Jan Kasprowicz (December 12, 1860 – August 1, 1926) was a
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
,
playwrightA playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. These works are usually written to be performed in front of a live audience by actors...
,
criticThe word critic comes from the Greek , "able to discern", which in turn derives from the word , meaning a person who offers reasoned judgment or analysis, value judgment, interpretation, or observation...
and translator; a foremost representative of
Young PolandYoung Poland is a modernist period in Polish visual arts, literature and music, covering roughly the years between 1890 and 1918. It was an effect of strong opposition to the ideas of Positivism and promoted trends of decadence, neo-romanticism, symbolism, impressionism and art...
.
Kasprowicz was born in the village of Szymborze (no part of Inowrocław) within the
Province of PosenThe Province of Posen was a province of Prussia from 1848–1918 and as such part of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918. The area was about 29,000 km2....
, to an illiterate
peasantA peasant is an agricultural worker who subsists by working a small plot of ground. The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district A peasant is an agricultural worker who subsists...
family. From 1870 he studied in
PrussianThe Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918, until the defeat of Germany in World War I, was the leading state of the German Empire, comprising almost two-thirds of the area of the empire...
gymnasiumsA gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools...
in Inowrocław,
PosenPoznań is a city in west-central Poland with over 557,264 inhabitants . Located on the Warta River, it is one of the oldest cities in Poland, making it an important historical centre and a vibrant centre of trade, industry, and education. Poznań is Poland's fifth largest city and fourth biggest...
,
OppelnOpole is a city in southern Poland on the Oder River . It has a population of 129,553 and is the capital of the Opole Voivodeship, and also the seat of Opole County. It is the historical capital of Upper Silesia...
,
RatiborRacibórz is a town in southern Poland with 60,218 inhabitants situated in the Silesian Voivodeship , previously in Katowice Voivodeship...
, and in 1884 graduated from Mary Magdalen Gymnasium in Posen. He studied philosophy and literature in German universities in
LeipzigLeipzig is, with a population of 515,459, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany.-Origins:Leipzig's name is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk, which means "settlement where the lime trees stand"....
and Breslau.
Jan Kasprowicz (December 12, 1860 – August 1, 1926) was a
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
,
playwrightA playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. These works are usually written to be performed in front of a live audience by actors...
,
criticThe word critic comes from the Greek , "able to discern", which in turn derives from the word , meaning a person who offers reasoned judgment or analysis, value judgment, interpretation, or observation...
and translator; a foremost representative of
Young PolandYoung Poland is a modernist period in Polish visual arts, literature and music, covering roughly the years between 1890 and 1918. It was an effect of strong opposition to the ideas of Positivism and promoted trends of decadence, neo-romanticism, symbolism, impressionism and art...
.
Life
Kasprowicz was born in the village of Szymborze (no part of Inowrocław) within the
Province of PosenThe Province of Posen was a province of Prussia from 1848–1918 and as such part of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918. The area was about 29,000 km2....
, to an illiterate
peasantA peasant is an agricultural worker who subsists by working a small plot of ground. The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district A peasant is an agricultural worker who subsists...
family. From 1870 he studied in
PrussianThe Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918, until the defeat of Germany in World War I, was the leading state of the German Empire, comprising almost two-thirds of the area of the empire...
gymnasiumsA gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools...
in Inowrocław,
PosenPoznań is a city in west-central Poland with over 557,264 inhabitants . Located on the Warta River, it is one of the oldest cities in Poland, making it an important historical centre and a vibrant centre of trade, industry, and education. Poznań is Poland's fifth largest city and fourth biggest...
,
OppelnOpole is a city in southern Poland on the Oder River . It has a population of 129,553 and is the capital of the Opole Voivodeship, and also the seat of Opole County. It is the historical capital of Upper Silesia...
,
RatiborRacibórz is a town in southern Poland with 60,218 inhabitants situated in the Silesian Voivodeship , previously in Katowice Voivodeship...
, and in 1884 graduated from Mary Magdalen Gymnasium in Posen. He studied philosophy and literature in German universities in
LeipzigLeipzig is, with a population of 515,459, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany.-Origins:Leipzig's name is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk, which means "settlement where the lime trees stand"....
and Breslau. During his studies he began having articles and poetry published, working with various Polish magazines. For his activities in socialist circles he was twice arrested by Prussian police and spent half a year in prison.
After his release from prison, at the age of 28 Kasprowicz moved to
LwówLviv is a major city in western Ukraine.It is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically also for Ukraine’s neighbour Poland. The historic centre of Lviv with its old buildings and cobblestone roads has survived the Second World War and the Soviet presence...
, where he spent the next 35 years of his life. He worked as a journalist and critic of literature and theatre, working for two years in the editorial department of the newspaper, the
Polish Courier (
Kurier Polski) and for the following four years (1902-1906) editorializing for the newspaper, the
Polish Word (
Słowo Polskie). At the same time, with unusual productivity, Kasprowicz wrote and had published his own works and poetry, to critical acclaim.
In 1904 he received a doctorate from Lwów University for his
treatiseA treatise is a formal and systematic exposition in writing of the principles of a subject, generally longer and more detailed than an essay...
, the
Lyrics of Teofil Lenartowicz (
Liryka Teofila Lenartowicza). In 1909 at Lwów University he became the head of the Department of
Comparative LiteratureComparative literature is critical scholarship dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...
, a department founded for him to run.
The largely self-taught Kasprowicz mastered the
classical LatinClassical Latin in simplest terms is the sociolinguistic register of the Latin language regarded by the enfranchised and empowered populations of the late Roman republic and the Roman empire as good Latin. Most writers during this time made use of it...
and
GreekAncient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic , Classical , and Hellenistic periods of ancient Greece and the ancient world. It is predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
languages, as well as
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
and English. His works included critically acclaimed translations of great literary works:
- Greek (Aeschylus
Aeschylus was an ancient Greek playwright. He is often recognized as the father of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedians whose plays survive, the others being Sophocles and Euripides...
, EuripidesEuripides was the lastof the three great tragedians of classical Athens . Ancient scholars thought that Euripides had written ninety-five plays, although four of those were probably written by Critias...
)
- English (Shakespeare, Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. The foremost Elizabethan tragedian next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious and untimely death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest...
, Lord Byron, ShelleyPercy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded among the finest lyric poets in the English language...
, KeatsJohn Keats was an English poet, who became one of the key figures of the Romantic movement. Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, Keats was one of the second generation Romantic poets...
, TagoreRabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath. As a poet, novelist, musician, and playwright, he reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
, Swinburne, WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish playwright, poet and author of numerous short stories and one novel. Known for his biting wit, he became one of the most successful playwrights of the late Victorian era in London, and one of the greatest "celebrities" of his day...
, among others)
- German (Goethe, Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller [johan/joːhan krɪstɔf friːtʁɪç fɔn ʃɪləʁ/ʃɪlɐ] was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright...
)
- French (Vauvenargues
Vauvenargues may refer to:* Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues, French writer* Vauvenargues, a commune of the Bouches-du-Rhône département in southern France, near Aix-en-Provence...
, BertrandLouis-Jacques-Napoléon “Aloysius” Bertrand was a French poet instrumental in the introduction of the prose poem into French literature and is credited with inspiring later Symbolist poets...
, RimbaudJean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet, born in Charleville, Ardennes. As part of the decadent movement, his influence on modern literature, music and art has been enduring and pervasive...
, MaeterlinckMaurice Polydore Marie Bernard, Count Maeterlinck was a Belgian playwright, poet and essayist who wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911. The main themes in his work are death and the meaning of life...
)
- Italian (d'Annunzio
Gabriele D'Annunzio was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist, dramatist, and daredevil...
)
- Norwegian (Ibsen
Henrik Johan Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as the "father of modern drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre. His plays were considered scandalous to many of his era, when Victorian values of family...
)
- Dutch (Heijermans
Herman Heijermans , was a Dutch writer.Heijermans grew up in a liberal Jewish family as the fifth of 11 children of Herman Heijermans Sr. and Matilda Moses Spiers. In the Amsterdam Handelsblad he published a series of sketches of Jewish family life under the pseudonym of Samuel Falkland, which were...
)
Nature gifted Kasprowicz with good health and a strong constitution. Stanisław Lem wrote of him: "He had in his bearing the originality of a gypsy and the hustle of a journalist, which, over time, allowed him to earn the money he needed, gave him the good humour of a friend, and - even then - a professorial gravity." He was - with a notable group of friends - a frequent guest at the pubs and wineries of Lwów, especially the famous winery and wine bar of Stadtmueller still present at the market, number 34.
His first marriage — to Teodozja Szymańska in 1886 — dissolved after a few months. In 1893 he married Jadwiga Gąsowska. In 1899 she dramatically left him and their daughters for the writer Stanisław Przybyszewski. In 1911, he was married again, this time to the much younger Maria Bunin, a Russian girl whom he met on a train from
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
to
NaplesNaples in Italy, is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples. The city is known for its rich history, art, culture, architecture, music and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,800 years old...
while on one of his artistic travels. She was the daughter of the Tsarist general, Victor Bunin.
In 1921-22 he was
rectorThe word rector has a number of different meanings; they indicate an academic, religious or political administrator...
of Lwów University.
In the last twenty years of his life, Kasprowicz more and more frequently visited the
Tatra MountainsThe Tatra Mountains, Tatras or Tatra , constitute a mountain range which forms a natural border between Slovakia and Poland. They occupy an area of 750 km², the major part of which lies in Slovakia. The highest mountain is Gerlach at 2,655 m, located in Slovakia just north of Poprad...
. In 1923 he permanently settled in the villa, "Harenda", between
PoroninPoronin is a village in southern Poland situated in Tatra County of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999 . It lies approximately north-east of Zakopane and south of the regional capital Kraków....
and
ZakopaneZakopane is a town in southern Poland with some 28,000 inhabitants , situated in Lesser Poland Province since 1999...
, where he died on August 1, 1926.
Works
- (1889) Poezje (Poems)
- (1890) Chrystus (Christ)
- (1891) Z chłopskiego zagonu (From Rustic Field)
- (1894) Anima lachrymans i inne nowe poezje (Anima lachrymans and another new poems)
- (1895) Miłość (The Love)
- (1898) Krzak dzikiej róży (The Briar's Bush)
- (1901) Ginącemu światu (To The Perishing World)
- (1902) Salve Regina
- (1908) Ballada o słoneczniku (The Ballad About Sunflower)
- (1911) Chwile (Moments)
- (1916) Księga ubogich (The Book of The Poor)
- (1921) Hymny (The Hymnal)
Further reading
- Mortkowicz-Olczakowa, Hanna (1961). Bunt wspomnień. Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy.
External links