Felicjan Medard Faleński (5 June 1825 – 11 October 1910) was a Polish poet, playwright, prosaist and translator.

Personal life

Faleński was born in Warsaw to Józef Faleński, a Supreme Court Judge, who closely collaborated with Nikołaj Nowosilcow, and Apolonia (née Jeszko). He attended a provincial gymnasium in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, studied law and became a member of a secret circle of lawyers. At university he met

Cyprian Kamil Norwid Cyprian Kamil Norwid (; – 23 May 1883) was a Polish poet, dramatist, painter, sculptor, and philosopher. He is now considered one of the four most important Polish Romantic poets, though scholars still debate whether he is more aptly descr ...

and

Józef Ignacy Kraszewski Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (28 July 1812 – 19 March 1887) was a Polish novelist, journalist, historian, publisher, painter, and musician. Born in Warsaw into a noble family, he spent much of his youth with his maternal grandparents in Romanów ...

. He also participated in clandestine groupings. Forced to escape from arrest, Faleński left the country and emigrated to

East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...

. After his return he worked in the library of the Zamoyski and during the Spring of Nations came back to conspirational activity. He was published in the periodical "Warsaw Library" in 1850. Next he lived in

Radom Radom is a city in east-central Poland, located approximately south of the capital, Warsaw. It is situated on the Mleczna River in the Masovian Voivodeship. Radom is the fifteenth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in its province w ...

and accepted a job as a teacher in

Sandomierz Sandomierz (pronounced: ; , ) is a historic town in south-eastern Poland with 23,863 inhabitants (), situated on the Vistula River near its confluence with the San, in the Sandomierz Basin. It has been part of Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (Holy ...

. In 1855 he returned to Warsaw and took up writing. During the

January Uprising The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last i ...

Faleński supported the radical faction, called the Reds. In 1858 he married Maria Trębicka, to whom Norwid had proposed unsuccessfully.

Creation

As a wrighter Faleński remained independent of contemporary literary trends. He practiced intellectual-reflective lyricism, moving psychological and moral issues in tone of skeptical irony. His poetry characterized by a wealth of strophic and versification forms as also an unusual imagery. He was the first Polish researcher of Edgar Allan Poe's works. He made an original analysis of Kochanowski's epigrams and lamentations, analyzed the works of Mikołaj Sęp Szarzyński, prepared Teodor Krzywicki's edition of poetry and announced a lot of translations. Regarded as a conjurer of poetic form and one of the first explorers of „literary Tatras”, he was the first Polish author of so-called meanders. His poems under the mantle of biting irony and the sophisticated, classical form of hidden deep sorrow caused by vanishing happiness, death and lie rooted in human nature. The poet was inspired by the literary achievements of Leconte de Lisle, often referring to the color of Orient, Greek mythology, the tradition of ancient Egypt or Slavic culture. He also reached humorous motifs. Some of his works are parodic interpretations of myths and legends. Faleński treated poetic translations not only as an approximation of foreign literature, but also as a full-fledged component of his work. He has translated the literature of different times, including artists such as Hesiod, Horace, Petrarch, Victor Hugo or Alfred de Musset. Frequently he explained only the most important and interesting excerpts from larger works, trying to give back the original values using the Polish historical and individual styles, while many of his contemporary translators adapted translations to their own stylistic convention.

Works

Collections of poetry

* Kwiaty i kolce – The flowers and the spikes (1856) * Selected poems (1861) * Z po nad mogił – From over the graves (1870) * Odgłosy z gór – The sounds of the mountains (1871) * Przebrzmiałe dźwięki – The outworn sounds (1874) * Świstki Sylena – The scraps of Sylen (1876) * Meandry – The Meanders (1892) * Pieśni spóźnione – The late songs (1893)

Collections of prose and drama

* Postacie z latarni czarnoksięskiej – The characters from the wizard lantern (1875) * Novels (1884) * Dramas (1899, 3 volumes) * Tańce śmierci – Dances of death (1964)

Theoretical-literary works

* Edgar Allan Poe and his novels (1861) * About Jan Kochanowski as a lyric (1867) * Lamentations of Jan Kochanowski (1867)

Translations

* Chopin, Liszt (1873) * The Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare (1875) * The songs of Petrarch (1881) * The vain desires, Juvenal (1892) * The mad Orland, Ariosto (1902)

References

* * Maria Podraza-Kwiatkowska: Literatura Młodej Polski. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1997, s. 54. * Julian Tuwim i Juliusz W. Gomulicki: Księga wierszy polskich XIX wieku. Tom II. Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1956, s. 297, 298. * Henryk Markiewicz: Pozytywizm. Warszawa: PWN, 1999, s. 277. {{DEFAULTSORT:Falenski, Felicjan Medard 1825 births 1910 deaths Polish translators 19th-century Polish translators Polish male poets 19th-century Polish male writers Polish positivists