A fellow human being in the poetry of Józef Wittlin : about metaphysical and ethical issues

Th e article is a refl ection on one of the most fundamental subjects in Józef Wittlin’s poetry – a relationship with another human being. Th e author of the delineation, interpreting selected poems of the writer, proves that hatred and love appear in them as forces creating a specifi c form of the world. Destruction of bonds between people becomes at the same time an ontological catastrophe, love – on the other hand – is a force equal to God, constituting the metaphysical space: a good, safe and happy world. In Wittlin’s poetry the motif of a fellow is consequently combined with the sphere of Transcendence, and the subject of the I – another human being relation determines religious experience. Th e author points to the fact that the moral obligation which appears here goes beyond the morality “recommended” by Yahweh – he excludes some creatures from the salvation plan and hence from the brotherhood. Morality is extended in Wittlin’s poetry, every existence is sacred. On one hand, the sanctifi cation of bonds takes place through a reference to the symbols and meaning of the holy history, on the other – sympathy towards every being forces one to oppose God, to read the holy history from the perspective of a fellow human being. Th us, divine and holy do not mean the same thing: “divine” is sometimes cruel, “holy” means always: love “the Other”. Love of a fellow being is the ultimate good, immanent sacrum in the poetic world of the author of Essence. Pointing to the relevancy of Wittlin’s concept of commitment and love with the ethics of responsibility for “the Other” created by Lévinas is also an important part of the considerations embodied in the delineation