nonetheless, despite Kaczmarski’s 
sustain ed activity and a certain level of professional success abroad 
(well-paid job in the Free Europe Radio alongside many interna-
tional and intercontinental tours), he strongly needed to express his 
sense of isolation and frustration with the authoritarian regime that 
caused the immigratory trauma.59
The analogy to Ovid testifies to Kaczmarski’s need to communi-
cate his suffering for which he found expression in similar feelings 
in antiquity. Lines 13–16 explore the consequences of political exile 
for the poet’s agency in more depth. The lyrical subject suggests that, 
on the one hand, the price of exile seems low because it “frees” the 
poet from the influence of the court and the crowd (13: “Far from the 
court and crowd – what a price for exile”). That these audiences were 
the negative side of residing in Rome is evident from the next line 
suggesting Ovid’s work constraints. The lyrical subject proclaims 
in line 14 that poetry ought to be free from “władza,” a word which 
denotes both power in a general sense, e.g., the audience’s taste exer-
ting influence on the artist, and the political authority of a person or 
institution. Kaczmarski’s “authority shall not rule over poetry” (14) 
evokes Ovid’s actual words concerning his talent (ingenium) over 
which Caesar cannot rule (Ov., Trist. 3.7.45–48: ingenio tamen ipse 
meo comitorque fruorque: / Caesar in hoc potuit iuris habere nihil – 
“my mind is nevertheless my comrade and my joy; over this Caesar 
could have no right”).60 Ovid’s position as portrayed by Kaczmarski 
57 “Za dużo czerwonego”: “‘Ovid’s Old Age’ was a more or less conscious positio-
ning of myself in the role of the poet exile” (“Starość Owidiusza były mniej lub 
bardziej świadomym ustawianiem siebie w roli poety wygnańca”).
58 For the account of Kaczmarski’s life abroad in the 1980s, see Gajda, Jacek 
Kaczmarski, 146–216.
59 That is how Gajda, Jacek Kaczmarski, 213–4 interprets Kaczmarski’s work and 
testimonies of his life from this period.
60 Milewska-Waźbińska, “Exulowie wszystkich czasów,” 169.
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 2726
was both a universal statement and a reflection on the particular 
situation in Poland after 1981 when some leading artists and in-
tellectuals supported communist propaganda, which agitated Ka-
czmarski.61 Kaczmarski was equally allergic to constraints of artistic 
freedom coming from the political opposition and explicitly stood 
against “making poetry useful,” whatever the cause.62
On the other hand, the price of political exile is higher than it 
seems to the poet at first. The lyrical subject might have champio-
ned the freedom of poetry, but now, the change of the circus into 
a hermitage (15: “Cyrku w pustelnię zamiana”) snatches his peace 
away (“spokój jednak odbiera”). This “transformation” points to an 
unexpected consequence for the poet who is disappointed with the 
final result. The Polish word for hermitage “pustelnia” has strong 
connotations with the physical isolation of a spiritual man and can 
be associated with a setting where one can find inner peace and per-
haps achieve illumination. It contrasts with the Circus (Maximus), a 
symbol of socializing in Rome (and a setting in Ovid’s Ars Amatoria 
1.135). For a poet, such isolation might promise artistic freedom, but 
in Kaczmarski’s imagined reality, the removal from the center of 
Rome has the opposite effect on Ovid. The poet regrets the “trade-
-off” because he has been reduced to a man bargaining for fuel from 
an artist able to goad the emperor himself (16). The degradation of 
his socio-economic position is conveyed by the image of an ancient 
poet forced to use his rhetorical skills to negotiate for fuel to keep 
himself warm – a position of extreme economic precariousness. 
Both the economic instability and removal from the court’s circle 
are humiliating and severely minimize the role an exiled artist can 
hope to play.
Kaczmarski plays with the irony of political exile where, though 
free from political censorship or tastes of the crowd, artistic creation 
is constrained by the necessities of every-day life and has a reduced 
impact on the distant political authorities. The poet’s removal from 
Rome means that there is no longer any point in criticising the em-
peror because there is no audience that can listen to Ovid.63 Through 
this image, filled with frustration, bitterness, and disappointment, 
61 Gajda, Jacek Kaczmarski, 165–6. For artistic expression of Kaczmarski’s dis-
appointment with some artists and intellectuals in this period, see e.g., Marsz 
Intelektualistów, Koncert Fortepianowy, Artyści.
62 “Za dużo czerwonego,” part 1.
63 Cf. Vintilia Horia’s depiction of Ovid as having a new, politically free voice on 
his exile, analyzed by Sebastian Matzner, “Tomis Writes Back,” 307–321.
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 2726
Kaczmarski explores the paradox of his displacement. Away from 
the communist regime, he is finally free to compose and perform 
however he wishes. Kaczmarski’s artistic creation and perfor mance 
before emigration in 1981 were constantly marked by a careful  dance 
around censorship. He was ultimately tolerated by authorities in pu-
blic performative settings, but this constrained his delivery of more 
politically explicit songs to only smaller, private audiences, some-
times to key political oppositionists.64 However, the freedom from 
political censorship is accompanied by cultural displacement – par-
tial removal from literary life and distance from his native audiences 
– which limits the scope of his artistic activities. As in the case of 
Ovid, Kaczmarski’s removal from literary life in Poland was only 
partial. His songs were illegally duplicated in Poland, and his name 
continued to be advertised through international concerts in nume-
rous Polish diasporas.65
The depiction of political displacement corresponds to the ambi-
guous reality of Kaczmarski’s and Ovid’s political stances. Neither 
of them was an open adversary of the contemporary authorities. 
The Ovidian exile was the first attested banishment of a major poet 
due to political reasons, even though the exact reasons for Augus-
tus’ displeasure with Ovid are still debated.66 Kaczmarski’s artistic 
 stance towards the communist regime might appear more critical 
than Ovid’s, it was however rarely as explicit as his audience’s recep-
tion of it. After all, he preferred to zoom out from criticism of the 
problems at hand to more universal observations, such as the fate 
and role of the exiled national poets.67
 
NATIONAL POETS
In lines 17–20, Kaczmarski depicts Ovid as an exiled national poet 
whose work will become the cornerstone of national literature. In 
64 See Gajda, Jacek Kaczmarski, 100–102, 106–110. For Kaczmarski’s “diplomatic” 
contacts with the secret police, see ibid., 113–114, and 121–122.
65 For the removal of Ovid’s books from libraries in Rome as a rhetorical theme 
and modern responses to this aspect of Ovid’s exile, see Ingleheart, “Introduc-
tion,” 16–7.
66 Ingleheart, “Introduction,” 14–15.
67 For an account of Kaczmarski’s political involvement and contemporary per-
ceptions of his political views in poetry, see Gajda, Jacek Kaczmarski, 70–71, 
86, 94–131.
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 2928
so doing, Kaczmarski merges two distinct traditions of responses 
to the emigrated national artists. One is related directly to the fi-
gure of Ovid, who has been an archetype of an exiled national poet 
in European literature for centuries. The other is derived from the 
nine teenth- and twentieth-century experiences of Polish national 
writers and the cultural legacy they left for the generations of po-
litically oppressed Poles. The Polish national tradition is important 
here because it strongly marks the image of Ovid who “retains in 
himself” the fundaments of Graeco-Roman culture (18). A key nati-
onal poet will preserve it, presumably through artistic legacy, even 
after “the enemy” will have torn columns apart from the walls in 
Rome, that is after the fall of Roman civilization (17). This ennobling 
cultural mission is juxtaposed with the cultural alienation of poet 
exiles just discussed.
The Polish tradition of exiled and repressed artists encompasses 
some of the most influential artists whose work during the Parti-
tions (1795–1918) became part of the canon of Polish national culture. 
Some of the most iconic Polish artists who had to emigrate from Po-
land and who produced the most nationally acclaimed work include 
Frederic Chopin (1810–1849), Adam Mickiewicz (1798–1855), Juliusz 
Słowacki (1809–1849), and Cyprian Kamil Norwid (whose exilic fate 
Kaczmarski explored in “Ostatnie Dni Norwida” in 1987). Among 
the near contemporaries of Kaczmarski, other famous Polish poets 
émigrés suffered from the political repression of the socialist regime, 
e.g., Czesław Miłosz (1911–2004) whose grand-oeuvre Znie wolony 
Umysł from 1953 did not appear in Poland officially until 1989.68 This 
national tradition is distinct from the Ovidian exile, but it is worth 
noting that the latter was an ever-present influence in Polish litera-
ture.69 Having graduated from Warsaw University with a diploma 
in literature, Kaczmarski must have studied the topos of “an exiled 
poet” suffering from political repression while composing essential 
national works.70 This background is evident in his ironical poem 
from 1996, “Czaty Śmiełowskie” where Kaczmarski makes a direct 
link between his situation during the transformation period and 
that of Adam Mickiewicz (one of the most iconic figures of nine-
68  Stankowska, Literatura i krytyka w czasopismach Wielkiej Emigracji; Wolski, 
“Literatura emigracyjna 1939–1989”; Lenkiewicz, “Wielka Emigracja i wizje 
Wieszczów.”
69 For a recent study of Ovidian exile in Polish literature, see Milewska-
-Waźbińska and Domański, Owidiusz: Twórczość – recepcja – legenda.
70 See, e.g., Straszewska, Życie literackie Wielkiej Emigracji we Francji 1831–1840. 
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 2928
teenth-century Polish literature), who was also entangled in difficult 
personal circumstances during political upheavals related to the No-
vember Uprising in 1831. In “Czaty Śmiełowskie,” the comparison 
of the two poets focuses on the influence of “patriotic conscience” 
on artistic creation. Politically displaced, Kaczmarski’s Mickiewicz 
finds inspiration in his complicated situation to write works that will 
become canonical in Polish literature. On the other hand, the image 
of an inspired poet creating his crucial works in exile is in some 
opposition to Ovid’s rhetoric of the inferiority of the poems com-
posed in Tomis, and the high importance of Ovid’s writings from his 
time in Rome.71 Nevertheless, Kaczmarski, influenced by the Polish 
national tradition of exilic poetry, depicts Ovid as a “repository” of 
his national heritage.
Kaczmarski’s unique response to Ovidian exile thus becomes 
only understandable when seen in the context of the Polish tradition 
of exiled poets who compose masterpieces of national literature ab-
road. The way “Ovid’s Old Age” situates Ovid as a banished national 
poet draws upon such figures as Mickiewicz and helps Kaczmar-
ski identify himself as an exiled poet with a cultural mission. This 
is not, however, self-mythologizing for its own sake. The evocation 
of Ovid’s or Mickiewicz’s cultural missions in exile can be read as 
Kaczmarski’s search for consolation. Suffering caused by political 
and cultural displacement can also create a unique opportunity for 
an artist to leave a long-lasting legacy. Mickiewicz and Kaczmarski 
composed away from home, just as the legacy of the Graeco-Roman 
civilization was retained in Ovid and his work when he was not in 
Rome. The image of lines 17–18 where Rome is destroyed but Ovid’s 
poetry endures suggest that national heritage is best preserved not by 
cultural centers themselves, but in the poets who embody their na-
tional identity, even though they are composing abroad because the 
political situation or the enmity of political authorities is preventing 
them from being physically present at home.
 
NOSTALGIA AND EXILIC POETRY
The lack of interest in poetic work among the Scythians is contrasted 
with Ovid’s heightened sensitivity to poetry fuelled by exilic nos-
talgia. Arachne’s metaphor conveys the poet’s suffering from cultu-
ral alienation, but it also unfolds itself into a web of words (25 “Na 
71 See Ingleheart, “Introduction,” 7–9.
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 3130
pajęczynie wyrazów” – “on the web of words”) that depicts a lyrical 
image of Ovid’s lost home. The penultimate section reveals an inti-
mate image of Rome that is characterized by both lyrical sophistica-
tion and the idealization of the poet’s home. Lines 25–28 thus explore 
how the pain of an exiled poet can be transformed into art and how 
art, in turn, can conjure powerful mental images of Rome. To elicit 
the image of Rome (26 “drżący Rzym mojej duszy” – “trembling 
Rome of my soul”), Ovid’s web of words names sensory experiences 
(colors, smells, touch), spaces (meadows, palaces), and people (25–6).
Kaczmarski does not evoke any concrete names but calls out 
the categories of words that can empower the process of conjuring 
a clear image of a place. In so doing, he observes from a distance 
how an exiled poet would draw his audience into a lyrical image. 
Kaczmarski does not attempt to offer a picture worthy of Ovid but 
simply reflects on poetic techniques that can be effectively used to 
ease the longing for home by depicting it as vividly as possible. Here, 
Kaczmarski limits himself to an observation of the artistic work-
shop, but throughout the poem he indicates that he has mastered 
these techniques during his exile. In lines 21 and 29, he draws his 
audience into Ovid’s exilic life by evoking sensory experiences (21: 
“Sen, jedzenie, gra w kości do bólu w schylonych plecach” – “ Sleep, 
food, dice, till my bowed back hurts” and 29: “tubylcy pachnący 
czosnkiem” – “garlic-smelling locals”) and places (Romania, Black 
Sea) that are meant to be immediately recognizable by his audience. 
Kaczmarski’s affinity to Ovid’s fate allows him to use the techniques 
of an exiled poet to blur the boundaries between the contemporary 
world and the ancient landscape. It is thus the condition of exile 
and its accompanying nostalgia that empowers Kaczmarski’s poe-
try. His displacement is a source of both suffering and inspiration, 
without which he would not have been able to portray Ovid’s exilic 
experiences with such sensitivity and thorough understanding of a 
poet exilé.72
Ovid’s nostalgia idealizes the mental image of Rome he conjures. 
Kaczmarski explores the effects of exile on the poet’s perception of 
his home and illustrates through concrete metaphors the extent 
to which an exiled poet can lose his critical, distanced view of his 
coun try. Line 27 describes the memory of ancestors that is devoid of 
ugliness: the word “geometria” [geometry] implies that this image 
72 For exilic nostalgia as a source of empowerment for exiled poets and artists, 
such as Nabokov, Cavafy, or Portillo, see Riley (forthcoming), Imagining 
 Ithaca: Nostos and nostalgia since the Great War.
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 3130
underwent a beautifying process akin to the mathematical idealiza-
tion of real-life imperfections. The following expression, “Zwierci-
adło żywej harmonii diamentowych okruszyn” (“mirror of a living 
 harmony of diamond particles”), is perhaps the most complex and 
elusive. Like the geometry of memory, it confirms that imagined 
Rome conveys feelings of harmony rather than urban chaos. Never-
theless, the image of the mirror and the diamond particles refers 
to Rome by evoking light and shimmering, which produce a much 
blurrier and more rapidly changing picture than that of mathemati-
cal “geo metry.” The two images juxtaposed together can be seen as 
a reflec tion on the nature of our nostalgia, which, on the one hand, 
idealizes the blemishes and, on the other, provides only unstable pic-
tures that flit like reflected light. Kaczmarski communicates through 
these lines that the exilic experience and its accompanying longing 
for home can both profoundly inspire and manipulate poetic visions.
 
THE EVERLASTING FORCE OF POETRY
The poem’s final section brings us back to the present reality of 
Ovid’s life in exile. Overwhelmed by his exilic condition, he 
becomes reduced to one wish only – to be granted pardon. The pro-
found realization that he is utterly displaced in Tomis con sumes 
Ovid, and this is metaphorically expressed as his transformation 
into a letter to the capital asking for pardon. Surrounded by the 
locals smelling of garlic (29), Ovid feels himself having been trans-
formed into a letter (30). This image is in direct parallel with Ovid’s 
identification with a physical letter that is described in Ovid’s own 
writing (Ov. Trist. 5.4.1–4).73 The smell of garlic can be associated 
with repugnancy (Hor. Ep. 3.3.), religious impurity, or an agricul-
tural laborer’s dish.74 In Ovid’s context, garlic symbolizes the poet’s 
displacement among the peoples of different sensibilities. No one 
in Rome is, however, moved by Ovid’s predicament (30 “nikogo nie 
73 Cf. Milewska-Waźbińska, “Exulowie wszystkich czasów,” 169, who quotes the 
same passage but in relation to lines 5–8.
74 Kloppenborg and Ascough, Greco-Roman Associations, 265 (ig ii2 1365); for 
the garlic dish in the Moretum see Stead, thehighwindowpress.com: “One 
at a time he exposes garlic heads / from their knotted bodies and strips off / 
their outer skins scattering the discarded / husks all over tossing them to the 
ground / He wets each bulb freed from its skin / and casts it into the circular 
hollow of stone.”
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 3332
wzrusza” – “moves no one”). The use of the word “Stolica” – “ca-
pital,” instead of “Rome” or “the City” (more idiomatic in Ovid’s 
time), reminds us about the modern viewpoint of Kaczmarski, who 
associates the center of power with a country’s capital, in his case 
Warsaw. Where there are exiled poets, there are also capitals where 
the fate of the émigrés is decided. What matters is not the specific 
case or period but the universal struggle of poet exiles. That Rome 
is not evoked by name here or anywhere else in the poem helps 
Kaczmarski to show that the exilic experiences he describes apply 
to anyone who can identify with Ovid’s fate.
Line 31 “buckles” the opening lines 1–2 and underscores this 
universalistic vision by blurring the boundaries of time and 
 space.75 The lyrical subject predicts that Ovid’s surroundings will 
once become Romania but does not state it as a present fact yet. 
However, in the middle of the line, the “Sea” is already “Black,” 
suggesting that the figure of Ovid and the modern knowledge of 
Kaczmarski are blended in this last image. The smooth transition 
of the lyrical subject from Ovid to Kaczmarski is evident in the 
last line where the narrative voice appears in the third person, 
rather than in the first person singular.76 This is a very subtle 
indication of Ovid’s sudden, almost unnoticeable death. Instead 
of dramatizing the last hours of the ancient poet, Kaczmarski 
uses the figure of Ovid turning into a letter begging for pardon 
to draw a universal picture that holds true in the present time. 
The despair of the old Ovid and his complete dependency on 
the mercy of the imperial authorities portray Kaczmarski, and 
other exiled poets, as a tragic individual confronted against the 
inhuman machine of bureaucracy where procedures and politi-
cal agendas overtake sensitivity to the traumatic experience of 
emigrated poets.
The final image Kaczmarski delivers (32) is the transforma-
tion of Ovid’s body into fertile soil for future poetry. In an ele-
gant way, it punctuates the entire poem and observes that Ovid 
is no longer just “there,” in past times among the garlic-smelling 
 Scythians. Although dead, Ovid’s body and his world “are beco-
ming” the fertile ground for a song, that is for poetry in times to 
75 For the ring composition here, see Milewska-Waźbińska, “Exulowie wszyst-
kich czasów,” 170.
76 The transition is suggested but not fully explained by Milewska-Waźbińska, 
“Exulowie wszystkich czasów,” 170. Kaczmarski writes here “świat Owidiusza” 
(Ovid’s world), instead of “mój świat” (my world).
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 3332
come. Kaczmarski must be intentionally describing this trans-
formation by using the present continuous tense of “to become” 
(“staje się”) rather than present perfect form (“stało się”) to 
 em phasize the universality and timelessness of Ovidian exilic 
experience for poets.77 Ultimately, the fertilized soil is Kaczmar-
ski’s poetic vision of the role of Ovid and his exilic myth.78 As 
Kaczmarski’s poem testifies, Ovid’s exilic experiences nourish 
contemporary poetic encounters, whether mediated or not, with 
the classical world. In communicating his emigratory trauma 
through Ovid’s figure, Kaczmarski pays homage to the ancient 
poet and acknowledges his timeless importance.
77 The effect of timelessness is also achieved through Kaczmarski’s music. It has 
been acknowledged that Kaczmarski’s musical composition enhances the 
meaning of his lyrics, see Dźwinel, “Piosenki Jacka Kaczmarskiego w aspekcie 
zagadnienia melosemii,” 110–120. In the case of “Ovid’s Old Age,” the song 
opens and ends with a chord, the individual notes of which are picked in a 
repeating pattern, creating a dreamy, timeless atmosphere. Even when the 
chord changes, the base note remains the same throughout much of the verse, 
establishing a sense of unresolved continuity. The echoing effect of the base 
note seems to reverberate through time, encouraging the reading of Kaczmar-
ski’s forced emigration as an echo of Ovid’s exile. Warm thanks to Dr. Chloe 
Bray for her comments on the music in “Ovid’s Old Age.”
78 Cf. Derek Walcott’s “All that Greek manure under the green bananas,” in 
Omeros; Nanton, “‘All that Greek manure under the green bananas’: Migration 
in Derek Walcott’s Omeros and Homer’s The Odyssey,” 472–476.
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 3534
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“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 3736
ABSTRACT
“Ovid’s Old Age” is a sung poem written by the Polish poet and 
musician Jacek Kaczmarski (1957–2004) which engages with the 
myth of Ovid’s exile. Kaczmarski’s works were heavily influenced 
both by classical culture and his experience of political emigration 
during the communist era. He was famed as an unofficial bard of 
the opposition movement, but is as yet little known to classical 
reception scholars. This paper presents Kaczmarski’s creative 
engagement with Ovid as both a deeply personal reflection on 
the nature of exile and at the same time a universal commentary 
on poetry under authoritarian regimes. Our interpretation is 
based on a thematic analysis of the poem, including landscape, 
imperialism, displacement, “national” poets in exile, nostalgia, and 
the force of poetry. We set the reception in its social, political, and 
biographical context, with reference to several mediating receptions 
of the Ovidian exile. In Kaczmarski’s poem, the Ovidian voice 
helps the poet to express the trials of emigration and reveals their 
effect on his art. It shows how engagements with classical culture 
may flourish, even while the formal discipline of Classics has been 
undernourished. We provide a bilingual translation of  “Ovid’s 
Old Age” to foster the understanding of migratory experiences in 
contemporary poetry and enrich international scholarship on the 
reception of Ovid with a response from communist Poland.
 
KEYWORDS
Jacek Kaczmarski, classical reception, Poland, Ovid, sung poetry, 
communism, exile
“OVID’S OLD AGE”: JACEK KACZMARSKIPAWEŁ BOROWSKI AND HENRY STEAD 3938
IZVLEČEK
»Ovidijeva starost«: Jacek Kaczmarski in spevna poezija izgnanstva
»Ovidijeva starost« je spevna pesem poljskega pesnika in glasbenika 
Jaceka Kaczmarskega (1957–2004), ki gradi na mitu o Ovidijevem 
izgnanstvu. Dela Kaczmarskega so nastajala pod močnim vplivom 
klasične kulture ter avtorjevih izkušenj s politično emigracijo v ob-
dobju komunizma. Kaczmarski je slovel kot neuradni bard opozicij-
skega gibanja, vendar je med raziskovalci klasične recepcije še vedno 
razmeroma slabo poznan. Pričujoči članek predstavi njegov ustvar-
jalni stik z Ovidijem kot globoko osebno razmišljanje o naravi iz-
gnanstva ter hkrati kot univerzalni komentar o vlogi poezije v avto-
ritarnih režimih. Ta interpretacija temelji na tematski analizi pesmi, 
ki vključuje pokrajino, imperializem, razseljevanje, »nacionalne« 
pesnike v izgnanstvu, nostalgijo in moč poezije. Recepcijo postavlja 
v njen družbeni, politični in biografski kontekst, sklicujoč se na več 
posredniških recepcij Ovidijevega izgnanstva. V pesmi Kaczmarske-
ga ovidijevski glas pesniku pomaga izraziti preizkušnje emigracije in 
razkriti njihov učinek na njegovo umetnost. Pokaže, kako srečevanje 
s klasično kulturo lahko cveti tudi v času, ko je klasična filologija 
kot stroka podhranjena. Članek ponuja prevod »Ovidijeve staros-
ti«, postavljen ob izvirniku, ter skuša s tem spodbuditi razumevanje 
migracijskih izkušenj v sodobni poeziji ter obogatiti mednarodno 
raziskovanje Ovidijeve recepcije z odzivom iz komunistične Poljske.
KLJUČNE BESEDE
Jacek Kaczmarski, klasična recepcija, Poljska, Ovidij, spevna poezija, 
komunizem, izgnanstvo