Norwid’s Quidam or A Parable About People and Stones (transl. by Tadeusz Karłowicz)

Abstract

A reinterpretation of the title of the poem on the basis of analysis of the semantic context of the uninflected work quidam as an indefinite pronoun is the starting point of the study. The author proves that the title Quidam is not restricted to a particular nameless protagonist, but it is a condensed sign of indeterminateness (not only personal) as a structural dominant of the poem. Hence it can only have an uninflected form. This is how Norwid always treated it.

In the course of further argument the author justifies the proposition that the main subject of Quidam is Rome as the Eternal City, ever built anew on its ruins, maintaining the continuity of life for ages and being a sign of hope. The poem is a picture of the mature Empire in the epoch of Hadrian shown as the time of a slowly ripening coup, when in the multicultural environment Christianity grew, even if it was mysterious for many people and persecuted by the authorities. Interpreted in the context of F. R. Chateaubriand's Les Martyrs the parable is an equivocal reflection on the tragic character of history and on the role that heroic and often nameless sacrifice of people and stones of the city plays in building its meaning. It is also a reflection on how intolerance and weakness resulting from selfish conceit makes coexistence of various religions and cultures in mutual respect impossible.