Adam Mickiewicz Collected Poetical Works by Adam Mickiewicz

Author:Adam Mickiewicz [Mickiewicz, Adam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Poetry
ISBN: 9781786562166
Publisher: Delphi Classics
Published: 2017-08-27T04:00:00+00:00

A Note on the Translation

The whole of Pan Tadeusz is composed in the “Polish Alexandrine,” or 13 syllable rhymed couplets. The typical line is further broken down into two units, each with three stresses and seven syllables before a Caesura.

LITwo ojCZYZno MOJa! / ty JEStes jak ZDROWie;

Ile cie TRZEba CENic, / ten TYLko sie DOWie.

It must be noted that Polish is a highly inflected language (6 case endings in common usage) and that, unlike English, word order is relatively free. Thus, even to modern Polish readers, over 5,000 rhymed couplets barely strain the ear. The same cannot be said of the contemporary American or English reader who might wince at the necessary syntactical inversions and artifice needed to maintain the form. To my ear, the rhymed couplet seems inextricably linked to a very specific type of 18th century satirical verse or Dryden or Pope — decidedly pre-Romantic in character. And the 6-beat Alexandrine, rarely successful in English, seems, quite simply, too slow and plodding for the lively wit and action in Pan Tadeusz, which is only occasionally elegiac and stately. Therefore, I have chose to create a version of Pan Tadeusz that is primarily 10 syllables with 5 stresses, with alternating rhymes. (Though occasionally, I do employ rhymed couplets at the end of a stanza, somewhat in the manner of Byron’s Don Juan.) I must stress, though, that I have not followed this form so rigidly; I have taken formal liberties when I felt that other things — narration, meaning, translation, music, sense, etc. became more important. I was equally concerned with the formal concerns faced by contemporary poets writing in English, and I have tried to create a poem that is both contemporary and traditional, accessible and hauntingly distant.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.