Objects

"A basement room full of beds" with these words Yitzhok Leib Peretz begins his famous short story (W piwnicznej izbie [In a Basement Room] in Dusza. Legendy, bajki i opowiadania [The Soul. Legends, fairy tales and stories], Warsaw 2015, pp. 115-117). In it, he described the difficult life of the poor in the big city. His characters, despite their hard and exhausting work, cannot afford to rent a flat, even the smallest one, somewhere on the upper floors of tenement buildings. The meagre money they brought home only allowed them to rent a corner in the basement. In the one described by Perec: "Frajda has long been sleeping on her chest, in the corner between the cooker and the wall. [...] The corner opposite her belongs to Josel, the nosewife. His wife and two children sleep in one bed, and he with an older boy from the cheder in the other. [A little further on snores Berl, the porter, alone on the bed, like a count. The two children sleep in the other bed. The wife is a cook and is having a wedding reception today. [...] Next, alone in bed, like a countess, sleeps Cirl, a zicer [in Yiddish, a peddler who sells goods in the street or market – editor's note], in the other her three children. Her husband is the night watchman and when he comes home, she goes out on the town with bread and fresh bagels. Now we are in the third corner, where there is one more bed – a narrow iron cot. A woman's face is reflected on a pile of rags replacing a pillow. [Above all the beds, a dim light trembles, penetrating from the other side of the room through the walls of the Chinese screen which forms the border of the young couple's kingdom. [...] in Trajna's kingdom it is brighter and neater. Between the two beds, on a white table, between two brass candlesticks, lies a prayer book – a wedding gift. On the wall hang the wedding vestments, a coverlet for a tallit with an embroidered shield of David. [All the bedclothes lie in the other bed – a pot of broth for supper is hidden underneath".

See also other design versions: MPOLIN-M1156, MPOLIN-M1157 and MPOLIN-M1166.

Renata Piątkowska