Dzien Dobry!
Hi everyone,
Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz was written in Polish language and is now the national
poem of Poland, and perhaps the most well-known, well-read book in the country and also the
most important.
Maybe after the Bible.
It’s a compulsory reading in all Polish schools, so in theory every Pole has read
bits of it at some point, so they can recite passages from it.
Next time you meet your Pole friend, ask them.
Pan Tadeusz is considered the last epic of European literature written in 1830s because
novel writing took over as a literary form in the middle of 19th century.
The book has inspired both Poland’s and Lithuania’s national anthems.
That’s the kind of epic we are talking about.
In 2018 both countries celebrated their centenary of their independence by an exhibition of
Pan Tadeusz.
In 2014 UNESCO recognised Pan Tadeusz as treasured relic of Memory of the World.
Pan in Polish means Sir.
So here Pan Tadeusz simply means Sir or Master Tadeusz referring to the protagonist of the
poem.
First let me tell you a bit about the author.
Adam Mickiewicz was born in 1798 in a small village in the Russian portion of occupied
Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth.
Due to his political activities, he was exiled into Russia in 1824.
After 5 years in the cold of Russia, he was allowed to leave, so he headed to Germany
and met with Goethe and Hegel.
Germany was also cold, he headed to Italy.
But his itchy feet meant he couldn't settle anywhere like a dislodged dandelion seed.
During this time he travelled to many countries and cities.
In France he wrote Pan Tadeusz between 1832 and 1834 in 14 months.
In his personal life, his wife suffered from attacks of insanity, which must have made
his writing life more difficult.
If Goethe or Hegel couldn't, the famous Polish composer Chopin met to console him.
In 1855 he went to Constantinople or modern-day Istanbul on a military mission trying to mobilise
Poles and Turks against the Russians.
Sadly he died without being able to see Poland as an independent country.
Adam Mickiewicz was driven by an intense feeling for his birthplace and his desire to return
and also the guilt of abandoning it.
This guilt shows up in the poem in the shape of a priest who murders a fellow Pole and
later tries to amend his mistake by mobilising people against the Muscovites or the occupying
Russians.
As much as it’s a national epic, it was Adam Mickiewicz’s own personal debt to his
country.
Now he’s the national poet of Poland, in the same way Shakespeare is in Britain and
Pushkin is in Russia.
Let me give you a little historical context to help understand the story.
Started in the 1569 Poland and Lithuania united to create the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
which existed for almost 230 years but by 1795 it had been completely erased from the
map of Europe, divided between Russia in the east and Prussia and Austria in the west.
Poland and Lithuania were not re-established as independent countries until 1918 after
the Bolshevik Revolution.
Putin recently heavily criticised Lenin for allowing countries like Poland and Finland
and other Baltic nations to claim independence from Russia.
There’s a common stereotype that Poles don't like foreigners.
Well, foreigners have been invading Poland a lot, so it’s hard to trust them.
The name Poland means the plains or open fields, so the landscape has been quite inviting to
the Russians from the east and Germans from west to play war.
Today Poles are said to be a bit grumpy and tend to complain a lot or not smile much.
I blame the Russians and Germans for that.
Three cool things that Poles have invented or discovered are condoms by Julius Fromm
in 1912, radium and polonium used in radiation by Marie Curie in 1911 and the discovery of
earth’s revolution around the sun by Nicolaus Copernicus in 1543.
My favourite Poles are Frederic Chopin, Joseph Conrad, Robert Lewandowski.
Now, let me summarise the story.
The story takes place in small village in Poland in 5 days in 1811 and 1812 when the
country was divided between Russian to the east and Prussia and Austria to the west.
The story is somewhat similar to the Shakespeare’s tale of Romeo and Juliet.
It starts off as a conflict between two families in a village over the ownership of a castle.
But as the story progresses, the conflict shifts from two families to local people against
the Russian invaders.
The protagonist of the story is Tadeusz Soplica, a 19-year-old nobleman orphaned as a child
but brought up by his uncle Judge Soplica who is in dispute over the ownership of a
castle with Count Horeszko.
On the other hand we have Zosia Horeszko, the main love interest, from a rival powerful
family in the village.
Tadeusz’s father in fact murdered Zosia’s grandfather Pantler Horeszko.
As the story unfolds this family dispute takes a more nationalistic tone against the Russian
occupying force.
So the small family dispute by the end turns into a rebellion against the Russians.
On his returns from Vilnius to his village in Lithuania, Tadeusz hears about the dispute
between the two families.
He also meets Zosia, a 13-year-old girl from the opposing family now living in his uncle’s
household as a gesture of peace between the two families.
But the conflict escalates when Count Horeszko finds out Tadeusz’s father Jacek Soplica
killed the owner of the castle who was a Horeszko family member.
Meanwhile during a bear hunt, Tadeusz and Count Horeszko are both rescued from a bear
attack by a mysterious priest Father Robak.
Later we learn that he is Tadeusz’s father who murdered Pantler Horeszko the owner of
the castle.
The Judge prepares a feast at the castle to celebrate the bear hunt, but he is confronted
by the servant of the rival family accusing him of trespassing.
A fight breaks out among the two families.
Tadeusz challenges the Count to a duel.
The mysterious Father Robak appears again to admonish the judge and tells him to make
peace between the two families as there are bigger threats out there.
Napoleon is on his way to take Poland from the Russians, so Poles should unite to fight
the Russians instead of killing one another.
Soon the news spreads and some nobles gather to start an uprising against the Russian rulers.
Count Horeszko however ignores this and takes the Soplicas hostage but the Russian soldiers
intervene and arrest him and other rebels.
The mysterious Father Robak who by now you might have guessed it is on a nationalistic
mission but also trying to make amends for his past crime, gets the Russians drunk and
releases the Poles.
But he’s on the verge of death himself.
He reveals his true identity as Jacek Soplica, Tadeusz’s father who was in love with Pantler
Horeszko’s daughter therefore killed him when he was refused to marry her.
He’s the only one with a clear vision to fight against the Russians.
Soon all the figures in the story are deemed danger to the Russian authority, therefore
exiled from Lithuania.
A year later they return to Poland with the Napoleon army and Tadeusz marries Zosia at
the end.
So unlike the Shakespearian tragedy, this has a somewhat happy ending for the couple,
but not for his father or the Polish people or the author who died in exile in Turkey
without being able to see Poland as a free country.
Now let me discuss some of the themes of Pan Tadeusz.
Country vs country Lithuania is a major character in the book.
Every section begins with a beautiful rendering of the landscape itself.
The first quirk of this book is that it’s the national poem of Poland yet it’s entirely
set in Lithuania.
It’s one of those odd moments in literature that kind of questions how bizarre is the
notion of nation and nationalism.
Now we think countries are set in stone but if we go back two centuries, countries as
we know them didn’t exist.
Also if you fly above earth, you don’t see countries, only cities, mountains, rivers,
lakes and oceans.
It’s a poem of an era.
If you grew up in a country and later in life that country didn't exist, no matter what,
you feel nostalgic of that entity.
So I think Pan Tadeusz is like a love letter to a place Adam Mickiewicz grew up.
Now here is something to chew on.
Adam Mickiewicz was Polish born in Lithuania, that was part of Tsarist Russia at the time
that’s modern day Belarus.
He lived in Russia, France and died in Turkey but wrote the national poem of Poland.
At the heart of the story is the country or village of Soplicowo where the story takes
place.
It shows a deep love of the rural life, the Polish countryside and the idyllic landscape
that now ruled by foreign forces.
Here is how the poem begins: Lithuania!
My homeland!
You are health alone.
Your worth can only ever be known by one Who’s lost you.
Today I see and tell anew Your lovely beauty, as I long for you.
Religion and politics Father Robak is an important figure in the
story as he has one goal in mind to free his country from the Russians.
This plays out again in Poland in the 20th century when the catholic church played a
major role in fight against of the socialist regime and the spell of USSR over Poland.
Perhaps they took inspiration from Father Robak who under the guise of religion was
the main political hero whose vision to liberate Poland is the main driving force.
The romantic quest between Tadeusz and Zosia seems secondary.
The hope of liberation in the hands of Napoleon who is admired didn't pan out as expected.
Adam Mickiewicz even went to Rome to get the Pope to support the liberation of Poland and
later went to Turkey to fight the Russians.
So Catholicism plays a major role in the politics of the country even to this day.
Satire For some reason reading Pan Tadeusz at times
felt like reading Dostoevsky.
There are so many voices and plenty of dialogue, each distinct and credible.
Each character has a very distinct voice as though it was written by several people.
Despite being a serious epic, it has plenty of bizarre moments of like a group of mushroom
pickers appear like a throng of dancers to one of the main characters, Count Horeszko.
This is like in Don Quixote where mills appears like giants from a distance.
Fun fact, mushrooming is still big in Poland.
In summer families head to the forest to find mushroom.
Kids are taught to distinguish between poisonous and non-poisonous mushrooms.
At times you get the feeling that mediocre events are described with an epic language
almost like a comedy or satire of some kind.
There is another funny moment when the two lovers are about to kiss when someone swats
a fly that comes between them.
It’s like you cannot catch a break in this poem.
Nothing materialises.
Even the Polish liberation is a failure at the end.
Then there are moments that are somewhat similar to Shahnameh by Ferdowsi when the poem reflects
on the actions as if someone remembers a past experience with a cooler head and can see
what he couldn't see in the heat of the moment.
There are many scenes of drinking and drunkenness.
Even today, if there is one stereotype about Poles is that they drink too much.
In Pan Tadeusz the frequency with which alcohol leads to violence is incredible.
One might also read it as if the author was poking fun at the Polish people for drinking
too much which resulted in their country being divided between foreign forces.
You get drunk, you lose things.
Your key, your phone and in this case, your country.
But by giving prominence to this habit of drinking or even exaggerating it a bit more,
the author perhaps was reminiscing the simplicity of country life and also making the Polish
people more endearing as the author says they are not vindictive.
In the story too, the feuding families patch things up by the end despite their bloody
past.
Having said that it can get a bit tedious at the beginning of the book.
The author appears to be too nostalgic of his own childhood vistas so he describes a
little too much.
The country seems like a distant place he cannot get to.
Something he’s lost and trying to console himself by reminiscing about childhood or
the good old days.
I guess one can understand when you’re stuck in Paris among the French who aren’t the
friendliest of people, you miss your country.
Form It was written in verse, 13 syllables rhyming
couplet.
One of the most enduring qualities of Pan Tadeusz is its poetic beauty.
Yes, of course it is a national epic of Poland so nostalgia plays a major role but without
its beautiful language and witticism, it wouldn't have lasted the test of time as it has done.
The poem is very vivid in its imagery of the countryside.
It’s very similar to a romantic poem, with intense feeling and yearning.
A sense of hopelessness also permeates in the poem.
It appears that form plays an important role in this poem and tradition in persevering
the past.
There is a lot of food in the poem.
Every person has a title.
Every scene is carefully ordered.
Compared to other epics I recently discussed The Finnish epic poem,
the Kalevala which was also written around the same time in 1830s and 40s.
But as far as the story, it goes centuries back to a deeper past of the Finnish people.
Pan Tadeusz is more similar to a novel than an epic, with its realistic characters.
Another epic I discussed was the Book of Dede Korkut which is also a much older epic written
centuries before Pan Tadeusz.
The one similarity is the foray or raids that often come after men getting drunk.
In the Book of Dede Kourkut too there are many raids and drunkenness.
In its politics it has more similarity with the Persian Book of Kings, Shahnameh by Ferdowsi
as they both lament the past of Iran and Poland respectively.
Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh is gigantic in its length and breadth of history it encompasses.
Pan Tadeusz is much more grounded to reality than any of these other epics due to being
very recent.
Kalevala is the product of many singers and poets—though complied by one man Elias Lonnrot.
The Book of Dede Korkut was written by anonymous writer but the stories had existed in the
collective consciousness of the Turkic tribes for centuries if not millennia.
Shahnameh was written by Ferdowsi but he didn't invent the stories, rather collected them
and turned them into verse.
So Pan Tadeusz is more realistic like a novel of realism with a hint of comedy.
Sarmatism There is also a Sarmatian connection between
Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh the Persian Book of Kings and Pan Tadeusz.
Sarmatians were some western Iranian tribes mentioned in Shahnameh as Salm which in Persian
may refer to cold as in sarma or head as sar because these people were said to have red
head.
In Ferdowsi’s Sahahnameh Salm was the eldest son of the first Iranian King Jamshid.
He was given the kingdom of Anatolia, the Caucuses which closely borders eastern Europe.
In Pan Tadeusz Sarmatians were believed to be the ancestors of Polish people and generally
referred to an elite landed gentry class of educated polish and Lithuanians in 17th and
18th centuries.
Sarmatianism was seen as a form of romanticism among the poets and writers in Poland in that
they loved the countryside and the old village scene.
This belief was part a movement in Europe to trace their origin to ancient people.
Sarmatians were believed to be different from the Slavs.
There is a theory that the Alans, an Iranian people, did invade the Slavic territories
some 1500 years ago.
Even to this day Sarmatia is a romantic or poetic name for Poland.
There is even a journal called Samaritan Review dedicated to the Polish studies in the US.
Translation: There has been a few English translations
of Pan Tadeusz, both in prose and verse.
The latest one by Bill Johnson in 2018 which won him a few prizes for his brilliant translation
is probably the best one out there.
It uses modern English while trying to capture the voice of the characters and rhyme scheme
and the spirit of the original.
There is also a free version of it in prose on Gutenberg.org translated by George Rapall
Noyes in 1917.
For the poetry go for Bill Johnson’s translation but if you’re here for the story, the prose
translation might be easier.
It’s also worth mentioning that the famous Polish film director Andrzej Wajda made Pan
Tadeusz into a movie in 1999 which was one of the most successful movies in Poland, but
not outside though.
For me Pan Tadeusz is a time capsule of the time when Europe looked very different.
I hope you enjoyed the video.
Please help me by sharing this among friends on social media.
I’m on a journey to read books and stories from every country on earth.
Thank you for watching.
Jen Koo Ya.