Norwid o czytaniu – czytanie Norwida. Uwagi

An exquisite artist of the word himself, Cyprian Norwid was also a voracious, observant, and critical reader. He authored many writings about reading, or the ‘art of reading’ that requires effort, commitment, and collaboration with the writer. The poet used the verb ‘to read’ in several meanings: 1) ‘To put letters into words and words into sentences, and thus discern their content and decode them at the fundamental level’; 2) ‘To utter or render aloud, perorate, recite’; 3) ‘To consider, analyse, interpret, and grasp the actual meaning of words and utterances’; and 4) ‘To examine someone or something closely, and thus try to obtain an indepth understanding of them’. Norwid’s observations about reading provide a significant starting point for many studies and interpretations of his other works. However, hardly any of them are dedicated to non-specialist audiences. The most recent publication of this type, Norwid – interpretacje [Norwid: Interpretations], is a collective work of a few authors. It has been prepared as part of the ‘Jubilees’ series to celebrate the Year of Cyprian Norwid.