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Jan Andrzej MORSZTYN (Morstin)
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Znakomity poeta i tłumacz epoki baroku wywodził się z niemieckiego rodu mieszczańskiego osiadłego w Polsce od XIV wieku, włączonego z czasem w szeregi szlacheckie. Urodził się w 1621 roku w okolicach Krakowa. Ojciec, zamożny ziemianin, był wyznania kalwińskiego; Jan Andrzej w późniejszych latach przeszedł na katolicyzm. Studia odbywał w Lejdzie; wraz z bratem podróżował do Włoch i Francji. Po powrocie do kraju został dworzaninem Lubomirskich. Protekcji wojewody krakowskiego, Stanisława Lubomirskiego, zawdzięczał kontakty z dworem królewskim, które utrwaliły się dzięki marszałkowi wielkiemu, Jerzemu Lubomirskiemu. Był posłem na sejm, w roku 1656 został sekretarzem królewskim, w dwa lata później referendarzem koronnym, a w roku 1668 podskarbim wielkim koronnym. W różnych misjach wyjeżdżał do księcia Siedmiogrodu Rakoczego, do Szwecji (do króla Karola Gustawa), do Wiednia, do Berlina i Paryża. Brał udział w rokowaniach ze Szwedami w Oliwie i złożył swój podpis pod aktem pokojowym. Popierany przez królową Ludwikę Marię, opowiadał się za elekcją następcy Jana Kazimierza jeszcze za jego życia i zgodnie z sugestiami królowej popierał kandydaturę księcia Condé. Stanowisko profrancuskie zajmował także w latach panowania Michała Korybuta Wiśniowieckiego i Jana III Sobieskiego. Gdy ten ostatni zbliżył się do Austrii, Morsztyn przeszedł do opozycji. Oskarżony przez króla o zdradę stanu, przekazywanie tajnej korespondencji i nadużycia finansowe, miał przed sejmem złożyć wyjaśnienia. Do tego jednak nie doszło, opuścił bowiem Polskę i osiadł w swoich dobrach we Francji. Z krajem tym czuł się bardzo blisko związany już od lat: posłował do Ludwika XIV, został jego sekretarzem, i to w czasie, gdy był jeszcze podskarbim wielkim koronnym, przyjął nawet poddaństwo francuskie, co wywołało oburzenie wśród szlachty. Do Polski już nie wrócił; zmarł w 1693 roku. Jako tłumacz kulturze polskiej przyswoił udramatyzowaną sielankę Torquato Tassa Amintas, czwartą pieśń poematu Adone Giambattista Marina (Mariniego) pod tytułem Psyche i dzieło Piotra Corneille’a Cyd albo Roderyk. Komedia hiszpańska. Amintas
Tassa (1544-1595), opublikowany po raz pierwszy w roku 1580, był
wielokrotnie wznawiany i w XVI, i w XVII wieku, także w przekładach na
kilka języków europejskich. Sielankę wypełniały sceny erotyczne,
dzieje uczuć miłosnych zakochanego pasterza. Morsztyn-tłumacz stanął
na wysokości zadania; w sposób umiejętny wskrzesił panującą w
oryginale zmysłowość, zmienny, utrzymany w tonacji sentymentalnej
nastrój. Najbardziej
znane zbiorki poetyckie Morsztyna to Lutnia
i Kanikuła albo Psia gwiazda.
Pierwszy z nich jest obszerniejszy i zawiera ponad dwieście wierszy
powstałych w latach 1638-1660 (1661), wśród których są żartobliwe
epigramaty, listy poetyckie do krewnych, protektorów i przyjaciół, a
nade wszystko erotyki, naśladujące poezję miłosną Marina (nawet
tytuł jego zbioru La Lira został przez Morsztyna wykorzystany w tytule Lutni).
Kanikuła, pochodząca z roku 1647, obejmuje nieco ponad trzydzieści
wierszy, nawiązujących do tytułowego motywu - kanikuły czyli gwiazdy
zwanej Psem Niebieskim (łac. canicula - suczka; canis - pies). Mianem
kanikuły określa się czas największych upałów; poeta wprowadził
to słowo w kontekst przeżyć miłosnych, utożsamił z żarem miłosnym
wypełniającym ludzkie serca, ze spalaniem się w miłości. Nic
dziwnego, że w zbiorze tym przeważają erotyki, będące głównie
parafrazami wierszy Marina. |
This outstanding poet and translator of the Baroque period came from a family of a German burgher settled in Poland since the 14th century, in time included in the ranks of the nobility. He was born in 1621 near Kraków. His father, a rich landowner, was a Calvinist; Jan Andrzej was later converted to Catholicism. He studied in Lejda; together with his brother he travelled to Italy and France. After returning to Poland, he became a courtier of the Lubomirski family. He owed his contacts with the royal court to Stanisław Lubomirski, palatine of the Kraków, and the strengthening of those contacts to Jerzy Lubomirski, the Crown Marshal. He was a Deputy to the Seym (Parliament), then in 1656 he became a king’s secretary, two years later a crown referendary, and in 1668 a Grand Crown Treasurer. On various missions, he travelled to Transylvania (to Prince Rakoczy), Sweden (to King Carolus Gustavus), Vienna, Berlin and Paris. He participated in negotiations with the Swedes in Oliwa and was a signatory of the peace treaty. Supported by Queen Louisa Maria, he was in favour of electing the successor of King Jan Kazimierz already during his lifetime and, in accordance with the suggestions of the Queen, he supported the candidacy of Prince Condé. He continued his pro-French position during the reign of Kings Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki and Jan III Sobieski. When the latter drifted towards Austria, Morsztyn joined the opposition. Accused by the King of treason, transmitting secret correspondence and financial misuse, he was to submit his explanation to the Seym (Parliament). This did not happen as he left Poland and settled on his estate in France. He had felt very attached to this country for years: he was sent as an envoy to Louis XIV, he became his secretary while still Grand Crown Treasurer, and he even became a French subject, which caused indignation among the nobility. He did not return to Poland and died in 1693. As a translator, he introduced to Polish culture the dramatised idyll Amintas by Torquato Tasso, the fourth song of the poem Adone by Giambattista Marino with the title Psyche and Pierre Corneille’s Le Cid or Roderick. A Spanish Comedy. Amintas by Tasso (1544-1595) first published in 1580, was reissued many times in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries also in translations into several European languages. The idyll was preoccupied with erotic scenes, the history of love feelings of an infatuated shepherd. Morsztyn as the translator completed this task faultlessly. In a skilled manner he preserved the sensuality and the changeable sentimental mood prevailing in the original. The second translation (partially a paraphrase) - Psyche - was an echo of a poem famous at that time by a very popular author, Marino, whose work referred to the story Amor and Psyche included in the romance Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass by the Roman author Apuleius. From that time, Marino became the author to whom Morsztyn referred systematically - also as a lyrical poet. The work by Corneille also belonged to extremely popular items of European literature. Frequently published, it was also staged in theatres. The translation by Morsztyn saw a stage realisation as well - first in Zamość, then in Warsaw in the castle during the assembly of the Seym (Parliament) in 1662. It conveyed precisely the mental (the conflict of honour and love) and emotional contents of the play. Scarce departures from the original signal the great skill of the translator. The translation is characterised by conciseness and vividness, and the bluntness of expression and bluffness of the language of noblemen occurring in the text give the work new hues. The truth is that Morsztyn did not manage to match Corneille’s flexibility and virtuosity of word, however his translation surpassed the later ones by Ludwik Osiński (1775-1838) and Stanislaw Wyspiański (1869-1907). Out of the translations, Psyche and Le Cid or Roderick were published at the end of the seventeenth century, a few years after the translator’s death. The remaining works by Morsztyn waited to be published in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which does not mean that the poet did not work on preparing his poems for publishing. Never did he, however, bring his intentions to an end. His contemporaries had contact with manuscripts; oral transmission could have also been used. The best known poetic collections by Morsztyn are Lutnia ("The Lute") and Kanikuła albo Psia gwiazda ("Canicula or The Dog Star") The first one is broader and consists of over two hundred poems created between 1638-1660 (1661), among which there are humorous epigrams, poetic letters to relatives, protectors and friends, and, above all, erotica imitating the love poetry of Marino (even the title of his collection La Lira was used by Morsztyn in the title Lutnia). Kanikuła, dating back to 1647, contains over thirty poems referring to the title motif of Canicula, called the Dog Star (Latin canicula - bitch; canis - dog). The term ‘canicula’ is used to name the period of a heat wave. The poet used this word in a context of love emotions, identified it with the love flame filling people’s hearts, burning with love. No wonder then that this collection is dominated by erotica, being mainly paraphrases of Marino’s poems. Giambattista Marino (Marini, 1569-1625) was a famous poet in Europe at that time (he gave his name to a poetic movement - marinism), a eulogist of love, the beauty of life and its sensuality, the author of a collection of lyrical poems La Lira. He surprised his contemporaries with form, sophisticated and showy vocabulary, shocking metaphors. The Polish poet followed in his footsteps. Marino, however, was not the only (but probably the main) poet with whose poetry Morsztyn worked. Fairly often he translated or paraphrased also Roman authors (Horace, Ovid, Martial, Ausonius), Neo-Latin authors (Italian, French, Dutch and Polish, including Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski), and Italian and French authors. The list should also include Jan Kochanowski. Morsztyn often used well-known, long repeated motifs (among others by the enumerated authors), however he was able to transform them in a fresh way. He surprised readers with the art of renewing hackneyed stylistic phrases and of playing with words (e.g. with homonyms), of unexpected punch-lines and elaborate concepts. The exceptional ability of the poet and skilfulness of the stylist were shown in the erotica. With outstanding ease, Morsztyn moved from loftiness to colloquialism, from conversation and amplified, conceptual complements to jokes and malice (see Niestatek ["Shortage"] based on enumeration). With virtuosity he lauded woman’s beauty (the motif of hair and eyes which declare war on the suitor; the motif of flowers growing from under the feet of the beloved woman, of sun and stars fading in the glow of the look of the beloved). In other poems, he complained (ostentatiously and not without theatrical gestures) about the indifference and coldness of the beloved, he wrote of passionate love (the lover identifying himself with a corpse and galley-slave, slave and servant) and cool love, vigorous and restrained love, of minor love affairs and court scandals. Far more rarely did the poet deal with other topics, such as religious or political ones. Political topics came to view in such works as Pospolite ruszenie 1649 ("Levee en masse 1649") or Pieśń w obozie pod Żwańcem 1653 ("Song in the camp at Żwaniec 1653"). Both poems referred to contemporary events: to the popular uprising summoned by King Jan Kazimierz at Zborów and to the peculiar incident of the surrounding of the king’s army at Żwaniec by Cossacks under the command of Bohdan Chmielnicki and by Tartars. Not without irritation and irony did Morsztyn write about the nobility and their attitude in the face of dangers. Out of the religious works, of which Morsztyn created very few, Pokuta w kwartanie ("Penance in Quartan") deserves special attention (the title alludes to malaria attacking the ill every fourth day). The work is a specific confession, an examination of conscience, which is undertaken by a sinner and penitent in front of God who is good and gracious. It is characterised by simplicity, though it is not free from ingenious illustrations at times referring to the Book of Psalms. |
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BIBLIOGRAFIA - BIBLIOGRAPHY |
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- J.
A. Morsztyn, Utwory zebrane, oprac. L. Kukulski, Warszawa 1971. |
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