The ''Laments'' (also ''
Lamentations'' or ''
Threnodies''; pl, Treny, originally spelled ''Threny'') are a series of nineteen
threnodies (
elegies) by
Jan Kochanowski. Written in
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 ...
and published in 1580, they are a highlight of
Polish Renaissance
The Renaissance in Poland ( pl, Renesans, Odrodzenie; literally: the Rebirth) lasted from the late 15th to the late 16th century and is widely considered to have been the Golden Age of Polish culture. Ruled by the Jagiellonian dynasty, the Crown ...
literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
, and one of Kochanowski's signature achievements.
[Poet's Corner: "Jan Kochanowski's ''Threnodies''](_blank)
", in ''Warsaw Voice
''Warsaw Voice: Polish and Central European Review'' (shortly ''The Warsaw Voice'') is an English-language newspaper printed in Poland, concentrating on news about Poland and its neighbours. First released in October 1988, it is a general news ma ...
'', no. 43 (470) (October 26, 1997). Includes ''Threnody V''.[ "Jan KOCHANOWSKI](_blank)
, by Prof. Edmund Kotarski, in the ''Virtual Library of Polish Literature''.
Excerpts from the book, ''Jan Kochanowski, The Threnodies, and The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys'', by Barry Keane. Includes ''Threnodies'' I, III, VI, XII and XIX.
Composition
Jan Kochanowski was a prominent Polish poet. Kochanowski wrote the ''Laments'' on the occasion of the 1579 death of his daughter Urszula (in English, "Ursula").
Little is known of Urszula (or ''Urszulka''—"little Ursula"), except that at her death she was two and a half years old. Her tender age has caused some critics to question Kochanowski's truthfulness, when he describes her as a budding
poetess — a "Slavic
Sappho
Sappho (; el, Σαπφώ ''Sapphō'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her Greek lyric, lyric poetry, written to be sung while ...
". There is, however, no doubt as to the unaffected sentiments expressed in the nineteen
Roman-numbered ''Laments'', of varying length, which still speak to readers across the four and a quarter centuries since they were composed.
The poems express Kochanowski's boundless grief; and, standing in sharp contrast to his previous works, which had advocated such values as
stoicism
Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century Common Era, BCE. It is a philosophy of personal virtue ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world, asser ...
, can be seen as the poet's own critique of his earlier work. In a wider sense, they show a thinking man of the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
at a moment of crisis when he is forced, through suffering and the stark confrontation of his ideals with reality, to re-evaluate his former
humanistic philosophy of life.
The ''Laments'' belong to a
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
poetic
genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
of grief (
threnody
A threnody is a wailing ode, song, hymn or poem of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person. The term originates from the Greek word θρηνῳδία (''threnoidia''), from θρῆνος (''threnos'', "wailing") and ᾠδ ...
, or
elegy), and the entire work comprises parts characteristic of
epicedia: the first poems introduce the tragedy and feature a
eulogy of the decedent; then come verses of
lament
A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about somethin ...
ation, demonstrating the magnitude of the poet's loss and grief; followed at last by verses of
consolation and instruction.
Kochanowski, while drawing on the achievements of
classical poets such as
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
,
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...
,
Plutarch
Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''P ...
,
Seneca
Seneca may refer to:
People and language
* Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname
* Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America
** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people
Places Extrat ...
and
Statius, as well as on later works by
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists.
Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...
and his own Renaissance contemporaries such as
Pierre de Ronsard
Pierre de Ronsard (; 11 September 1524 – 27 December 1585) was a French poet or, as his own generation in France called him, a "prince of poets".
Early life
Pierre de Ronsard was born at the Manoir de la Possonnière, in the village of C ...
, stepped outside the borders of known genres, and his ''Laments'' constitute a mixed form ranging from
epigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...
to
elegy to
epitaph
An epitaph (; ) is a short text honoring a deceased person. Strictly speaking, it refers to text that is inscribed on a tombstone or plaque, but it may also be used in a figurative sense. Some epitaphs are specified by the person themselves be ...
, not to mention
psalmodic song.
When the ''Treny'' were published (1580), Kochanowski was criticized for having taken as the subject of his ''Laments'' the death of a young child, against the prevailing literary convention that this form should be reserved for "great men" and "great events."
Influence
The ''Laments'' are numbered among the greatest attainments of Polish poetry.
Their exquisite
conceits and artistry made them a model to ''literati'' of the 16th and especially the 17th century.
The ''Laments'' have also inspired musician
and painters such as
Jan Matejko
Jan Alojzy Matejko (; also known as Jan Mateyko; 24 June 1838 – 1 November 1893) was a Poles, Polish painting, painter, a leading 19th-century exponent of history painting, known for depicting nodal events from Polish history. His works includ ...
.
Translation into English
* 1920 by Dorothea Prall
* 1995 by
Stanisław Barańczak and
Nobel-laureate poet
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.
''Lament 1''
All
Heraclitus
Heraclitus of Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἡράκλειτος , "Glory of Hera"; ) was an ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from the city of Ephesus, which was then part of the Persian Empire.
Little is known of Heraclitus's life. He wrote ...
' tears, all
threnodies
And plaintive
dirges of
Simonides
Simonides of Ceos (; grc-gre, Σιμωνίδης ὁ Κεῖος; c. 556–468 BC) was a Greek lyric poet, born in Ioulis on Kea (island), Ceos. The scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria included him in the canonical list of the nine lyric p ...
,
All
keens and slow
airs in the world, all
grief
Grief is the response to loss, particularly to the loss of someone or some living thing that has died, to which a bond or affection was formed. Although conventionally focused on the emotional response to loss, grief also has physical, cogni ...
s,
Wrung hands, wet eyes,
lament
A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about somethin ...
s and
epitaph
An epitaph (; ) is a short text honoring a deceased person. Strictly speaking, it refers to text that is inscribed on a tombstone or plaque, but it may also be used in a figurative sense. Some epitaphs are specified by the person themselves be ...
s,
All, all assemble, come from every quarter,
Help me to mourn my small girl, my dear daughter,
Whom cruel
Death
Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
tore up with such wild force
Out of my life, it left me no recourse.
So the snake, when he finds a hidden nest
Of fledgling
nightingales, rears and strikes fast
Repeatedly, while the poor mother bird
Tries to distract him with a fierce, absurd
Fluttering — but in vain! the venomous tongue
Darts, and she must retreat on ruffled wing.
"You weep in vain," my friends will say. But then,
What is not in vain, by God, in lives of men?
All is in vain! We play at
blindman's buff
Until hard edges break into our path.
Man's life is
error. Where, then, is relief?
In shedding tears or wrestling down my grief?
[From the Stanisław Barańczak-]Seamus Heaney
Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. translation, p. 3.
See also
*
Elegy
*
Lament
A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about somethin ...
*
Sapphic stanza in Polish poetry
The Sapphic stanza is the only stanzaic form adapted from Greek and Latin poetry to be used widely in Polish literature. It was introduced during the Renaissance, and since has been used frequently by many prominent poets. The importance of the Sa ...
*
Threnody
A threnody is a wailing ode, song, hymn or poem of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person. The term originates from the Greek word θρηνῳδία (''threnoidia''), from θρῆνος (''threnos'', "wailing") and ᾠδ ...
*
Mikołaj Rej
*
Anna Stanisławska
Anna Stanisławska (1651 – 2 June 1701) was a Polish author and poet known for her sole work ''Transakcja albo opisanie całego życia jednej sieroty przez żałosne treny od tejże samej pisane roku 1685'', translated as ''Transaction, or a De ...
Notes
References
*Barry Keane, ''Jan Kochanowski, Threnodies and The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys''.
*
Jan Kochanowski, ''Laments'', translated by
Stanisław Barańczak and
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. , New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995.
*
Jan Kochanowski, ''Laments'', translated by
Michael J. Mikos
Michael J. Mikos is a professor of foreign languages and literature at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
He specializes in Polish language, literature, and culture.
He is also a translator and has rendered many works of Polish literature ...
, Warsaw, Constanz, 1995.
*
Jan Kochanowski, ''Treny: the Laments of Kochanowski'', translated by Adam Czerniawski, Oxford, Legenda, 2001.
*
Michael J. Mikos
Michael J. Mikos is a professor of foreign languages and literature at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
He specializes in Polish language, literature, and culture.
He is also a translator and has rendered many works of Polish literature ...
, ''Polish Renaissance Literature: an Anthology'', Slavica Publishers, 1995.
External links
*, review of ''Laments'' translation by Barańczak and Heaney, by Felicity Rosslyn, ''Cambridge Quarterly'', volume 26, issue 4.
Bringing a Great Poet Back to Life review of ''Laments'' translation by Barańczak and Heaney. by
Czesław Miłosz
Czesław Miłosz (, also , ; 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. Regarded as one of the great poets of the 20th century, he won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation ...
, ''
New York Review of Books'', vol. 43, no. 3 (February 15, 1996). See als
this reply*
ttp://www.instytutksiazki.pl/index.php?id=19&L=1&user_fragmenty_pi1%5BshowUid%5D=149&cHash=abd83f038c Treny. Short descriptions and translation of 1 and 8 by Adam Czerniawskibr>
Treny. The Laments of KochanowskiReview of Czerniawski's translation, by Steven Clancy, ''
Sarmatian Review'', vol. XXIII, no. 1 January 2003.
Trenynbsp;– all the poems of the ''Treny'' series.
and possible image of Urszula
''Laments'' translated by Dorothea Prall
* {{librivox book , title=Treny - Laments, author=Kochanowski (English and Polish)
1580 books
Polish poems
Laments