ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an autobiography of Polish poet and intellectual Aleksander Wat. Wat, whose contribution was a personal essay entitled ‘Diary Without Vowels’, was introduced as the author of the post-humously published memoir My Century: the Odyssey of a Polish Intellectual (1977) – a contemplation of totalitarianism regarded as ‘one of the great documents of our time’. He scrutinised those who, incapacitated by the pain of common ailments, were mistrustful when they heard he had suffered from the equivalent of toothache for twelve years with only rare intervals of relief. Wat’s unpublished writing – including his autobiographical work Diary Without Vowels , in which the pain essay of that name was collected – had become available in Polish after his death in 1967, his work in English translation remained limited.
