Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855) is the national poet of Poland. He was successful in every genre at which he tried his hand, setting the benchmark for excellence in poetry, prose and drama for all the writers that came after him. His lyric poems, collected in Ballads and Romances [Ballady i romanse, 1822], ushered in the Romantic Movement in Polish literature. His Erotic and Crimean Sonnets [Sonety milosne and Sonety krymskie, 1826] form one of the most accomplished cycles in that demanding form since Petrarch. His narrative poems, Konrad Wallenrod (1828) and Grażyna (1823), reveal his sustained mastery with longer poetic genres. Mickiewicz's epic in twelve cantos, Pan Tadeusz (1834), is universally recognized as Poland's national epic, as well as the last Vergilian epic written in Europe.Prose occupies a rather minor niche in Mickiewcz's corpus of writings. The quasi-Biblical Books of the Polish Nation and Polish Pilgrimage [Księgi narodu i pielgrzymstwa polskiego, 1832] put the English reader in mind of a more practicable William Blake. With their socially and politically-applied Christianity, Mickiewicz had an appreciable influence on the thought of his friend, Lammenais. Finally, his Cours de littérature slave professé au Collége de France, delivered during his exile in Paris, and published posthumously in 1860, is one of the first balanced and comprehensive accounts of the Slavic traditions in literature and culture to meet Western eyes.It is impossible to assess the importance of Adam Mickiewicz to the Polish consciousness. During the period of the Partitions, which lasted from 1795 until 1918, Poles looked to Mickiewicz for the guidance that political figures could not supply them. He died in exile, trying to raise troops in Turkey for the Polish independence struggles.
" it is clear that Kraszewski's translation is not only timely, but
also a necessary part of the growing interest, in Poland and
abroad, of realizing Mickiewicz's monumental vision in fresh ways
for a new, global audience." John Merchant, Slavic Review
"Kraszewski manages to translate a text almost hermetically bound
to its native culture, language, and history thus proving that the
play is at least partially translatable. Thanks to his very
detailed Introduction readers have not only a general description
of the drama and its author, but also particulars of its both
universal and national character, its significance in Polish and
world literature." Agata Brajerska-Mazur, The Polish Review
"The translation itself is fronted by the translator's very
insightful introduction, which explains to the English reader the
historical circumstances and the literary significance of the
Polish masterpiece." Mieczyslaw Orski, Odra
"Forefathers' Eve should be of great interest to those interested
in Polish and Romantic literature, in Mickiewicz's body of literary
work, and in how one literary writer presents the Polish view of
Russia and the Tsar in his times and what that historical tension
between Poland and Russia may mean for the present." Rev. Kevin
Bezner, The Christian Review
"Kraszewski, who has been working on these plays for close to two
decades, deserves high praise for his dedication, and his
singlevolume edition of the full cycle is a service to readers and
teachers of Slavic literature in English." Boris Dralyuk, The Times
Literary Supplement
"Forefathers' Eve by Adam Mickiewicz and translated by Charles S.
Kraszewski is definitely a much-needed volume on your bookshelf."
Mary Lanham, Polish American Journal
"To keep up rhyme, or near-rhyme, for 300 pages of translation is a
Herculean task: it sometimes causes Charles Kraszewski to add words
or whole lines, use rare words or archaisms, laboured constructions
or inexact rhymes that may disturb the ear and seem stylistically
inconsistent. Or may pass unnoticed, since our reactions to such
things are very personal." Anita Jones-Debska, Pamiętnik
Literacki
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