Jan Brzechwa (), (15 August 1898 – 2 July 1966) was a

Polish poet List of poets who have written much of their poetry in Polish. See also Discussion Page for additional poets not listed here. There have been five Polish-language Nobel Prize laureates in literature: Henryk Sienkiewicz, Władysław Reymont, ...

, author and lawyer, known mostly for his contribution to children's literature. He was born Jan Wiktor Lesman to a Polish family of Jewish descent.Brzechwa, Jan (1898–1966)
''The YIVO encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe'', Volume 1. ''

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

'', 2008. .

Early life

Brzechwa was born in

Żmerynka Zhmerynka ( uk, Жмеринка ) is a city in Vinnytsia Oblast (Oblast, province) of central Ukraine. Serving as the Capital city, administrative center of the Zhmerynka Raion (Raion, district), the town itself is not a part of the district and ...

Podolia Podolia or Podilia ( uk, Поділля, Podillia, ; russian: Подолье, Podolye; ro, Podolia; pl, Podole; german: Podolien; be, Падолле, Padollie; lt, Podolė), is a historic region in Eastern Europe, located in the west-central ...

. His father was a

railway engineer Railway engineering is a multi-faceted engineering discipline dealing with the design, construction and operation of all types of rail transport systems. It encompasses a wide range of engineering disciplines, including civil engineering, compu ...

and Jan spent a lot of his childhood travelling around Eastern Poland ("

Kresy Eastern Borderlands ( pl, Kresy Wschodnie) or simply Borderlands ( pl, Kresy, ) was a term coined for the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic during the History of Poland (1918–1939), interwar period (1918–1939). Largely agricultural ...

") with his family. Brzechwa studied at the Jesuit college in Chyrów, (present day

Khyriv Khyriv (, ) is a town in Sambir Raion, Lviv Oblast (oblast, region) of Ukraine with a population of around It hosts the administration of Khyriv urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. It became known principally for the celebrated Epo ...

in Ukraine), and upon moving from

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, he graduated from the School of Law at the

Warsaw University The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...

. During the Polish-Soviet War, he volunteered for the 36th Regiment of the Academic Infantry Legion, a formation composed of university students and was decorated for his service. His formal writing debut took place in 1920 by way of various humor magazines. He worked as a lawyer and attorney for the Polish Society of Authors and Composers (ZAIKS) where he specialized and excelled in

copyright law A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

. Brzechwa was a cousin of another famous Polish poet,

Bolesław Leśmian Bolesław Leśmian (born Bolesław Lesman; January 22, 1877The exact date of his birth is disputed: the act of birth mentions 1877, Leśmian himself used 1878, while the date mentioned on his tombstone is 1879. – November 5, 1937) was a Pol ...

. He was married three times; first to Maria Sunderland, his first cousin once removed and a niece of the renowned Polish artist Celina Sunderland, :pl:Celina Sunderland then to Karolina Lentowa (née Meyer), and finally to Janina Magajewska (1915–1989). His daughter from his first marriage, Krystyna (born 1928), is a painter.

Literary output

''Jan Brzechwa'' was the writer's pseudonym. The name Brzechwa translates into '

fletching Fletching is the fin-shaped aerodynamic stabilization device attached on arrows, bolts, darts, or javelins, and are typically made from light semi-flexible materials such as feathers or bark. Each piece of such fin is a fletch, also known as a ...

' (the tail section of an arrow). His poetry was written mostly in the melodic style of the 8-syllable accentual verse, the most popular rhythmic structure among the Polish stylistic variations.Reinhard Köhler, Gabriel Altmann, Raĭmond Genrikhovich Piotrovskiĭ
''Quantitative linguistics''.
Walter de Gruyter, 2005. . In 1926 he published ''Oblicza zmyślone'' ("Imaginary visages"), his first book of poems. His first set of poems for children ''Tańcowała igła z nitką'' ("Danced the needle with the thread") was published in 1937. Among his most popular works is '' Chrząszcz'' (''The Beetle''), a poem proverbial for the hardest-to-pronounce phrase in

Polish literature Polish literature is the literary tradition of Poland. Most Polish literature has been written in the Polish language, though other languages used in Poland over the centuries have also contributed to Polish literary traditions, including Latin, ...

, even for adult native

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

speakers. Its first line ''"W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie"'' (''In the town of Szczebrzeszyn a beetle buzzes in the reeds'') is the best known Polish

tongue-twister A tongue twister is a phrase that is designed to be difficult to articulate properly, and can be used as a type of spoken (or sung) word game. Additionally, they can be used as exercises to improve pronunciation and fluency. Some tongue twisters p ...

, in which almost all of the consonants make distinct buzzing sounds. Brzechwa is also popular in Poland for having written a number of lyrical children's poems. He was a translator of Russian literature, translating works by Aleksandr Pushkin, Sergey Yesienin and

Vladimir Mayakovskiy Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (, ; rus, Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский, , vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ məjɪˈkofskʲɪj, Ru-Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.ogg, links=y; – 14 Apr ...

. Brzechwa also wrote a long-running series of children's books based on the adventures of

Pan Kleks Ambroży Kleks, commonly referred to as Pan Kleks (Mr. Inkblot), is a fictional character in a series of books by Polish writer Jan Brzechwa. A series of movie adaptations of the books has been directed by Krzysztof Gradowski. Mr. Kleks is the ...

, the headmaster of a magical academy, and his students. Many of the Kleks books and plot points were made into a series of films in the 1980s, while the poem ''Pchła Szachrajka'' ('' Adventures of a Cheating Flea'') was developed into an animated film in 1989. Many of Brzechwa's texts have been translated into English by

Walter Whipple Walter Whipple (born 1943) is a Teaching Professor Emeritus of Polish in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages of Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah. From 1990 to 1993, Whipple served as the president of the Poland Warsaw Mis ...

, but as of 2004 they have yet to be published. Brzechwa died in Warsaw in 1966 and is buried at the

Powązki Cemetery Powązki Cemetery (; pl, Cmentarz Powązkowski), also known as Stare Powązki ( en, Old Powązki), is a historic necropolis located in Wola district, in the western part of Warsaw, Poland. It is the most famous cemetery in the city and one of t ...

, the most famous cemetery in the city.

Works

* 1926 – ''Oblicza zmyślone'' * 1937 – ''Tańcowała igła z nitką'' * 1938 – ''Kaczka Dziwaczka'' * 1946 – '' Akademia Pana Kleksa'' * 1946 – ''Ptasie plotki'' * 1946 – ''Pan Drops i jego trupa'' * 1948 – ''Na wyspach Bergamutach'' * 1948 – ''Opowiedział dzięcioł sowie'' * 1948 – ''Przygody rycerza Szaławiły'' * 1951 – ''Uczymy się chodzić'' * 1953 – ''Teatr Pietruszki'' * 1953 – ''Wagary'' * 1957 – ''Magik'' * 1958 – ''Wyssane z palca'' * 1958 – ''Sto bajek'' * 1961 – ''Podróże pana Kleksa'' * 1964 – ''Śmiechu warte'' * 1965 – ''Od baśni do baśni'' * 1965 – ''Tryumf pana Kleksa''

References

Poem "Na straganie" by Brzechwa in English translation
- Internet Archive copy of the ''accurapid.com''.
Poems by Jan Brzechwa in English translation
at ''paczemoj.blogspot.com''. Retrieved 14 December 2011.

External links

Jan Brzechwa
at Culture.pl
Jan Brzechwa
at poezja.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Brzechwa, Jan 1898 births 1966 deaths People from Zhmerynka 19th-century Polish Jews Polish children's writers Jewish poets University of Warsaw alumni Burials at Powązki Cemetery Children's poets 20th-century Polish poets 20th-century Polish male writers