EN
The paper refers to Tadeusz Róźewicz’s travel accounts from the Far East written in the 1950s and read as report poetry that is to remind a ‘magic crystal ball.’ It is meant to view the Orient in such a way as if there was not any intermediary, though the form negates itself to reveal that otherness opposes presentation and remains self-governing. The categories of post-colonial criticism are employed here to demonstrate how Różewicz challenges the dualistic understanding of identity, how he perceives the Oriental culture and nature, the effects of communist power, and the civilisational changes in China and in Mongolia. A postmodern approach to the imaginary and the sublime serves to justify the conclusion that one is unable to understand and grasp the Orient in the same way as one cannot comprehend and verbalise what is extra-human.