Poland’s Angry Romantic Poland’s Angry Romantic: Two Poems and a Play by Juliusz Słowacki Edited and translated by Peter Cochran Bill Johnston Mirosława Modrzewska Catherine O’Neil Poland’s Angry Romantic: Two Poems and a Play by Juliusz Słowacki, Edited and translated by Peter Cochran, Bill Johnston, Mirosława Modrzewska, Catherine O’Neil This book first published 2009 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2009 by Peter Cochran, Bill Johnston, Mirosława Modrzewska, Catherine O’Neil All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-0980-2, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-0980-1 These three translations were not conceived for a single volume, but it at once seemed natural to put them into one. My thanks to my three colleagues for their assistance. We are also grateful to Marcin Leszczyński for his help. — P.C. Bill Johnston’s work on Balladina was supported by a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. CONTENTS Introduction.................................................................................................1 Balladina...................................................................................................31 Act I Act II Act III Act IV Act V Agamemnon’s Tomb................................................................................157 Beniowski.................................................................................................171 Canto I Canto II Canto III Canto IV Canto V INTRODUCTION 1. Life and work Few poets are so lionized in their own country, and at the same time so unknown outside it, as Juliusz Słowacki (1809-1849), Poland’s “Angry Romantic.” Słowacki is a fascinating, brilliant, colourful character. Within Poland he has an unassailable position as one of the three great “bards” or wieszcze of the early nineteenth century, and one of the greatest Polish writers of all time. Yet by and large, and quite undeservedly, he is unknown to world literature. The current volume presents three of his most outstanding literary achievements in English translation, in most cases for the first time. In this introduction we shall set Słowacki’s work in the context of his literary and political times. Juliusz Słowacki was born on September 4th 1809, in Krzemieniec in the Volhynia region of Ukraine, a town second only to Vilna (Vilnius) as an eastern centre of Polish culture, although, since the Third Partition of 1795-7 (see below), it was in Russian territory. Słowacki’s father Euzebiusz (who died when Słowacki was five) was a professor, classical poet, critic, and translator; his mother, an avid reader. He had a happy childhood, though early on he developed an ironical attitude to life, and had few friends – his closest, Ludwik Szpicnagel, commited suicide at the age of twenty-two. Słowacki became a competent amateur pianist. He spent his adolescence in Vilna, where he defended Mickiewicz in discussions between classicists and romantics, although this did not prevent a strong rivalry subsequently developing between the two poets. He fell in love with a strong-willed girl called Ludwika Śniadecka, but his feelings were apparently not reciprocated. He studied law between 1825 and 1828, but was bored by the bureaucratic job he had in Warsaw. Słowacki’s early poems are melancholy and pessimistic. He translated Moore and Lamartine. His French was fluent, and his English enabled him to read Shakespeare, Scott, and Byron in the original. He wrote two early plays, one about Mary Stuart, which is still performed. He composed oriental tales and poetic novels, and a narrative in verse, Jan Bielecki. On November 29th 1830 the Poles in Warsaw, capital of the “Kingdom of Poland,” a Russian territory, launched an uprising against 2 Introduction Russia. The “revolt” lasted several months until tsarist troops finally occupied Warsaw in 1831. Contemporaries (and historians to this day) argue about the reasons for the failure of what is known as the November Uprising, generally concurring it was because of ill-defined aims and confusion amongst its leaders. Słowacki took no part in the preparations for the insurrection of 1830, a fact for which he would later be reproached. He did, however, write an essential patriotic poem, Ode to Freedom (Oda do wolności, 1831), in which he invokes Luther, Cromwell, and Washington. Ode to Freedom came to be regarded as the “hymn” of the Uprising. Early in March 1831, at the urging of his mother and uncle, Słowacki left Warsaw for Dresden. The Polish National Government employed him as a courier, and his destination was London via Paris. He spent four months in Dresden studying, then went to London where he stayed several weeks, amongst other things seeing Kean play Richard III. Though he enjoyed the city, Paris was cheaper, and so, on the capitulation of Warsaw on September 8th 1831, he went back to France. It was in Paris that the greatest number of Polish refugees from the Tsarist terror had congregated. He lived largely in the insular émigré community, though, thanks to money from his father’s will, not in the poverty which was the lot of many Polish exiles. In Paris he was a most enthusiastic theatre- and opera-goer (see section below on Balladina). The letters he wrote to his mother describing the émigré life in Paris are considered masterpieces of Polish prose. In 1832 he had his two first volumes of poetry published. The first volume was narrative, the second dramatic. They made little impact. It was on reading them that Mickiewicz made his famous damning statement that Słowacki’s verse was “like a beautiful church without a god.” He meant that Słowacki appeared politically neutral, not merely that he was pessimistic and somewhat anti-clerical. Słowacki also spoke at meetings of the influential Polish Literary Society in Paris and made many important contacts, including Prince Adam Czartoryski, considered to be head (almost the king) of the Polish Government in exile, and the critic Maurycy Mochnacki. However, he was never intimately linked to the politics of the émigré community as Mickiewicz was. It was at this time that Mickiewicz published his famous drama Forefather’s Eve (Dziady), and also the best known and best loved of all Polish poems, Pan Tadeusz, establishing himself decisively as the national bard of Poland. In 1833 Słowacki wrote Lambro, in which the Byronically-named hero, a failed fighter against the Turks who dies in an opium haze, recalls many who took part in the Polish revolt. He