Czesław Mozil

Czesław Mozil.

What do you do?

I’m a musician, fiddler, bard, and an unfulfilled actor.

What is your current place of residence?

Currently Praga Północ, Warsaw, Poland.

Was leaving Poland a necessity for you?

It was, because I was six and my parents took me with them, so yes, it was a necessity.

What were the reasons for your parents to leave Poland?

My father, an Ukrainian, had a plan, he fell in love with a Polish girl, my mother, and it was evidently the key to be able to go West. So, a friend of my father’s was living in Canada, he emigrated from Ukraine to Vancouver. Thank God we didn’t go to Canada because of Denmark, where my grandmother on my mother’s side had her second husband, ‘cause my grandpa was killed in World War II and that’s why Denmark was sort of this base. I’m convinced that it was always a dream of a better life.

How did your relations with the Polish emigrant community look like?

It was all very natural, because at the Ama [Amager Øst], almost at the centre of Compenhagen, there is the St. Ann’s Church, a catholic church where the Polish diaspora congregates every Sunday, and logically, I attended that church, I received my first communion there, I went to Saturday school, my parents enrolled me to choir class, Polish class, and bible studies, and on Sundays I was an altar boy.

How did your parents fare in a new country, a new reality?

I think that my parents paid a high price, although at their age, for emigration, but they wanted to quickly enter the job market, maybe not the same jobs they had in Poland, but they wanted to work – and six years later they bought a house, took out a loan, which was madness, but they wanted... on their own terms, so I think that they integrated very well, but maybe they weren’t... they had a lot of Danish friends.

Was there something from Poland that you missed, or lacked in Denmark?

I was little, so I didn’t know, couldn’t compare it, so further on.. and this border, when someone asks me what the differences are between Poland and Denmark, I can’t honestly... say, because it all got mixed up in my head, when I was six, ten, or twelve, then sure, it was hard at the beginning... to sort of adjust to Poland, because I left when I was six. But as I get older, I miss this chaos and anarchy when I’m in Denmark, about which I complain here in Poland.

How were your relations with your family in Poland?

I had this passport, alien passport, you had to apply for a visa, a German transit visa, but I visited my aunts, my godmother in Poznań, my aunts and family in Silesia, I remember that on average I visited Poland once a year, and it grew, this longing for Poland, so yeah, it was very much natural.

What had a greater influence on the music you’re currently making – which culture, Polish or Danish?

I think, generally, I think that MTV had a large influence, I’m from the MTV generation, I was ironing on Sundays, ironing clothes while watching MTV, to catch US Top Twenty, to not to go to church.

What would you say to the young people who want to leave?

Go, and if you don’t feel good where you end up, go somewhere else as fast as you can, or come back to Poland.

What did you dream of when you returned to Poland?

To learn about it, to understand it, and I think I still don’t, but I’m learning, and know it better than the average Pole. That’s how it is.

Which Polish tastes, smells did you miss?

I didn’t miss any tastes, because all the tastes and smells of Polish cuisine, or Poland herself were present at my home, so I had it very easy.

You made a record with poetry by Czesław Miłosz. Why did you choose him?

Culture is something very important to me, only, for me, Miłosz was extremely important, to say it out loud, that I don’t understand Miłosz. I don’t like this... this form of intellectualism in Poland, and I’m a simple guy, but I very much dislike how we can’t admit it, for the entire time, that we don’t know something, don’t understand something, because it’s absurd that in this country, Polish teachers give low grades to the kids on Miłosz, but they can’t admit that they don’t understand his poetry. It’s very simple. Poetry doesn’t have to be understood, it can be felt.

How did a five-year-old boy adjust to Denmark?

It was so easy, because kids just get along, so suddenly we lived in [untelligible] in a housing complex, and suddenly my friends, they didn’t speak perfect Danish either, even if they were born in Denmark, they were from Turkey, Morocco, Iran, and we got along somehow, somehow this metamorphosis was very fluid.

How did your parents pass on Polish customs, culture, language?

Remember, my mom teaches Polish, it may be hard to hear, but I could read before I started school in Denmark. We read Polish books, it was natural. Our cuisine is very traditional, Silesian-Ukrainian, so it’s all still there.

What captivated you, what was surprising or enchanting in Poland that you spend so much time here?

It’s size for sure, obviously, and that I had music, the possibility to play in every corner of Poland, and this Poland I was able to experience I would wish for every Pole to experience it like I did.

What characteristics help and which ones hinder emigrating Poles?

I have a sense that we are able to adjust to any place, us Poles, but surely, logically, not everyone is condemned to emigrate, I would repeat myself, that not all of us have the talent to emigrate.

Why did you return to Poland? Your parents, friends, and band are in Denmark?

There are instances, I had this thing that when I began touring with my band in 2002, my friends said that I’m unintentionally flirting with any Polish woman I meet, so evidently there are some primal instincts that made being in a country where everybody speaks Polish such a turn-on for me. I could select the Polish diaspora on my own. But I think, that these are cases that result, if we would emigrate to Canada then maybe Poland would be more foreign to me. And again, when I emigrated to Denmark and visited here, then suddenly... I had this plan, that I would live two or three weeks in Poland and another two or three weeks in Denmark. I said, “dad, I’m going to pick strawberries in Denmark, but I need to learn more about the country I left behind”, and the fact that I had a breakthrough, I wasn’t expecting that, and these 15 minutes of fame which are still going, that’s what I’ve been telling myself, that the Polish show business is healthier with me around, I’m doing good, I hope, I can be a cool drop, so I’m feeling good.

Which place do you consider your home?

I admit that never in my life did I feel more at home, than within these fifty five square metres I own here in Praga.

Can you remember any anecdote connected to emigration?

I remember a joke, actually it’s the only one I know, but it’s... it evidently prepared me to be Polish in Poland. A Frenchman, German, and Pole are on a plane and suddenly, I don’t know why, so don’t think about it, the plane starts to fall and finally someone needs to jump out because... I don’t know, it doesn’t make sense to me, but someone needs to jump. They talk to the Frenchman “Jump”, but he doesn’t want to because there is no parachute, and he says “I won’t jump, I won’t jump to die”, and they say “C’mon man, do it for your country”, so he goes “Viva la France” and jumps. Next it’s the German’s turn. They go “Jump”. But he ain’t dumb, he won’t jump, but they tell him “That’s an order”. And the German goes “Jawohl” and jumps. And now it’s the Pole’s turn, and they tell him “You’re the last one, jump and save the rest of us”. And he says he ain’t dumb and he won’t jump. Sorry but this was so logical, ‘cause this was a Polish joke. So they tell him “Okay, so you’re just scared, you don’t know how to do it”. And he goes, “I won’t do it?”, and that’s how this joke prepared me to be Polish in Poland.

What should the people who emigrate from the country keep in mind?

Maybe that the grass is always greener on the other side.