Bolesław Leśmian’s poem Pszczoły from the volume Napój cienisty (1936), as well as other texts by the poet containing a vision of bees and his autobiographical elegies, are read in this article as literary anamnesis that show the recovery of memory about what is source for existence and for individual identity. The interpretation of the riddle encrypted in the poem (“the charade of flash”, “the buzzing puzzle of flight”) is conducted from the perspective of Gnostic though, Platonism and alchemy, in particular – due to the imagery and symbolism of the poem – the hermetic illuminations and emblems are referred to. In conclusion, it was pointed out that Leśmian’s poetry, as an integrative and polysensory anamnesis, awakens the reader’s memory.Bolesław Leśmian’s poem Pszczoły from the volume Napój cienisty (1936), as well as other texts by the poet containing a vision of bees and his autobiographical elegies, are read in this article as literary anamnesis that show the recovery of memory about what is source for existence and for individual identity. The interpretation of the riddle encrypted in the poem (“the charade of flash”, “the buzzing puzzle of flight”) is conducted from the perspective of Gnostic though, Platonism and alchemy, in particular – due to the imagery and symbolism of the poem – the hermetic illuminations and emblems are referred to. In conclusion, it was pointed out that Leśmian’s poetry, as an integrative and polysensory anamnesis, awakens the reader’s memory
