Prof. Jerzy Jankowski passed away on 18th of August, 2020 and this paper brings back this outstanding scientist, one of the most influential geophysicists in Poland and an extraordinary man. Considered a prime architect in the development of the geomagnetic observations in Poland, Prof. Jankowski was a giant in geophysics covering a wide range of problems, from the cognition of the deep basement in Poland and Central Europe to the studies of earthquake precursors. Besides research Prof. Jankowski also offered his administrative services to the Institute of Geophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, among others being its director for more than 30 years and also to the Polish Academy of Sciences as the Head of the Division of Earth and Mining Sciences for nearly a decade. Prof. Jankowski received many significant honors during his life; internationally, he was recognized as a foreign member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters and Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
The article is an attempt to interpret the only book published by Jerzy Jankowski, a forerunner of Polish futurism who is often overlooked in literary history related to the beginnings of the avant-garde movement. Tram wpopszek ulicy (Tram crossways on the street), published in 1920, is presented in terms of innovative phenomena in Polish and European poetry. Such a point of view reveals its precursory character, despite its passeism repeatedly diagnosed by critics. The key word and the starting point of the analysis is the first word of the title – tram, whose ambiguity makes it not only a sign of a modern city but also a metaphor of the construction of the entire book and its historical location. Further analysis leads to conclusions that, on the one hand, reveal the complicated meaning of the vitalistic futurist concept of life and, on the other, indicate aporias and tensions between symbolism and avant-garde, originality and repetition, materiality and spirituality, as well as aesthetics and the social function of art. These seem to be a hidden dimension of Jankowski’s work.