Papuša - rroma.org

Bronisława Wajs, better known as Papuša was a famous Polish Romni and poet. She wrote a diary and almost 200 pages of her notes have survived. She wrote: “My origin. Daddy was from Warmijaki and Berniks (a group of Polish Roma), mummy from Galician Gypsies.” “A better family from a father. I do not remember my father well, I was five when he died in Siberia (around 1914). Mummy married Jan Wajs Jan after eight years … I felt good for one, but bad for the other, because I couldn’t read when I was twelve ”.

She did not write in which year and in which town she was born (it is known that her mother’s name was Katarzyna Zielińska). In the excellent book by Angelika Kuźniak entitled From Papusza, we can read that the poet was born on August 17, 1908 in Sitaniec near Zamość, or on May 10, 1910 in Lublin. Whereas Jerzy Ficowski, a poet, prose writer, essayist and translator, in the book entitled “Gypsies on Polish roads” only wrote that Papusza was born in 1909 or 1910.