Adam Mickiewicz
Polish national poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator, and political activist
Adam Mickiewicz (24 December 1798 – 26 November 1855) was a Polish writer and poet of Belarusian descent, considered by many to be the greatest Polish Romantic poet of the 19th century.
QuotesEdit
Dziady (Forefathers' Eve) [1]Edit
- Ty Boże, ty naturo! dajcie posłuchanie.
Godna to was muzyka i godne śpiewanie.
Ja mistrz!
Ja mistrz wyciągam dłonie!
Wyciągam aż w niebiosa i kładę me dłonie
Na gwiazdach jak na szklannych harmoniki kręgach.- Translation: Listen to me, God, and you, Nature!
Here is music that is worthy of you, songs that are worthy of you.
I am master!
Master, I stretch out my hands!
I stretch them to the sky, I place my fingers on the stars.
They are my musical glasses, my armonica.- Part three, scene two ("The Great Improvisation"). Translated by Louise Varese.
- Translation: Listen to me, God, and you, Nature!
- Kiedy spojrzę w kometę z całą mocą duszy,
Dopóki na nią patrzę, z miejsca się nie ruszy.- Translation: If I gaze at a comet with all the strength of my soul,
It cannot stir from the spot while my eyes are upon it.- Part three, scene two ("The Great Improvisation"). Translated by Louise Varese.
- Translation: If I gaze at a comet with all the strength of my soul,
- Ja i ojczyzna to jedno.
Nazywam się Miljion — bo za milijony
Kocham i cierpię katusze.- Translation: My fatherland and I are one great whole.
My name is million, for I love as millions;
Their pain and suffering I feel [...]- Part three, scene two. Translation from: Polish Romantic Drama: Three Plays in English Translation, translated by various hands, edited by George Rapall Noyes, with revisions by Harold B. Segel, Cornell University Press, 1977 (page 108).
- Translation: My fatherland and I are one great whole.
- Tyran wstał — Herod! — Panie, cała Polska młoda
Wydana w ręce Heroda.
Co widzę — długie, białe, dróg krzyżowych biegi,
Drogi długie — nie dojrzeć — przez puszcze, przez śniegi
Wszystkie na północ! tam, tam w kraj daleki,
Płyną jak rzeki.- Translation: A tyrant has arisen, Herod! Lord, the youth of Poland
Is all delivered into Herod's hands.
What do I see? Long snowy ways, with many crossroads,
White roads that stretch through wastes too distant to descry!
All running to the north, that far, far country,
As rivers flow; [...] - Part three, scene five. Translation from: Polish Romantic Drama: Three Plays in English Translation, translated by various hands, edited by George Rapall Noyes, with revisions by Harold B. Segel, Cornell University Press, 1977 (page 124).
- Translation: A tyrant has arisen, Herod! Lord, the youth of Poland
- Będę o to Pana Boga pytać,
On to wszystko zapisał, wszystko mnie opowie.- Translation: We'd better send
For God. He will remember and tell us all.- Part three, scene seven ("The Prisoner's Return"). Translated by Jerzy Peterkiewicz and Burns Singer.
- Translation: We'd better send
Crimean SonnetsEdit
- Monsters merge and welter through the water's mounting
Din. All hands, stand fast! A sailor sprints aloft,
Hangs, swelling spider-like, among invisible nets,
Surveys his slowly undulating snares, and waits.- "Żegluga" ("The Crossing"), translated by Richard A. Gregg.
- In spring's own country, where the gardens blow,
You faded, tender rose! For hours now past,
Like butterflies departing, on you're cast
The worms of memories to work you woe.- "Grób Potockiej" ("The Grave of the Countess Potocki"), translated by George Rapall Noyes.
Pan Tadeusz (Sir Thaddeus) [2]Edit
- Litwo! Ojczyzno moja! ty jesteś jak zdrowie;
Ile cię trzeba cenić, ten tylko się dowie, Kto cię stracił...- Translation: Lithuania, my country! You are as good health;
How much one should prize you, he only can tell, Who has lost you...- Opening lines, translated by Marcel Weyland
- Translation: Lithuania, my country! You are as good health;
- Sound as a burrow'd marmot he slept
On the straw where he'd tumbled fully-dressed that night.- Book Four: Tadeusz' Awakening (trans. Christopher Adam Zakrzewski).
