Sample Poetry, Old song bits, Thoughts of fictional Zoli - Are these quotes from Papusza?

Interest in Papusza and Zoli - from a blast of poems, words like these: "Zoli," by Colum McCann.

"We sing to sweeten the dead grass" Zoli 10
"From what is broken, what is cracked, I make what is required" Zoli 10
"I will not, o, never call the crooked finger straight" Zoli 10
"My grave is hiding from me" Zoli 105

"Zoli believed there was a life-spring that went down to the center of the earth and that it ran both ways but mostly it rose from the well of her childhood." Zoli at 93

"When I cut brown bread don't look at me angrily, don't look at me angrily because I'm not going to eat it." Zoli at 87.

"They broke my little brown arm, now my father he cries like the rain" Zoli at 31. A song bit.

"I will fill the empty cup, it is not so hollow any more, I will fill it with wine, it will come from the palm of your hand." Zoli at 30

"I want no shadow to fall upon your shadow, your shadow is dark enough for me." Zoli at 31

"The old horse is standing though he is not sleeping, he always has a watching eye, a watching eye." Zoli at 259.

"If you have the money you can think what you like." Zoli at 259.

Read longer works at pp.278-283.

Reviews of "Zoli" - Summaries of the Plot, Comments

The novel, "Zoli," by Colum McCann, is roughly based on the life of Gypsy poet Branislawa Wajs. She was a member of a traveling group of Gypsies in Poland, who achieved literacy. Her poems and songs then were published, and then used against her and the Gypsies as a whole by government policy-makers, who wanted to stop and force the settlement of nomadic groups. The argument was that "these people" -would benefit from release from the primitivism of the caravans. In fact, those policies in most cases took away the livelihood of the itinerant musicians, basket-makers, metal workers and others across Europe as the Halt trend spread, reducing the groups to dependency in crowded high-rises.

Read any of these for the plot outline, the political contexts including Fascism and Communism in Slovakia, WWII and holocaust Slovakia and Poland, post-Communist era, and the Romani people, the character Zoli, inspired by the real "Papusza," in particular.

1. Seattle Times - //seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2003509350_zoli07.html

2. Montreal Gazette ://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/books/story.html?id=48e838be-e37d-4d98-a756-79b3d100508d