31 River Barges (Wiciny) are large boats on the Nieman used to trade With the Prussians, principally grain.
32 Zrazy are “rashers,” a Polish dish of minced beef combined with butter Spices, onion, salt, pepper, egg, breadcrumbs — fried, broiled, or stewed.
33 Bonoczyk is a diminutive for Bonaparte (Napoleon).
34 Sukin is a name taken from the Polish word for bitch— “suka.”
35 Kuzodusin means, literally, “goat-strangler.”
36 Bialotrowicz was the last Secretary of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , highly honored for his virtue and patriotism.
37 Prince Dominik Radziwill was a great lover of hinting, who emigrated to the Warsaw Duchy and equipped, at his own expense, a cavalry regiment, which he commanded. He was the last male of one of the most powerful noble families in Poland, if not all of Europe.
38 Fox-Maiden (Lisica – Cantarellus cibarius) Pine-Lover) Borowik – Boletus edulis) Orange-Agaric (Rydz – Araricus deliciosus) Fly-Bane (Muchomie – Amanita Muscaria) Leaf-Mushroon (Surojadki – Russala) Kozlak – Boletus Funnels (Lajki –Agaricus chloraides) Whities (Bielkai – Agaricus pieratus) Puffballs (Puchawski – Lycoperdon bovista)
39 A reference to a popular song of the time, Serce nie sluga, “The heart is not a slave.”
40 Compare this to A Walk in Rural Russia, Vladimir Soloushkin: “I remember that once we were strolling through some botanical gardens in the Caucasus. The trees bore labels with wonderful names inscribed on them: yucca, eucalyptus, laurocerasus. After a time we grew tired of marveling at the spread of the branches, the thickness of the trunks, the quaintness of the foliage. Suddenly we saw a quite unusual tree, like no other in the whole garden, it was white as snow, a tender green like young grass, and it stood out sharply against the somewhat uniform coloring of the background. We saw it then with new eyes and valued it in a new way. The label told us that there stood before us a common birch. Just try lying under a birch tree on soft, cool grass, when only fragments of sunlight and the clear blue of the midday sky are glimpsed through the leaves, how the birch will whisper to you, bending softly to your ear, what tender words and wonderful stories it will murmur, and what a feeling of contentment it will bring! The think of a palm tree. One cannot even lie beneath it, for either there is no grass at all, or it is dry, dusty and prickly. The leaves of the palm rattle in the wind as though they were tin or plywood, and there is no caress of feeling in the sound.”
41 Orlowski was a noted Polish genre painter.
42 Leaches were a bred of small English bulldogs used for hunting game, especially bears.
43 Prince Giedymin (died 1341) had a prophetic dream on the mountain of Ponary — the founder of Lithuania. Lizejko (the last pagan high priest of Lithuania) founded the city of Wilno (Vilnius in Lithuanian). Mindowa the Great of Mendog and Witenas were early Lithuanian princes.
44 Kiejstut and Olgierd were the sons of Giedymin. Kiejstut’s son, Witold, was a warrior-prince; Olgierd’s son was Jagiello.
45 Zygmunt August (1548-1572) crowned himself with a soft cap (kolpak) — a great lover of hunting.
46 The Baublis tree was a great, ancient oak, sacred in pagan times. Its interior had been transformed into a museum of Lithuania antiquities.
47 The parish church in Mickiewicz’ Nowogrodek stood near a grove of lindens, Many of which were felled in 1812.
48 Jan Kochanowski (1530-1584) was the greatest Polish poet before Mickiewicz. Czarnolas, Blackwood, was his country estate. One of his poems describes this linden: Seat yourself beneath my leaves and take a needed rest; The sun won’t reach you, I promise you won’t be oppressed. The highest, hottest rays, like dripping liquid tallow, Will not pull back or scatter my tiniest shadow. Here you’ll find cool wind seeping from field and plain; Here nightingales and starlings bewitchingly complain. From my fragrant flower the hardworking, diligent bee Ennobles gentlemen’s tables with gathered honey. And I know how to rustle my leaves, how to repeat The soft sound, to lull you to a sleep that is sweet. And though I bear no apples, you will be just as pleased Had you chanced upon the Garden of Hesperides.
49 Kolomajka is a Ukrainian dance, sung and danced at the same time.
50 Mazurka is the diminutive for of Mazur, one of the five Polish national dances — popularized, of course, by Chopin.
51 Jeszcze Polska nie zginela….”Poland has not yet perished…” is the Polish national anthem. It was originally sung by the Polish Legions under Dombrowski.
52 The cimbalom is a harp-like instrument played by striking the strings with small sticks or hammers. The instrument is still common in some regions of Poland and Slovakia, and with Gypsy bands in Hungary and Romania. It is similar to the Amercian Appalachian mountain hammer dulcimer. The is also, most likely, a reference to Psalm 137: By the Rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows, in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song, and they that wasted us Required of us mirth: saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion.” How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?
53 Jews in Poland, though not persecuted, formed a separate class and did not participate in the government. Although separated from Poles by religion, customs, and language, instances of intermarriage and assimilation were not uncommon.
54 The image of Our Lady of Czestochowa, partially burned during the Swedish invasions of the 17th century, is thought to have saved Poland from total devastation. The icon is known as Matka Boska Czestochowa, Czarna Madonna, or “The Black Madonna.
55 For some Poles at the time, peasants were thought to have descended from the Biblical figure of Ham.
56 “Each to a Senator equal…” — an old jingle expressing the equality before the law of the Polish nobility.
57 Maciej Stryjkowski (1547-1583) was a chronicler of the early history of Lithuania.
58 Domejko and Dowejko — there is a story that one of Mickiewicz’ schoolmates. Ignacy Domejo, who later became Rector at the University of Santiago, Chili, claimed that he once challenged the young Mickiewicz to find a name that rhymed with Domejko. Mickiewicz, who was well-known for his skill at improvisation, came up with Dowejko.
59 Bottles of Danzig (Gdansk) vodka have little gold leaves at the bottom. The city of Gdansk was annexed by Prussia in 1793.
60 Bigos is a type of hunters’ stew which was usually made in large quantities, put in barrels, and stored in cellars. A recipe: Traditionally 1 pound of boneless pork, cut into small cubes cloves garlic, minced onions, quartered ½ pounds of mushrooms, quartered cups beef stock tbs sugar bay leaves cups sauerkraut, rinsed and drained apples, peeled, cored, in chunks cups canned tomatoes cup diced cooked ham and ½ cups Polish sausage, in chunks salt and pepper to taste.
61 In The Aeneid, Queen Dido cut a bull’s hide into strips, And enclosed a large territory within the hide; on this spot she built Carthage. Compare this hound/rabbit chase to the following passage in Ovid’s Metamorphosis, Book 1: by his own passion, [Apollo] accelerates, and runs as swiftly as the Gallic hound chasing a rabbit through an open field; the one seeks shelter and the other, prey — he clings to her, is just about to spring, with his long muzzle straining at her heels, while she, not knowing whether she’s been caught, in one swift burst, eludes those snapping jaws, no longer the anticipated feast…..
62 Kompot — A compote is a dessert made of fruit cooked in sugar syrup. Compotes may also contain spices.
63 Philip, from the village of Konopa (Hemp) was a member of the Diet, who, once obtaining the floor, wandered off. Thus the proverb: He has popped up like Philip from Hemp.
64 This is an untranslatable pun in Polish. Niemiec, the Polish word for German, is derived from the Polish niemy, or dumb, mute.
65 Prince deNassau-Siegen (1745-1808) was a famous warrior and adventurer and a Russian General who defeated the Turks at Oczakov; he was later defeated by the Swedes and spent time in Poland, where he was granted the ri
ghts of a citizen. His hunting exploits in Africa were known across Europe at the time.
66 Spolia optima, spoils of honor, the arms taken by a Roman general from the commander of the enemy after defeating him in single combat on the battlefield.
67 Warden/Screech Owl: in Polish klucznik-puszczyk.
68 The “peasant rites” refer to the Lithuanian festival known to Mickiewicz as Dziady (Forefather’s Eve), which is also the title of Mickiewicz’ most famous play. The ritual was still performed at this time, and goes back to pagan times, known as “the feast of the goat.” The Shaman (Kozlarz) was considered both priest and bard. After Christianity came, peasants gathered in secret in chapels near the graveyard and spread a feast of food, drink, and fruits to invoke the spirits of the dead. This was thought to bring relief to souls in Purgatory.
69 See introductory note.
70 A long mustache was a prized possession among Polish noblemen. The Polish also contains a pun on the words wasalow and wa, salow, vassals and mustached ones.
71 Settlements of the gentry lived in Zascianki, the name given to settlements of the landed nobility in order to distinguish them from peasant villages. They were inhabited by the poorest of the lesser nobility, who were, in fact, peasants. Since the wearing of swords was restricted to noblemen, it was not unusual to see such a peasant-wearing noble wearing an old rusty sword as he followed a plough, barefooted.
72 Kisiel is a Polish dish of jelly made with oat yeast, which is washed with water until all mealy parts are separated from it — hence the proverb.
73 Bignon was a French statesman and Napoleon’s Warsaw representative from 1810-1812.
74 According to old Polish law, a convicted slanderer was compelled to crawl under a table and bark three times like a dog, pronouncing his recantation.
75 “Pure-blooded Mazovian…” from the region around Warsaw, Mazowsze. They often had very dark, almost black hair and blue or grey eyes.
76 Vertumnus was the Roman god of the seasons, of growth and change.
77 Maciek joined the Bar Confederates who opposed the King because of his Russian connections, but when the King declared his support for the Confederacy, Maciek supported him. After the King deserted the patriotic Poles to support the Targowica Confederation, Maciek opposed him. Thus, Maciek was known as “Steeplecock,” or one who followed whatever prevailing wind blew.
78 The opening line of a popular song by the sentimental poet, Franciszek Karpinski (1841-1825).
79 see note #18.
80 A traditional Polish greeting still used today — Niech bedzie pochwalony//Na wieki wiekow (“Let Him be praised//For ever and ever.”)
81 In 1568, a Polish man, Pszonka, founded a satiric society called the Babin Republic on his estate near Lublin. It awarded “diplomas of virtue” to criminals and conferred honors for various follies committed — a quack was appointed doctor, a coward appointed general, etc.
82 In the Constitution of the 17th and 18th century Poland, there was an institution called the liberum veto. All bills had to pass the Sejm (parliament) by unanimous consent and if any legislator cast a veto, the bill was not passed and the entire legislature was dissolved.
83 The order of Piarists exerted much influence over education, after the Jesuits were expelled. They were partially responsible for introducing and popularizing French thought, which eventually threatened to deluge Poland.
84 It was customary to hang fossils in churches. These were regarded as the bones of giants who once roamed the earth.
85 The comet of year 1811.
86 The Maid of Pestilence is said to appear to Lithuanian seers and bards when plague or famine will strike. She is said to wander through desolate graveyards and meadows, wearing a fiery crown. She was tall as the great trees of Bialowieza and she waved a bloody kerchief. Mickiewicz described her in an earlier work, Konrad Wallenrod.
87 Jan Sniadecki (1756-1830) was an astronomer and professor in Wilno. Mickiewicz saw him as the worst embodiment of the cold, rationalistic 18th century.
88 Jassy was in Romania where peace was concluded between Russia and Turkey. The implication is that Branicki and the Targowica Confederates rushed to the protection of the Russian army.
89 Prince Adam Czartoryski (1734-1823) was a cousin to Stanislaw Poniatowski.
90 Obviously, for the plot to make sense. Tadeusz is unable to hear what transpires.
91 Compare Coleridge’s Aeolian Harp: And that simplest Lute, Plac’d length-ways in the clasping casement, hark ! How by the desultory breeze caress’d, Like some coy maid half-yielding to her lover, It pours such sweet upbraiding, as must needs Tempt to repeat the wrong ! And now, its strings Boldlier swept, the long sequacious notes Over delicious surges sink and rise, Such a soft floating witchery of sound As twilight Elfins make, when they at eve Voyage on gentle gales from Faery-Land…
92 In Polish, Switezanki, or inhabitants of Lake Switez. This is an invention of Mickiewicz, who titled one of his early ballads, Switezanka.”
93 This is a type of Polish with Latin case endings.
94 During the Gallic siege of Rome in 390 BC, a mythological account told how Marcus Manlius held out for months with a small garrison on the citadel, while the rest of Rome was abandoned. When Gauls attempting to scale the Capitoline, Manlius was roused by the cackling of the sacred geese and threw down the assailants.
95 Jozef Baka (1707-1780) was a Jesuit who wrote “Reflections on Inevitable Death, Common to All,” a compilation of short doggerel rhymes. Father Robak seems to be reciting some.
96 Izmail was a fortress in Bessarabia, captured from the Turks by Suvorov in 1790. Byron wrote about this same place in Don Juan.
97 Novi was in Italy, where Russians and Austrians defeated the French in 1799.
98 Raclawice is a village near Krakow, where in 1794 Kosciuszko’s army of 6,000 (including 2,000 peasants armed with scythes) defeated a Russian force of over 7,000.
99 Karol Radziwill (1734-1790) was called “My Dear,” from a phrase that he constantly repeated. He was the wealthiest magnate in Poland, and in 1785 entertained King Stanislaw with a reception that cost him millions.
100 The Feast of the Annunciation — March 25.
101 At Hohenlinden, the Polish corps led by General Kniaziewicz decided the victory.
102 Napoleon freely used Polish troops in his Spanish campaign. In 1808, Polish light cavalry units, under the command of Kozietulski captured Somosiera. This is described in detail in Stefan Zeromski’s novel, Ashes.
103 The reference is to the magnificent palace built in Jezno, Lithuania by Antoni Michal Pac.
104 Radziwill the Orphan traveled widely and published an account of his journey to the Holy Land.
105 Te Pulaski family were organizers of the Bar Confederacy. Kazimierz Pulaski was a hero of the American Revolution who died in Savanah, Georgia in 1779.
106 Piasts were the first royal dynasty of Poland. The term came to stand for a native Polish candidate for the throne.
107 Apparently, Maciek sees everything not Polish as either Russian or German.
108 Pope Pius VIII excommunicated Napoleon in 1809.
109 The kontuxz was the old Polish nobleman’s long coat, girded around the waist. It characteristically had turned-back upper false sleeves. The Notary’s predicament was not uncommon.
110 Polish writers of the 17th and 18th century composed countless panegyrics of complimentary verses in honor of great personages. The poems were noted for their stale classical images and far-fetched metaphors.
111 The Polonaise (the French-version of the Polish Polonez) is a stately Polish national dance used to open banquets and balls. It derived from the peasant chodzony, or waling dance, and it only bdcame popular among the nobility after it was adopted by the French court and called the “Polonaise,” or the Polish one. Later it was reintroduced into Poland and has remained popular even within Polish communities in America.
112 Janisarries produced a very noisy Turkish martia
l music, popular in Europe and Eastern Europe in the 18th century. Both Mozart and Beethoven composed several pieces based on this music. (see the CD: The Waltz: Ecstasy and Mysticism, Concerto Koln, Sarband.)
113 The song is still popular — Pod lasem, pod borem…, or “Through forest and wood…”
114 Although the poem ends on a note of optimism, Mickiewicz’ image of the clouds presages the disaster that lay ahead.
115 This ending imitates the conventional ending of Polish fairy tales.
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.
Adam Mickiewicz Collected Poetical Works Page 42