Anna Elżbieta Myszyńska (); ; 30 June 1931 – 30 September 2019) was a
Silesian writer, photographer, poet, translator and a promoter of
Silesian language
Silesian
* Polish: ''etnolekt śląski'', ''język śląski'', ''gwara śląska'', ''śląszczyzna''
* german: link=no, Schlonsakisch, Wasserpolnisch or Upper Silesian is a West Slavic ethnolect of either the Lechitic group or the Czech ...
and tradition.
Life
Myszyńska was born in
Kórnica
Kórnica (German ''Körnitz'') is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Krapkowice, within Krapkowice County, Opole Voivodeship
Opole Voivodeship, or Opole Province ( pl, województwo opolskie ), is the smallest and least populated ...
,
Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located ...
on 30 June 1931. She finished primary school in 1945. After the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, she worked for several years on her parents' farm
Biografia – Anna Myszyńska
' and on a farm in
Lipno,
Prudnik
Prudnik (, szl, Prudnik, Prōmnik, german: Neustadt in Oberschlesien, Neustadt an der Prudnik, la, Prudnicium) is a town in southern Poland, located in the southern part of Opole Voivodeship near the border with the Czech Republic. It is the ...
. She didn't attend school because she didn't know
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
, only Silesian. It was not until 1952 that she went to a nursing school in
Racibórz
Racibórz (german: Ratibor, cz, Ratiboř, szl, Racibōrz) is a city in Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland. It is the administrative seat of Racibórz County.
With Opole, Racibórz is one of the historic capitals of Upper Silesia, being t ...
, which she graduated as an
autodidactist with honors, and got a job at a hospital in
Opole
Opole (; german: Oppeln ; szl, Ôpole) ;
* Silesian:
** Silesian PLS alphabet: ''Ôpole''
** Steuer's Silesian alphabet: ''Uopole''
* Silesian German: ''Uppeln''
* Czech: ''Opolí''
* Latin: ''Oppelia'', ''Oppolia'', ''Opulia'' is a city loc ...
. In 1957, she graduated from the State School of Midwives in
Nysa
Nysa may refer to:
Greek Mythology
* Nysa (mythology) or Nyseion, the mountainous region or mount (various traditional locations), where nymphs raised the young god Dionysus
* Nysiads, nymphs of Mount Nysa who cared for and taught the infant ...
.
She moved to
Biała. She took up photography thanks to her husband, Bogdan Myszyński, with whom she ran a photography studio.
After retiring, she became a photojournalist for the "Panorama Bialska" newspaper. She took part in the Silesian dialect competition "Po naszymu, czyli po śląsku", organized by
Polish Radio Katowice. She started writing short stories in Silesian "Jak to piyrwej było" for the newspaper, in which she recalled her childhood, youth, church holidays, old customs and rituals related to the seasons and work in the countryside, while comparing them to the present day. Due to the lack of a separate alphabet for Silesian back then, she wrote the text in the way she spoke and heard herself in
Polish alphabet
The Polish alphabet (Polish: ''alfabet polski'', ''abecadło'') is the script of the Polish language, the basis for the Polish system of orthography. It is based on the Latin alphabet but includes certain letters with diacritics: the ''kreska'' ...
. In 1994, she received a proposal from
Polish Radio Opole to cooperate in the program "Nasz Heimat" conducted by the editor Andrzej Russak for the
German minority.
She was the originator of the Silesian Language Competition in Prudnik. She collaborated with "Tygodnik Prudnicki", for which she translated into Polish the content of the novel ''
Summer of Dead Dreams
''Summer of Dead Dreams'' (german: Sommer der toten Träume) is a novel by German writer Harry Thürk, published in 1993 by Mitteldeutscher Verlag. It is an autobiography with fictional elements.
The book was translated to English, Polish (by Mar ...
'' by
Harry Thürk
Harry Thürk (8 March 1927 – 24 November 2005) was a German writer.
Life
In 1934, Thürk moved with his family to Neustadt. After attending trade school, he began to work for the German train system (Reichsbahn). After being drafted in 1944 ...
.
She also translated ''
Romeo and Juliet
''Romeo and Juliet'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetim ...
'' into Silesian.
She died on 7 September 2019 in the hospice in Nysa.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Myszynska, Anna
1931 births
2019 deaths
People from Silesia
People from Prudnik