Jan Sztaudynger

Jan Izydor Sztaudynger (born 28 April 1904 in Kraków; died 12 September 71970 in Kraków) was a Polish poet and satirist. He enjoyed enormous popularity as a poet in Poland after the Second World War.

Sztaudynger studied Polish and German philology at the Jagiellonian University. Between 1945 and 1961, he was a lecturer at the National Dramatic School of the Puppet-Show Theatre in Łódź.

Sztaudynger was best known for his epigrams, which in Poland were called Fraszka, after the literary cafe Fraszka at ulica Piotrkowska 96 in Łódź. In 1964 he published the poetry collection, Tranzytem przez Łódź (Transit through Łódź'), in which he expressed his nostalgia for that cafe. Sztaudynger named some of his epigrams Piórka".

Sample fraszkas

Głos w telefonie
Halo - tu sumienie.
Czy pan zamówił budzenie?'

A voice on the phone
Hello, this is your conscience.
Did you order a wake-up call?

"Nie lubie"
Nie lubię siebie sam
za dobrze siebie znam

"Dislike"
Sometimes I don't like myself
I know my faults too well.

"Może zaszczytnie"
Łamią cie? Może zaszczytnie
Bez wtedy łamią, kiedy kwitnie

"Loud"
They shout very loud
Maybe the want to applaud.