The ''Laments'' (also '' Lamentations'' or '' Threnodies''; , originally spelled ''Threny'') is a series of nineteen threnodies (

elegies An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to ''The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy'', "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometime ...

) written in

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

Jan Kochanowski Jan Kochanowski (; 1530 – 22 August 1584) was a Polish Renaissance poet who wrote in Latin and Polish and established poetic patterns that would become integral to Polish literary language. He has been called the greatest Polish poet before ...

and published in 1580. They are a high point of

Polish Renaissance The Renaissance in Poland ( , ; ) 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 of the Kingdom of Poland (from 1569 part of ...

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

, and one of Kochanowski's signal achievements.Poet's Corner: "Jan Kochanowski's ''Threnodies''
", in ''

Warsaw Voice ''Warsaw Voice: Polish and Central European Review'', commonly shortened to ''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 ge ...

'', no. 43 (470) (October 26, 1997). Includes ''Threnody V''. "Jan KOCHANOWSKI
, 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

, a prominent Polish poet, 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 young age has caused some critics to question Kochanowski's truthfulness, when he describes her as a budding poetess — a "Slavic

Sappho Sappho (; ''Sapphṓ'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; ) was an Ancient Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by music. In ancient times, Sapph ...

". 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 that flourished in ancient Greece and Rome. The Stoics believed that the universe operated according to reason, ''i.e.'' by a God which is immersed in nature itself. Of all the schools of ancient ...

, 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 ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

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

poetic

genre Genre () is any style or form 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 fo ...

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 ᾠ� ...

, or

elegy An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to ''The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy'', "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometime ...

), and the entire work comprises parts characteristic of epicedia: the first poems introduce the tragedy and feature a

eulogy A eulogy (from , ''eulogia'', Classical Greek, ''eu'' for "well" or "true", ''logia'' for "words" or "text", together for "praise") is a speech or writing in praise of a person, especially one who recently died or retired, or as a term o ...

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 something ...

ation, demonstrating the magnitude of the poet's loss and grief; followed at last by verses of

consolation Consolation, consolement, and solace are terms referring to psychological comfort given to someone who has suffered severe, upsetting loss, such as the death of a loved one. It is typically provided by expressing shared regret for that loss and ...

and instruction. Kochanowski, while drawing on the achievements of classical poets such as

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient 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. Despite doubts about his autho ...

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

, Seneca and

Statius Publius Papinius Statius (Greek language, Greek: Πόπλιος Παπίνιος Στάτιος; , ; ) was a Latin poetry, Latin poet of the 1st century CE. His surviving poetry includes an epic in twelve books, the ''Thebaid (Latin poem), Theb ...

, as well as on later works by

Petrarch Francis Petrarch (; 20 July 1304 – 19 July 1374; ; modern ), born Francesco di Petracco, was a scholar from Arezzo and poet of the early Italian Renaissance, as well as one of the earliest Renaissance humanism, humanists. Petrarch's redis ...

and his own Renaissance contemporaries such as

Pierre de Ronsard Pierre de Ronsard (; 11 September 1524 – 27 December 1585) was a French poet known in his generation as a "Prince des poètes, prince of poets". His works include ''Les Amours de Cassandre'' (1552)'','' ''Les Hymnes'' (1555-1556)'', Les Disco ...

, stepped outside the borders of known genres, and his ''Laments'' constitute a mixed form ranging from

epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word derives from the Greek (, "inscription", from [], "to write on, to inscribe"). This literary device has been practiced for over two millennia ...

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

psalm The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of H ...

odic 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

conceit An extended metaphor, also known as a conceit or sustained metaphor, is the use of a single metaphor or analogy at length in a work of literature. It differs from a mere metaphor in its length, and in having more than one single point of contact be ...

s 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 Polish painter, a leading 19th-century exponent of history painting, known for depicting nodal events from Polish history. His works include large scale ...

Translation into English

A number of scholars and translators have translated some of Kochanowski's Laments into English. They include, among others, Dorothea Prall in 1920 and

Stanisław Barańczak Stanisław Barańczak (, November 13, 1946December 26, 2014) was a Polish poet, literary critic, scholar, editor, translator and lecturer. He is perhaps most well known for his English-to- Polish translations of the dramas of William Shakes ...

and Nobel-laureate poet

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish Irish poetry, poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is ''Death of a Naturalist'' (1966), his first m ...

in 1995.

Notes

References

*Barry Keane, ''Jan Kochanowski, Threnodies and The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys''. *

, ''Laments'', translated by

and

, New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995. *

, ''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. *

, ''Treny: the Laments of Kochanowski'', translated by Adam Czerniawski, Oxford, Legenda, 2001. *

, ''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 ( , , ; 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. He primarily wrote his poetry in Polish language, Polish. Regarded as one of the great poets of the ...

, ''

New York Review of Books New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

'', 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 Kochanowski
Review of Czerniawski's translation, by Steven Clancy, '' Sarmatian Review'', vol. XXIII, no. 1 January 2003.
Treny
nbsp;– 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 Works by Jan Kochanowski

Composition

Influence

Translation into English

See also

Notes

References

External links