Warsaw 1948/ Czytelnik/ first edition/ publisher's binding, soft/ p.114, (2)/ good+ condition, rubbing of binding edges, small corner creases, tear in side edge of p. of table of contents.
First edition of a volume of poetry, dedicated in print to his wife Natalia. The volume contains poems and poems published since 1946 in the weekly magazines "Odrodzenie", "Przekrój", "Szpilki" and "Tygodnik Powszechny", including the title poem, Zaczarowana dorożka.
The title poem The Enchanted Carriage, dedicated to Natalia Galczynska, the poet's wife, is maintained in a tone of moody lyricism and humorous grotesque. It recreates a journey in an enchanted horse-drawn carriage through nighttime Krakow, from Venice Street to the Cloth Hall. The prototype of the enchanted horse-drawn carriage was fiaker No. 13 (other sources say No. 6) Jan Kaczara.
Galczynski, staying in Krakow in 1946-1948, liked to use this means of transportation, most often just the carriage of Kaczara, known for his frequent poetry. The enchanted horse-drawn carriage driver, to whom Galczynski's poem brought great popularity, died in 1980. The same carriage until 1985 with a gold inscription "Enchanted Carriage" was driven by Jan Kaczara's son. After a traffic accident (collision with a Wartburg) it never returned to the streets of Krakow.