The Miernik Dossier

46. TRANSCRIPT OF MIERNIK AND ZOFIA MIERNIK, 22 JUNE, “CADILLAC LOG” (TRANSLATION FROM POLISH).

ZOFIA:… not going to be a very pleasant ride if you go on like this. We went over all this last night.

MIERNIK: Zofia, you never change. You do something horrid and then put the blame on those who want to help you.

ZOFIA: Horrid? How horrid? I am an adult, Tadeusz, and I made the decision as an adult. There was nothing for me where I was. I was learning nothing.

MIERNIK: But simply to quit without telling me. It was unfair- not to say dishonest. I should think you could have trusted me. And poor Sasha. When he couldn’t find you, think how he must have felt.

ZOFIA: Sasha found me. He understood perfectly.

MIERNIK: I don’t understand perfectly. You throw away your university degree, you go to live with a lot of scruffy people who call themselves artists, who are under constant surveillance by the police. It’s unbelievable. You might have put everything in danger. Suppose the whole group had been arrested? How would Sasha have found you then?

ZOFIA: But all those things did not happen, Tadeusz. Sasha found me, I am here, all is well. And I have no use for a degree from Warsaw University that means nothing.

MIERNIK: Nothing? It means the difference between a life as a professional, a teacher perhaps, and life as an outcast. Even in the West they attach some importance to education.

ZOFIA: Tadeusz, I don’t want to teach. I am not a professional type. You are. I’m not. Also, I’m capable of taking care of myself.

MIERNIK: Living five in a room with men and girls together, with no bath, with no proper papers? If that’s how you take care of yourself… We spent years building up a certain picture of you, and you tear it up on a whim.

ZOFIA: Tadeusz, I wasn’t in any danger. I was quite happy, in fact. That’s something, isn’t it? To be happy in Warsaw while one is young? It was nothing terrible. Now, thanks to you and Sasha, it’s done with. If I ever want to go back to a university I can do it.

MIERNIK: Irresponsible. When I think that I asked Sasha to help you, thinking the danger was so much less than it was… The danger was your fault.

ZOFIA: There was no danger to Sasha. He can do anything.

MIERNIK: Perhaps he can. But to ask him to take extra chances as you did. I don’t know how I can apologize to him.

ZOFIA: If you do, he’ll laugh at you. It was a lark for Sasha.

MIERNIK: You think everything is a lark. Life is not a lark. You have never been asked to do an ugly thing in your life. You could have ruined everything.

(Remainder of Polish conversation consists of remarks by female voice on landmarks. Both voices change to English before tape ends.)