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Witold Wirpsza

Polish poet and translator (1918–1985)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 21, 2026
Entity authorityQ1597576 ↗
Source-derived summary

Witold Wirpsza (4 December 1918 — 16 September 1985) was a Polish poet, writer, translator and essayist.

Biography

He was the son of Stanisław Wirpsza, merchant, and Lidia née Spandoni-Basmandżi. In 1945 he married Maria Kurecka. Their son Aleksander (later known under his pen name Leszek Szaruga) was born in 1946.

He was a member of Polish Writers' Union (ZLP) from 1948 until 1971. He published in “Twórczość”, “Nowa Kultura”, “Życie Literackie” and “Przegląd Kulturalny” (1952–60). From 1952 to 1968 he was a member of the Polish United Workers' Party.

Poetry books

Sonata (1949)

Stocznia (1949)

Polemiki i pieśni (1951)

Dziennik Kożedo (1952)

Pisane w kraju (1952)

List do żony (1953)

Poematy i wiersze wybrane (1956)

Z mojego życia (1956)

Mały gatunek (1960)

Don Juan (1960)

Komentarze do fotografii (1962)

Drugi opór (1965)

Przesądy (1966)

Bruchsünden und todstücke (1967)

Traktat skłamany (1968)

Drei Berliner Gedichte (1976)

Prognosen oder Die Naturgeschichte der Drachen (1980)

Apoteoza tańca (1985)

Liturgia (1985)

Faeton (1988)

Nowy podręcznik wydajnego zażywania narkotyków (1995)

Cząstkowa próba o człowieku i inne wiersze (2005)

Spis ludności (2005)

Utwory ostatnie (2007)

Novels

Na granicy (1954)

Pomarańcze na drutach (1964)

Wagary (1970)

Sama niewinność (partially published in 1978 and 1985)

Short stories

Stary tramwaj i inne opowiadania (1955)

Morderca (1966)

Essays

Gra znaczeń (1965)

Polaku, kim jesteś? (1971)

Accolades

In 1955 he received Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. In 1967 he received the Johann-Heinrich-Voß-Preis für Übersetzung.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Witold Wirpsza” is polish poet and translator (1918–1985). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Witold, Wirpsza and Polish, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1918, 1985, 1945, 1946—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1918-12-04. For this dossier, Witold, Wirpsza and Polish is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “polish poet and translator (1918–1985)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1597576. VIAF identifies the subject as 49471058. The Library of Congress control number is n86139685. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1918, 1985, 1945 and 1946.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Witold Wirpsza”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Witold Wirpsza primary sources, Witold Wirpsza archive and Witold research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Witold Wirpsza”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Witold Wirpsza” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.