{"id":16846,"date":"2025-04-08T17:43:39","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T15:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/?p=16846"},"modified":"2025-05-14T14:09:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T12:09:21","slug":"adam-mickiewicz-cosmopolitan-polish-romantic-bard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2025\/04\/08\/adam-mickiewicz-cosmopolitan-polish-romantic-bard\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam Mickiewicz: Cosmopolitan Polish Romantic Bard"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Polish Poetry Unites<\/em><\/strong><\/a> is\u202fa video series for anyone interested in literature, history and reading. In each episode Edward Hirsch<\/strong><\/a>, a distinguished American poet, and the president of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, will introduce a celebrated Polish poet to American audiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Watch the episode on YouTube<\/a><\/strong> channel. <\/p>\n\n\n

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This episode of Polish Poetry Unites introduces the work of Adam Mickiewicz<\/a> <\/strong>to American audiences. Mickiewicz was born in 1797 in Zaosie [now Belarus] and died in 1855 in Constantinople [now Istanbul], Turkey, where he went to help organize Polish forces under the Ottoman Army to fight Russia in the Crimean War. Adam Mickiewicz was one of Three Bards, the national poets of Polish Romantic literature. The term is almost exclusively used to denote Adam Mickiewicz<\/a><\/strong>, Juliusz S\u0142owacki<\/a><\/strong> and Zygmunt Krasi\u0144ski<\/a><\/strong>. Of the three, Mickiewicz is considered the most influential. Following the exploration of Mickiewicz\u2019s life and poetry by Edward Hirsch (more below) the video showcases the story of Tadeusz Jask\u00f3\u0142owski, a \u201chandyman\u201d as he calls himself, who is presenting his favorite poem, To M.<\/em> by Adam Mickiewicz. Edward Hirsch said: „Adam Mickiewicz is the greatest 19th century romantic poet from Poland, or Polish poet. He\u2019s a national hero. He believed strongly in Polish independence and liberty. I suppose one of the interesting things about Mickiewicz as the greatest Polish poet of the 19th century is that he was born in what is now considered Belarus, this was once part of Lithuania or the Duchy of Lithuania (part of the Polish Commonwealth), a bond between Poland and Lithuania, so I guess the greatest Polish poet is also the greatest Polish\u2013Lithuanian\u2013Belarussian poet. What I would say is the land was Lithuanian, but the ideal, the dream of unity and freedom was completely Polish, and he wrote in Polish. He wrote the greatest Polish epic, Pan Tadeusz<\/em><\/a><\/strong>, which is what I suppose he\u2019s best known for, there is a terrific translation in English by Bill Johnston. It sort of sets the terms of Polish identity in a certain way. Not everyone was a fan, Gombrowicz<\/a><\/strong> was a skeptic, he thought the ideas of Polish gentry and unification were a bit puerile, but Czes\u0142aw Mi\u0142osz<\/a><\/strong> was a follower. If you want an introduction to Mickiewicz\u2019s work, I will highly recommend Mi\u0142osz\u2019s section on him in History of Polish Literature<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, which is where I first heard about Mickiewicz. Mickiewicz was also a political poet. I\u2019m a fan of his Crimean sonnets<\/em><\/a><\/strong>  and for our purposes he was also a great love poet, something like Byron<\/a><\/strong>, and in the film, the former farmer, now a handyman, jack of all trades, he seems to be able to fix anything, recites from memory Mickiewicz\u2019s wonderfully sad, longing, beautiful love poem, To M<\/em> and he remembers how as a shy boy he used to recite this poem to try and woo a lover. It\u2019s a time-honored tradition in Latin America, Neruda\u2019s<\/a><\/strong> Twenty Love Songs and a Poem of Despair<\/em> (actually, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair<\/em><\/a><\/strong>) used by thousands of young people to woo each other and in Poland it was Mickiewicz\u2019s wonderful love poems, you can read them in English in a terrific book called Treasury of Love Poems by Adam Mickiewicz<\/em><\/a><\/strong>. And it shows Mickiewicz\u2019s range as a love poet, he\u2019s also a political poet and he\u2019s the greatest poet of Polish independence and the dream of freedom and Poland\u2019s contribution to European ideals and values.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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To M.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Away from my sight! I\u2019ll listen instantly,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Away from my heart! My heart will obey,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Away from my memory! No, this order<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither my memory nor yours will obey<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As shade that\u2019s longer, when cast from far away,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Makes the mourning circle much wider sprawl\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So will my figure, the further off I stay,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Becloud your memory with a thicker pall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In every place and at each time of day,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where I cried with you, where we played together,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everywhere and always next to you I\u2019ll stay,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For part of my soul, I left in each quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether deep in thought in secluded chamber,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Close to your harp by chance you\u2019ll come along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then you will recall: at this exact hour<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was singing for him the very same song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or playing chess, when in the first foray<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your king was trapped in the deadly campaign,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then you will think: the ranks stood in this way<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we came to the end of our last game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or at ball, when to rest you sit aside,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ere the musician announces the next dance,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You will see an empty place by fireside,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And you will think: he sat with me there once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or when you read a book and will descry<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lovers\u2019 hope wrecked by a dreadful chance,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You will put it down and with a deep sigh<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You will think then: ah, it is our romance\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if the author after a tangles plot<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let the loving pair join at last together,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You will put out the candle and dwell on the thought:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why didn\u2019t our tale end this way ever?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All at once lighting will flash in the night,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dry pear tree leaves will rustle in the orchard,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The moaning owl will brush the pane in its flight\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You will think then that it is my spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in every place and at each time of day,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where I cried with you, where we played together,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everywhere and always next to you I\u2019ll stay,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For part of my soul I left in each quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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translated to English by J.M Miko\u015b, from the collection: Treasury of Love Poems<\/em> by Adam Mickiewicz<\/em> edited by Krystyna Olszer, and published by Hippocrene Books<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Do M.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Precz z moich oczu!\u2026 pos\u0142ucham od razu,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Precz z mego serca!\u2026 i serce pos\u0142ucha,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Precz z m\u00e9j pami\u0119ci!\u2026 Nie! tego rozkazu<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moja i twoja pami\u0119\u0107 nie pos\u0142ucha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jak cie\u0144 t\u00e9m d\u0142u\u017cszy, gdy padnie z daleka,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

T\u00e9m szerz\u00e9j ko\u0142o \u017ca\u0142obne roztoczy,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tak moja posta\u0107, im dal\u00e9j ucieka,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

T\u00e9m grubszym kirem tw\u0105 pami\u0119\u0107 pomroczy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Na ka\u017cd\u00e9m miejscu i o ka\u017cd\u00e9j dobie,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gdziem z tob\u0105 p\u0142aka\u0142, gdziem si\u0119 z tob\u0105 bawi\u0142,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wsz\u0119dzie i zawsze b\u0119d\u0119 ja przy tobie,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bom wsz\u0119dzie cz\u0105stk\u0119 m\u00e9j duszy zostawi\u0142. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Czy zadumana w samotn\u00e9j komorze<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do arfy zbli\u017cysz nieumy\u015bln\u0105 r\u0119k\u0119,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Przypomnisz sobie: w\u0142a\u015bnie o t\u00e9j porze<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u015apiewa\u0142am jemu t\u0119 sam\u0119 piosenk\u0119. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Czy graj\u0105c w szachy, gdy pi\u00e9rwszemi \u015bciegi<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u015amiertelna z\u0142owi kr\u00f3la twego matnia,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pomy\u015blisz sobie: tak sta\u0142y szeregi,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gdy si\u0119 sko\u0144czy\u0142a nasza gra ostatnia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Czy to na balu w chwilach odpoczynku<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Si\u0119dziesz, nim muzyk ta\u0144ce zapowiedzia\u0142,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obaczysz pr\u00f3\u017cne miejsce przy kominku,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pomy\u015blisz sobie: on tam ze mn\u0105 siedzia\u0142.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Czy ksi\u0105\u017ck\u0119 we\u017amiesz, gdzie smutnym wyrokiem<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stargane ujrzysz kochank\u00f3w nadzieje,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Z\u0142o\u017cywszy ksi\u0105\u017ck\u0119 z westchnieniem g\u0142\u0119bokiem,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pomy\u015blisz sobie: ach, to nasze dzieje\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A je\u015bli autor po zawi\u0142\u00e9j probie<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Par\u0119 mi\u0142o\u015bn\u0105 na ostatek z\u0142\u0105czy\u0142,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zagasisz \u015bwi\u00e9c\u0119 i pomy\u015blisz sobie:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Czemu nasz romans tak si\u0119 nie zako\u0144czy\u0142?\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wt\u00e9m b\u0142yskawica nocna zamigoce,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sucha w ogrodzie zaszeleszczy grusza,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I puszczyk z j\u0119kiem w okno za\u0142opoce\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pomy\u015blisz sobie, \u017ce to moja dusza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tak w ka\u017cd\u00e9m miejscu i o ka\u017cd\u00e9j dobie,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gdziem z tob\u0105 p\u0142aka\u0142, gdziem si\u0119 z tob\u0105 bawi\u0142,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wsz\u0119dzie i zawsze b\u0119d\u0119 ja przy tobie,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bom wsz\u0119dzie cz\u0105stk\u0119 m\u00e9j duszy zostawi\u0142.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Adam Mickiewicz<\/strong> (born December 24, 1798, Zaosye, near Nowogr\u00f3dek, Belorussia, Russian Empire [now in Belarus]\u2014died November 26, 1855, Constantinople [now Istanbul, Turkey] was one of the greatest poets of Poland and a lifelong apostle of Polish national freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born into an impoverished noble family, Mickiewicz studied at the University of Wilno (now Vilnius University) between 1815 and 1819; in 1817 he joined a secret patriotic student society, which was later incorporated into a larger clandestine student organization. Together with his fellow students in the organization, Mickiewicz was arrested in 1823 and deported to Russia for illegal patriotic activities. In Moscow he established friendly relations with Aleksandr Pushkin<\/strong><\/a> and other Russian intellectuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mickiewicz\u2019s first volume of poems, Poezye<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (1822; \u201cPoetry\u201d), included ballads, romances, and an important preface explaining his admiration of western European poetic forms and his desire to transplant them to Polish literature. The second volume of Poezye<\/em> (1823) contained parts two and four of his Dziady<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (Forefather\u2019s Eve<\/em>), in which he combined elements of folklore with a story of tragic love to create a new kind of Romantic drama. While in Russia he visited Crimea in 1825, and, soon after, he published his cycle of sonnets Sonety Krymskie<\/em> (1826; Crimean Sonnets<\/em>). Konrad Wallenrod<\/em> (1828; Konrad Wallenrod and Grazyna<\/em>) is a poem describing the wars of the Teutonic Order with the Lithuanians but actually representing the age-old feud between Poland and Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mickiewicz was finally able to leave Russia in 1829, on the grounds of ill health. Traveling throughout Germany, he missed participating in the unsuccessful Polish insurrection of 1830\u201331. In the third part of Dziady<\/em> (1833; Dziady III<\/em>), which he completed in 1832, Mickiewicz views Poland as fulfilling a messianic role among the nations of western Europe by its national embodiment of the Christian themes of self-sacrifice and eventual redemption. In 1832 he settled in Paris and there wrote, in biblical prose, the Ksi\u0119gi narodu polskiego i pielgrzymstwa polskiego<\/em> (\u201cBooks of the Polish Nation and Its Pilgrimage\u201d), a moral interpretation of the history of the Polish people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mickiewicz\u2019s masterpiece, the great epic poem Pan Tadeusz<\/em> (1834; Eng. trans. Pan Tadeusz<\/em>; film 1999), describes the life of the Polish gentry in the early 19th century through a fictional account of the feud between two families of Polish nobles. The poem conveys perfectly the ethos of an archaic society in which the ideals of chivalry are still alive and shows the effect of the Napoleonic myth on the minds of Poles for whom the French emperor and the Polish troops under his command represented the only hope for liberation from Russian rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mickiewicz was appointed professor of Latin literature at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) in 1839 but resigned a year later to teach Slavonic literature at the Coll\u00e8ge de France. He remained there until 1844, when Napoleon III relieved him of the post\u2014because he was teaching the mystical doctrines of the mesmerist Andrzej Towia\u0144ski\u2014and appointed him librarian at the Arsenal. In early 1848 he went to Rome to persuade the new pope to support the cause of Polish national freedom. Between March and October 1849, he edited the radical newspaper La Tribune des Peuples<\/em> (\u201cPeople\u2019s Tribune\u201d). In September 1855 he was sent to Turkey by Prince Adam Czartoryski to mediate between factions of Poles preparing to fight with the Allies in the Crimean War, but he did not survive the trip. In 1890 his remains were reburied in the vault of Wawel Cathedral in Krak\u00f3w, where many Polish kings are laid to rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biography source: Britannica<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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More about Adam Mickiewicz<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/artist\/adam-mickiewicz<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/iam.pl\/en\/influence-adam-mickiewicz-poetry-that-acts<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.cornellpress.cornell.edu\/book\/9780801444715\/adam-mickiewicz\/#bookTabs=1<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/allpoetry.com\/Adam-Mickiewicz<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/article\/translating-mickiewicz-polands-international-man-of-mystery<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/muzeumpanatadeusza.ossolineum.pl\/en<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/article\/adam-mickiewiczs-eastern-face<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/article\/inventing-anti-imperial-poetic-discourse-adam-mickiewicz-and-taras-shevchenko-with-alexander-pushkin-in-the-tsars-shadow<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/article\/mickiewicz-the-zohar<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/article\/the-ghost-of-mickiewicz<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/work\/adam-mickiewicz-grazyna<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/work\/ballads-and-romances-adam-mickiewicz<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/instytutksiazki.pl\/en\/news,2,%E2%80%9Cballady-i-romanse%E2%80%9D-translated-into-english-for-the-first-time,8530.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/work\/forefathers-eve-adam-mickiewicz-0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Edward Hirsch<\/a><\/strong> is an American poet and critic who wrote a national bestseller about reading poetry entitled How to Read A Poem And Fall In Love With Poetry<\/strong><\/a> <\/em>published in 2014. He has published nine books of poems, including The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems<\/em> (2010) and Gabriel: A Poem<\/em> (2014), a book-length elegy for his son that The New Yorker called \u201ca masterpiece of sorrow.\u201d He has also published five prose books about poetry.  His latest book of essays, 100 Poems to Break your Heart<\/strong><\/a><\/em> was published in 2021.  He is president of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in New York City. Currently he is finishing a book of essays called The Heart of American Poetry<\/strong><\/a>. <\/em>It will be published in April to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Library of America. The book consists of deeply personal readings of forty essential American poems. It rethinks the American tradition in poetry.  Ed Hirsch lives in New York City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lead image: Portrait of Adam Mickiewicz painted by Julian Mackiewicz | Public domain <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Moderator: Edward Hirsch<\/em>
Writer and Director: Ewa Zadrzy\u0144ska
Cinematography: Jacek Mieros\u0142awski and Mila Antoniszczak
Editor: Anna J\u0119drzejewska
Curator and Executive Producer: Bartek Remisko<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The video about Adam Mickiewicz from the POLISH POETRY UNITES video series was realized with additional support from: New York Women in Film & Television<\/em> and The Adam Mickiewicz Museum of Literature in Warsaw<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Polish Poetry Unites is\u202fa video series for anyone interested in literature, history and reading. In each episode Edward Hirsch, a distinguished American poet, and the president of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, will introduce a celebrated Polish poet to American audiences. Watch the episode on YouTube channel. This episode of Polish Poetry Unites introduces the work […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":16850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-literature"],"yoast_head":"\nAdam Mickiewicz: Cosmopolitan Polish Romantic Bard - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2025\/04\/08\/adam-mickiewicz-cosmopolitan-polish-romantic-bard\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"pl_PL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Adam Mickiewicz: Cosmopolitan Polish Romantic Bard - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Polish Poetry Unites is\u202fa video series for anyone interested in literature, history and reading. In each episode Edward Hirsch, a distinguished American poet, and the president of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, will introduce a celebrated Polish poet to American audiences. Watch the episode on YouTube channel. This episode of Polish Poetry Unites introduces the work […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2025\/04\/08\/adam-mickiewicz-cosmopolitan-polish-romantic-bard\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-08T15:43:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-14T12:09:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/04\/Adam_Mickiewicz_by_Julian_Mackiewicz-1024x942.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"942\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"stypulkowskaa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Napisane przez\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"stypulkowskaa\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Szacowany czas czytania\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"14 minut\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"event\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2025\/04\/08\/adam-mickiewicz-cosmopolitan-polish-romantic-bard\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2025\/04\/08\/adam-mickiewicz-cosmopolitan-polish-romantic-bard\/\",\"name\":\"Adam Mickiewicz: Cosmopolitan Polish Romantic Bard\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2025\/04\/08\/adam-mickiewicz-cosmopolitan-polish-romantic-bard\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":[\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/04\/Adam_Mickiewicz_by_Julian_Mackiewicz.jpg\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/04\/Adam_Mickiewicz_by_Julian_Mackiewicz-300x276.jpg\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/04\/Adam_Mickiewicz_by_Julian_Mackiewicz-1024x942.jpg\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/04\/Adam_Mickiewicz_by_Julian_Mackiewicz.jpg\"],\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/04\/Adam_Mickiewicz_by_Julian_Mackiewicz.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-08T15:43:39+02:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-14T12:09:21+02:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/c732b2695ee92026d080eec35471c7f1\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2025\/04\/08\/adam-mickiewicz-cosmopolitan-polish-romantic-bard\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2025\/04\/08\/adam-mickiewicz-cosmopolitan-polish-romantic-bard\/\"]}],\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"startDate\":\"2025-04-08\",\"endDate\":\"2025-07-18\",\"eventStatus\":\"EventScheduled\",\"eventAttendanceMode\":\"OfflineEventAttendanceMode\",\"location\":{\"@type\":\"place\",\"name\":\"\",\"address\":\"\",\"geo\":{\"@type\":\"GeoCoordinates\",\"latitude\":\"\",\"longitude\":\"\"}},\"description\":\"Polish Poetry Unites is\u202fa video series for anyone interested in literature, history and reading. In each episode Edward Hirsch, a distinguished American poet, and the president of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, will introduce a celebrated Polish poet to American audiences. \\nWatch the episode on YouTube channel. \\nThis episode of Polish Poetry Unites introduces the work of Adam Mickiewicz to American audiences. Mickiewicz was born in 1797 in Zaosie [now Belarus] and died in 1855 in Constantinople [now Istanbul], Turkey, where he went to help organize Polish forces under the Ottoman Army to fight Russia in the Crimean War. Adam Mickiewicz was one of Three Bards, the national poets of Polish Romantic literature. The term is almost exclusively used to denote Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz S\u0142owacki and Zygmunt Krasi\u0144ski. Of the three, Mickiewicz is considered the most influential. Following the exploration of Mickiewicz\u2019s life and poetry by Edward Hirsch (more below) the video showcases the story of Tadeusz Jask\u00f3\u0142owski, a \u201chandyman\u201d as he calls himself, who is presenting his favorite poem, To M. by Adam Mickiewicz. Edward Hirsch said: \\\"Adam Mickiewicz is the greatest 19th century romantic poet from Poland, or Polish poet. He\u2019s a national hero. He believed strongly in Polish independence and liberty. I suppose one of the interesting things about Mickiewicz as the greatest Polish poet of the 19th century is that he was born in what is now considered Belarus, this was once part of Lithuania or the Duchy of Lithuania (part of the Polish Commonwealth), a bond between Poland and Lithuania, so I guess the greatest Polish poet is also the greatest Polish\u2013Lithuanian\u2013Belarussian poet. What I would say is the land was Lithuanian, but the ideal, the dream of unity and freedom was completely Polish, and he wrote in Polish. He wrote the greatest Polish epic, Pan Tadeusz, which is what I suppose he\u2019s best known for, there is a terrific translation in English by Bill Johnston. It sort of sets the terms of Polish identity in a certain way. Not everyone was a fan, Gombrowicz was a skeptic, he thought the ideas of Polish gentry and unification were a bit puerile, but Czes\u0142aw Mi\u0142osz was a follower. If you want an introduction to Mickiewicz\u2019s work, I will highly recommend Mi\u0142osz\u2019s section on him in History of Polish Literature, which is where I first heard about Mickiewicz. Mickiewicz was also a political poet. I\u2019m a fan of his Crimean sonnets and for our purposes he was also a great love poet, something like Byron, and in the film, the former farmer, now a handyman, jack of all trades, he seems to be able to fix anything, recites from memory Mickiewicz\u2019s wonderfully sad, longing, beautiful love poem, To M and he remembers how as a shy boy he used to recite this poem to try and woo a lover. It\u2019s a time-honored tradition in Latin America, Neruda\u2019s Twenty Love Songs and a Poem of Despair (actually, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair) used by thousands of young people to woo each other and in Poland it was Mickiewicz\u2019s wonderful love poems, you can read them in English in a terrific book called Treasury of Love Poems by Adam Mickiewicz. And it shows Mickiewicz\u2019s range as a love poet, he\u2019s also a political poet and he\u2019s the greatest poet of Polish independence and the dream of freedom and Poland\u2019s contribution to European ideals and values.\\\"\\nTo M.\\nAway from my sight! I\u2019ll listen instantly,\\nAway from my heart! My heart will obey,\\nAway from my memory! No, this order\\nNeither my memory nor yours will obey\\nAs shade that\u2019s longer, when cast from far away,\\nMakes the mourning circle much wider sprawl\u2026\\nSo will my figure, the further off I stay,\\nBecloud your memory with a thicker pall.\\nIn every place and at each time of day,\\nWhere I cried with you, where we played together,\\nEverywhere and always next to you I\u2019ll stay,\\nFor part of my soul, I left in each quarter.\\nWhether deep in thought in secluded chamber,\\nClose to your harp by chance you\u2019ll come along.\\nThen you will recall: at this exact hour\\nI was singing for him the very same song.\\nOr playing chess, when in the first foray\\nYour king was trapped in the deadly campaign,\\nThen you will think: the ranks stood in this way\\nWhen we came to the end of our last game.\\nOr at ball, when to rest you sit aside,\\nEre the musician announces the next dance,\\nYou will see an empty place by fireside,\\nAnd you will think: he sat with me there once.\\nOr when you read a book and will descry\\nThe lovers\u2019 hope wrecked by a dreadful chance,\\nYou will put it down and with a deep sigh\\nYou will think then: ah, it is our romance\u2026\\nAnd if the author after a tangles plot\\nLet the loving pair join at last together,\\nYou will put out the candle and dwell on the thought:\\nWhy didn\u2019t our tale end this way ever?\\nAll at once lighting will flash in the night,\\nDry pear tree leaves will rustle in the orchard,\\nThe moaning owl will brush the pane in its flight\u2026\\nYou will think then that it is my spirit.\\nSo in every place and at each time of day,\\nWhere I cried with you, where we played together,\\nEverywhere and always next to you I\u2019ll stay,\\nFor part of my soul I left in each quarter.\\ntranslated to English by J.M Miko\u015b, from the collection: Treasury of Love Poems by Adam Mickiewicz edited by Krystyna Olszer, and published by Hippocrene Books\\nDo M.\\nPrecz z moich oczu!\u2026 pos\u0142ucham od razu,\\nPrecz z mego serca!\u2026 i serce pos\u0142ucha,\\nPrecz z m\u00e9j pami\u0119ci!\u2026 Nie! tego rozkazu\\nMoja i twoja pami\u0119\u0107 nie pos\u0142ucha.\\nJak cie\u0144 t\u00e9m d\u0142u\u017cszy, gdy padnie z daleka,\\nT\u00e9m szerz\u00e9j ko\u0142o \u017ca\u0142obne roztoczy,\\nTak moja posta\u0107, im dal\u00e9j ucieka,\\nT\u00e9m grubszym kirem tw\u0105 pami\u0119\u0107 pomroczy.\\nNa ka\u017cd\u00e9m miejscu i o ka\u017cd\u00e9j dobie,\\nGdziem z tob\u0105 p\u0142aka\u0142, gdziem si\u0119 z tob\u0105 bawi\u0142,\\nWsz\u0119dzie i zawsze b\u0119d\u0119 ja przy tobie,\\nBom wsz\u0119dzie cz\u0105stk\u0119 m\u00e9j duszy zostawi\u0142. \\nCzy zadumana w samotn\u00e9j komorze\\nDo arfy zbli\u017cysz nieumy\u015bln\u0105 r\u0119k\u0119,\\nPrzypomnisz sobie: w\u0142a\u015bnie o t\u00e9j porze\\n\u015apiewa\u0142am jemu t\u0119 sam\u0119 piosenk\u0119. \\nCzy graj\u0105c w szachy, gdy pi\u00e9rwszemi \u015bciegi\\n\u015amiertelna z\u0142owi kr\u00f3la twego matnia,\\nPomy\u015blisz sobie: tak sta\u0142y szeregi,\\nGdy si\u0119 sko\u0144czy\u0142a nasza gra ostatnia.\\nCzy to na balu w chwilach odpoczynku\\nSi\u0119dziesz, nim muzyk ta\u0144ce zapowiedzia\u0142,\\nObaczysz pr\u00f3\u017cne miejsce przy kominku,\\nPomy\u015blisz sobie: on tam ze mn\u0105 siedzia\u0142.\\nCzy ksi\u0105\u017ck\u0119 we\u017amiesz, gdzie smutnym wyrokiem\\nStargane ujrzysz kochank\u00f3w nadzieje,\\nZ\u0142o\u017cywszy ksi\u0105\u017ck\u0119 z westchnieniem g\u0142\u0119bokiem,\\nPomy\u015blisz sobie: ach, to nasze dzieje\u2026\\nA je\u015bli autor po zawi\u0142\u00e9j probie\\nPar\u0119 mi\u0142o\u015bn\u0105 na ostatek z\u0142\u0105czy\u0142,\\nZagasisz \u015bwi\u00e9c\u0119 i pomy\u015blisz sobie:\\nCzemu nasz romans tak si\u0119 nie zako\u0144czy\u0142?\u2026 \\nWt\u00e9m b\u0142yskawica nocna zamigoce,\\nSucha w ogrodzie zaszeleszczy grusza,\\nI puszczyk z j\u0119kiem w okno za\u0142opoce\u2026\\nPomy\u015blisz sobie, \u017ce to moja dusza.\\nTak w ka\u017cd\u00e9m miejscu i o ka\u017cd\u00e9j dobie,\\nGdziem z tob\u0105 p\u0142aka\u0142, gdziem si\u0119 z tob\u0105 bawi\u0142,\\nWsz\u0119dzie i zawsze b\u0119d\u0119 ja przy tobie,\\nBom wsz\u0119dzie cz\u0105stk\u0119 m\u00e9j duszy zostawi\u0142.\\nAdam Mickiewicz (born December 24, 1798, Zaosye, near Nowogr\u00f3dek, Belorussia, Russian Empire [now in Belarus]\u2014died November 26, 1855, Constantinople [now Istanbul, Turkey] was one of the greatest poets of Poland and a lifelong apostle of Polish national freedom.\\nBorn into an impoverished noble family, Mickiewicz studied at the University of Wilno (now Vilnius University) between 1815 and 1819; in 1817 he joined a secret patriotic student society, which was later incorporated into a larger clandestine student organization. Together with his fellow students in the organization, Mickiewicz was arrested in 1823 and deported to Russia for illegal patriotic activities. In Moscow he established friendly relations with Aleksandr Pushkin and other Russian intellectuals.\\nMickiewicz\u2019s first volume of poems, Poezye (1822; \u201cPoetry\u201d), included ballads, romances, and an important preface explaining his admiration of western European poetic forms and his desire to transplant them to Polish literature. The second volume of Poezye (1823) contained parts two and four of his Dziady (Forefather\u2019s Eve), in which he combined elements of folklore with a story of tragic love to create a new kind of Romantic drama. While in Russia he visited Crimea in 1825, and, soon after, he published his cycle of sonnets Sonety Krymskie (1826; Crimean Sonnets). Konrad Wallenrod (1828; Konrad Wallenrod and Grazyna) is a poem describing the wars of the Teutonic Order with the Lithuanians but actually representing the age-old feud between Poland and Russia.\\nMickiewicz was finally able to leave Russia in 1829, on the grounds of ill health. Traveling throughout Germany, he missed participating in the unsuccessful Polish insurrection of 1830\u201331. In the third part of Dziady (1833; Dziady III), which he completed in 1832, Mickiewicz views Poland as fulfilling a messianic role among the nations of western Europe by its national embodiment of the Christian themes of self-sacrifice and eventual redemption. In 1832 he settled in Paris and there wrote, in biblical prose, the Ksi\u0119gi narodu polskiego i pielgrzymstwa polskiego (\u201cBooks of the Polish Nation and Its Pilgrimage\u201d), a moral interpretation of the history of the Polish people.\\nMickiewicz\u2019s masterpiece, the great epic poem Pan Tadeusz (1834; Eng. trans. Pan Tadeusz; film 1999), describes the life of the Polish gentry in the early 19th century through a fictional account of the feud between two families of Polish nobles. The poem conveys perfectly the ethos of an archaic society in which the ideals of chivalry are still alive and shows the effect of the Napoleonic myth on the minds of Poles for whom the French emperor and the Polish troops under his command represented the only hope for liberation from Russian rule.\\nMickiewicz was appointed professor of Latin literature at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) in 1839 but resigned a year later to teach Slavonic literature at the Coll\u00e8ge de France. He remained there until 1844, when Napoleon III relieved him of the post\u2014because he was teaching the mystical doctrines of the mesmerist Andrzej Towia\u0144ski\u2014and appointed him librarian at the Arsenal. In early 1848 he went to Rome to persuade the new pope to support the cause of Polish national freedom. Between March and October 1849, he edited the radical newspaper La Tribune des Peuples (\u201cPeople\u2019s Tribune\u201d). In September 1855 he was sent to Turkey by Prince Adam Czartoryski to mediate between factions of Poles preparing to fight with the Allies in the Crimean War, but he did not survive the trip. In 1890 his remains were reburied in the vault of Wawel Cathedral in Krak\u00f3w, where many Polish kings are laid to rest.\\nBiography source: Britannica.\\nMore about Adam Mickiewicz:\\nhttps:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/artist\/adam-mickiewicz\\nhttps:\/\/iam.pl\/en\/influence-adam-mickiewicz-poetry-that-acts\\nhttps:\/\/www.cornellpress.cornell.edu\/book\/9780801444715\/adam-mickiewicz\/#bookTabs=1\\nhttps:\/\/allpoetry.com\/Adam-Mickiewicz\\nhttps:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/article\/translating-mickiewicz-polands-international-man-of-mystery\\nhttps:\/\/muzeumpanatadeusza.ossolineum.pl\/en\\nhttps:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/article\/adam-mickiewiczs-eastern-face\\nhttps:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/article\/inventing-anti-imperial-poetic-discourse-adam-mickiewicz-and-taras-shevchenko-with-alexander-pushkin-in-the-tsars-shadow\\nhttps:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/article\/mickiewicz-the-zohar\\nhttps:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/article\/the-ghost-of-mickiewicz\\nhttps:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/work\/adam-mickiewicz-grazyna\\nhttps:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/work\/ballads-and-romances-adam-mickiewicz\\nhttps:\/\/instytutksiazki.pl\/en\/news,2,%E2%80%9Cballady-i-romanse%E2%80%9D-translated-into-english-for-the-first-time,8530.html\\nhttps:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/work\/forefathers-eve-adam-mickiewicz-0\\nEdward Hirsch is an American poet and critic who wrote a national bestseller about reading poetry entitled How to Read A Poem And Fall In Love With Poetry published in 2014. He has published nine books of poems, including The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems (2010) and Gabriel: A Poem (2014), a book-length elegy for his son that The New Yorker called \u201ca masterpiece of sorrow.\u201d He has also published five prose books about poetry. His latest book of essays, 100 Poems to Break your Heart was published in 2021. He is president of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in New York City. Currently he is finishing a book of essays called The Heart of American Poetry. It will be published in April to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Library of America. The book consists of deeply personal readings of forty essential American poems. It rethinks the American tradition in poetry. Ed Hirsch lives in New York City.\\nLead image: Portrait of Adam Mickiewicz painted by Julian Mackiewicz | Public domain \\nModerator: Edward HirschWriter and Director: Ewa Zadrzy\u0144skaCinematography: Jacek Mieros\u0142awski and Mila AntoniszczakEditor: Anna J\u0119drzejewskaCurator and Executive Producer: Bartek Remisko\\nThe video about Adam Mickiewicz from the POLISH POETRY UNITES video series was realized with additional support from: New York Women in Film & Television and The Adam Mickiewicz Museum of Literature in Warsaw.\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2025\/04\/08\/adam-mickiewicz-cosmopolitan-polish-romantic-bard\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/04\/Adam_Mickiewicz_by_Julian_Mackiewicz.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/04\/Adam_Mickiewicz_by_Julian_Mackiewicz.jpg\",\"width\":1816,\"height\":1671},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2025\/04\/08\/adam-mickiewicz-cosmopolitan-polish-romantic-bard\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Adam Mickiewicz: Cosmopolitan Polish Romantic Bard\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/\",\"name\":\"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku\",\"description\":\"Instytuty Polskie\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/c732b2695ee92026d080eec35471c7f1\",\"name\":\"stypulkowskaa\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a29bb1802c91e057084d5d112dd59dc4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a29bb1802c91e057084d5d112dd59dc4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"stypulkowskaa\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/author\/stypulkowskaa-2\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Adam Mickiewicz: Cosmopolitan Polish Romantic Bard - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2025\/04\/08\/adam-mickiewicz-cosmopolitan-polish-romantic-bard\/","og_locale":"pl_PL","og_type":"article","og_title":"Adam Mickiewicz: Cosmopolitan Polish Romantic Bard - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","og_description":"Polish Poetry Unites is\u202fa video series for anyone interested in literature, history and reading. In each episode Edward Hirsch, a distinguished American poet, and the president of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, will introduce a celebrated Polish poet to American audiences. Watch the episode on YouTube channel. This episode of Polish Poetry Unites introduces the work […]","og_url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2025\/04\/08\/adam-mickiewicz-cosmopolitan-polish-romantic-bard\/","og_site_name":"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","article_published_time":"2025-04-08T15:43:39+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-05-14T12:09:21+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":942,"url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/04\/Adam_Mickiewicz_by_Julian_Mackiewicz-1024x942.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"stypulkowskaa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Napisane przez":"stypulkowskaa","Szacowany czas czytania":"14 minut"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"event","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2025\/04\/08\/adam-mickiewicz-cosmopolitan-polish-romantic-bard\/","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2025\/04\/08\/adam-mickiewicz-cosmopolitan-polish-romantic-bard\/","name":"Adam Mickiewicz: Cosmopolitan Polish Romantic Bard","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2025\/04\/08\/adam-mickiewicz-cosmopolitan-polish-romantic-bard\/#primaryimage"},"image":["https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/04\/Adam_Mickiewicz_by_Julian_Mackiewicz.jpg","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/04\/Adam_Mickiewicz_by_Julian_Mackiewicz-300x276.jpg","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/04\/Adam_Mickiewicz_by_Julian_Mackiewicz-1024x942.jpg","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/04\/Adam_Mickiewicz_by_Julian_Mackiewicz.jpg"],"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/04\/Adam_Mickiewicz_by_Julian_Mackiewicz.jpg","datePublished":"2025-04-08T15:43:39+02:00","dateModified":"2025-05-14T12:09:21+02:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/c732b2695ee92026d080eec35471c7f1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2025\/04\/08\/adam-mickiewicz-cosmopolitan-polish-romantic-bard\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"pl-PL","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2025\/04\/08\/adam-mickiewicz-cosmopolitan-polish-romantic-bard\/"]}],"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","startDate":"2025-04-08","endDate":"2025-07-18","eventStatus":"EventScheduled","eventAttendanceMode":"OfflineEventAttendanceMode","location":{"@type":"place","name":"","address":"","geo":{"@type":"GeoCoordinates","latitude":"","longitude":""}},"description":"Polish Poetry Unites is\u202fa video series for anyone interested in literature, history and reading. In each episode Edward Hirsch, a distinguished American poet, and the president of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, will introduce a celebrated Polish poet to American audiences. \nWatch the episode on YouTube channel. \nThis episode of Polish Poetry Unites introduces the work of Adam Mickiewicz to American audiences. Mickiewicz was born in 1797 in Zaosie [now Belarus] and died in 1855 in Constantinople [now Istanbul], Turkey, where he went to help organize Polish forces under the Ottoman Army to fight Russia in the Crimean War. Adam Mickiewicz was one of Three Bards, the national poets of Polish Romantic literature. The term is almost exclusively used to denote Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz S\u0142owacki and Zygmunt Krasi\u0144ski. Of the three, Mickiewicz is considered the most influential. Following the exploration of Mickiewicz\u2019s life and poetry by Edward Hirsch (more below) the video showcases the story of Tadeusz Jask\u00f3\u0142owski, a \u201chandyman\u201d as he calls himself, who is presenting his favorite poem, To M. by Adam Mickiewicz. Edward Hirsch said: \"Adam Mickiewicz is the greatest 19th century romantic poet from Poland, or Polish poet. He\u2019s a national hero. He believed strongly in Polish independence and liberty. I suppose one of the interesting things about Mickiewicz as the greatest Polish poet of the 19th century is that he was born in what is now considered Belarus, this was once part of Lithuania or the Duchy of Lithuania (part of the Polish Commonwealth), a bond between Poland and Lithuania, so I guess the greatest Polish poet is also the greatest Polish\u2013Lithuanian\u2013Belarussian poet. What I would say is the land was Lithuanian, but the ideal, the dream of unity and freedom was completely Polish, and he wrote in Polish. He wrote the greatest Polish epic, Pan Tadeusz, which is what I suppose he\u2019s best known for, there is a terrific translation in English by Bill Johnston. It sort of sets the terms of Polish identity in a certain way. Not everyone was a fan, Gombrowicz was a skeptic, he thought the ideas of Polish gentry and unification were a bit puerile, but Czes\u0142aw Mi\u0142osz was a follower. If you want an introduction to Mickiewicz\u2019s work, I will highly recommend Mi\u0142osz\u2019s section on him in History of Polish Literature, which is where I first heard about Mickiewicz. Mickiewicz was also a political poet. I\u2019m a fan of his Crimean sonnets and for our purposes he was also a great love poet, something like Byron, and in the film, the former farmer, now a handyman, jack of all trades, he seems to be able to fix anything, recites from memory Mickiewicz\u2019s wonderfully sad, longing, beautiful love poem, To M and he remembers how as a shy boy he used to recite this poem to try and woo a lover. It\u2019s a time-honored tradition in Latin America, Neruda\u2019s Twenty Love Songs and a Poem of Despair (actually, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair) used by thousands of young people to woo each other and in Poland it was Mickiewicz\u2019s wonderful love poems, you can read them in English in a terrific book called Treasury of Love Poems by Adam Mickiewicz. And it shows Mickiewicz\u2019s range as a love poet, he\u2019s also a political poet and he\u2019s the greatest poet of Polish independence and the dream of freedom and Poland\u2019s contribution to European ideals and values.\"\nTo M.\nAway from my sight! I\u2019ll listen instantly,\nAway from my heart! My heart will obey,\nAway from my memory! No, this order\nNeither my memory nor yours will obey\nAs shade that\u2019s longer, when cast from far away,\nMakes the mourning circle much wider sprawl\u2026\nSo will my figure, the further off I stay,\nBecloud your memory with a thicker pall.\nIn every place and at each time of day,\nWhere I cried with you, where we played together,\nEverywhere and always next to you I\u2019ll stay,\nFor part of my soul, I left in each quarter.\nWhether deep in thought in secluded chamber,\nClose to your harp by chance you\u2019ll come along.\nThen you will recall: at this exact hour\nI was singing for him the very same song.\nOr playing chess, when in the first foray\nYour king was trapped in the deadly campaign,\nThen you will think: the ranks stood in this way\nWhen we came to the end of our last game.\nOr at ball, when to rest you sit aside,\nEre the musician announces the next dance,\nYou will see an empty place by fireside,\nAnd you will think: he sat with me there once.\nOr when you read a book and will descry\nThe lovers\u2019 hope wrecked by a dreadful chance,\nYou will put it down and with a deep sigh\nYou will think then: ah, it is our romance\u2026\nAnd if the author after a tangles plot\nLet the loving pair join at last together,\nYou will put out the candle and dwell on the thought:\nWhy didn\u2019t our tale end this way ever?\nAll at once lighting will flash in the night,\nDry pear tree leaves will rustle in the orchard,\nThe moaning owl will brush the pane in its flight\u2026\nYou will think then that it is my spirit.\nSo in every place and at each time of day,\nWhere I cried with you, where we played together,\nEverywhere and always next to you I\u2019ll stay,\nFor part of my soul I left in each quarter.\ntranslated to English by J.M Miko\u015b, from the collection: Treasury of Love Poems by Adam Mickiewicz edited by Krystyna Olszer, and published by Hippocrene Books\nDo M.\nPrecz z moich oczu!\u2026 pos\u0142ucham od razu,\nPrecz z mego serca!\u2026 i serce pos\u0142ucha,\nPrecz z m\u00e9j pami\u0119ci!\u2026 Nie! tego rozkazu\nMoja i twoja pami\u0119\u0107 nie pos\u0142ucha.\nJak cie\u0144 t\u00e9m d\u0142u\u017cszy, gdy padnie z daleka,\nT\u00e9m szerz\u00e9j ko\u0142o \u017ca\u0142obne roztoczy,\nTak moja posta\u0107, im dal\u00e9j ucieka,\nT\u00e9m grubszym kirem tw\u0105 pami\u0119\u0107 pomroczy.\nNa ka\u017cd\u00e9m miejscu i o ka\u017cd\u00e9j dobie,\nGdziem z tob\u0105 p\u0142aka\u0142, gdziem si\u0119 z tob\u0105 bawi\u0142,\nWsz\u0119dzie i zawsze b\u0119d\u0119 ja przy tobie,\nBom wsz\u0119dzie cz\u0105stk\u0119 m\u00e9j duszy zostawi\u0142. \nCzy zadumana w samotn\u00e9j komorze\nDo arfy zbli\u017cysz nieumy\u015bln\u0105 r\u0119k\u0119,\nPrzypomnisz sobie: w\u0142a\u015bnie o t\u00e9j porze\n\u015apiewa\u0142am jemu t\u0119 sam\u0119 piosenk\u0119. \nCzy graj\u0105c w szachy, gdy pi\u00e9rwszemi \u015bciegi\n\u015amiertelna z\u0142owi kr\u00f3la twego matnia,\nPomy\u015blisz sobie: tak sta\u0142y szeregi,\nGdy si\u0119 sko\u0144czy\u0142a nasza gra ostatnia.\nCzy to na balu w chwilach odpoczynku\nSi\u0119dziesz, nim muzyk ta\u0144ce zapowiedzia\u0142,\nObaczysz pr\u00f3\u017cne miejsce przy kominku,\nPomy\u015blisz sobie: on tam ze mn\u0105 siedzia\u0142.\nCzy ksi\u0105\u017ck\u0119 we\u017amiesz, gdzie smutnym wyrokiem\nStargane ujrzysz kochank\u00f3w nadzieje,\nZ\u0142o\u017cywszy ksi\u0105\u017ck\u0119 z westchnieniem g\u0142\u0119bokiem,\nPomy\u015blisz sobie: ach, to nasze dzieje\u2026\nA je\u015bli autor po zawi\u0142\u00e9j probie\nPar\u0119 mi\u0142o\u015bn\u0105 na ostatek z\u0142\u0105czy\u0142,\nZagasisz \u015bwi\u00e9c\u0119 i pomy\u015blisz sobie:\nCzemu nasz romans tak si\u0119 nie zako\u0144czy\u0142?\u2026 \nWt\u00e9m b\u0142yskawica nocna zamigoce,\nSucha w ogrodzie zaszeleszczy grusza,\nI puszczyk z j\u0119kiem w okno za\u0142opoce\u2026\nPomy\u015blisz sobie, \u017ce to moja dusza.\nTak w ka\u017cd\u00e9m miejscu i o ka\u017cd\u00e9j dobie,\nGdziem z tob\u0105 p\u0142aka\u0142, gdziem si\u0119 z tob\u0105 bawi\u0142,\nWsz\u0119dzie i zawsze b\u0119d\u0119 ja przy tobie,\nBom wsz\u0119dzie cz\u0105stk\u0119 m\u00e9j duszy zostawi\u0142.\nAdam Mickiewicz (born December 24, 1798, Zaosye, near Nowogr\u00f3dek, Belorussia, Russian Empire [now in Belarus]\u2014died November 26, 1855, Constantinople [now Istanbul, Turkey] was one of the greatest poets of Poland and a lifelong apostle of Polish national freedom.\nBorn into an impoverished noble family, Mickiewicz studied at the University of Wilno (now Vilnius University) between 1815 and 1819; in 1817 he joined a secret patriotic student society, which was later incorporated into a larger clandestine student organization. Together with his fellow students in the organization, Mickiewicz was arrested in 1823 and deported to Russia for illegal patriotic activities. In Moscow he established friendly relations with Aleksandr Pushkin and other Russian intellectuals.\nMickiewicz\u2019s first volume of poems, Poezye (1822; \u201cPoetry\u201d), included ballads, romances, and an important preface explaining his admiration of western European poetic forms and his desire to transplant them to Polish literature. The second volume of Poezye (1823) contained parts two and four of his Dziady (Forefather\u2019s Eve), in which he combined elements of folklore with a story of tragic love to create a new kind of Romantic drama. While in Russia he visited Crimea in 1825, and, soon after, he published his cycle of sonnets Sonety Krymskie (1826; Crimean Sonnets). Konrad Wallenrod (1828; Konrad Wallenrod and Grazyna) is a poem describing the wars of the Teutonic Order with the Lithuanians but actually representing the age-old feud between Poland and Russia.\nMickiewicz was finally able to leave Russia in 1829, on the grounds of ill health. Traveling throughout Germany, he missed participating in the unsuccessful Polish insurrection of 1830\u201331. In the third part of Dziady (1833; Dziady III), which he completed in 1832, Mickiewicz views Poland as fulfilling a messianic role among the nations of western Europe by its national embodiment of the Christian themes of self-sacrifice and eventual redemption. In 1832 he settled in Paris and there wrote, in biblical prose, the Ksi\u0119gi narodu polskiego i pielgrzymstwa polskiego (\u201cBooks of the Polish Nation and Its Pilgrimage\u201d), a moral interpretation of the history of the Polish people.\nMickiewicz\u2019s masterpiece, the great epic poem Pan Tadeusz (1834; Eng. trans. Pan Tadeusz; film 1999), describes the life of the Polish gentry in the early 19th century through a fictional account of the feud between two families of Polish nobles. The poem conveys perfectly the ethos of an archaic society in which the ideals of chivalry are still alive and shows the effect of the Napoleonic myth on the minds of Poles for whom the French emperor and the Polish troops under his command represented the only hope for liberation from Russian rule.\nMickiewicz was appointed professor of Latin literature at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) in 1839 but resigned a year later to teach Slavonic literature at the Coll\u00e8ge de France. He remained there until 1844, when Napoleon III relieved him of the post\u2014because he was teaching the mystical doctrines of the mesmerist Andrzej Towia\u0144ski\u2014and appointed him librarian at the Arsenal. In early 1848 he went to Rome to persuade the new pope to support the cause of Polish national freedom. Between March and October 1849, he edited the radical newspaper La Tribune des Peuples (\u201cPeople\u2019s Tribune\u201d). In September 1855 he was sent to Turkey by Prince Adam Czartoryski to mediate between factions of Poles preparing to fight with the Allies in the Crimean War, but he did not survive the trip. In 1890 his remains were reburied in the vault of Wawel Cathedral in Krak\u00f3w, where many Polish kings are laid to rest.\nBiography source: Britannica.\nMore about Adam Mickiewicz:\nhttps:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/artist\/adam-mickiewicz\nhttps:\/\/iam.pl\/en\/influence-adam-mickiewicz-poetry-that-acts\nhttps:\/\/www.cornellpress.cornell.edu\/book\/9780801444715\/adam-mickiewicz\/#bookTabs=1\nhttps:\/\/allpoetry.com\/Adam-Mickiewicz\nhttps:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/article\/translating-mickiewicz-polands-international-man-of-mystery\nhttps:\/\/muzeumpanatadeusza.ossolineum.pl\/en\nhttps:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/article\/adam-mickiewiczs-eastern-face\nhttps:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/article\/inventing-anti-imperial-poetic-discourse-adam-mickiewicz-and-taras-shevchenko-with-alexander-pushkin-in-the-tsars-shadow\nhttps:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/article\/mickiewicz-the-zohar\nhttps:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/article\/the-ghost-of-mickiewicz\nhttps:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/work\/adam-mickiewicz-grazyna\nhttps:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/work\/ballads-and-romances-adam-mickiewicz\nhttps:\/\/instytutksiazki.pl\/en\/news,2,%E2%80%9Cballady-i-romanse%E2%80%9D-translated-into-english-for-the-first-time,8530.html\nhttps:\/\/culture.pl\/en\/work\/forefathers-eve-adam-mickiewicz-0\nEdward Hirsch is an American poet and critic who wrote a national bestseller about reading poetry entitled How to Read A Poem And Fall In Love With Poetry published in 2014. He has published nine books of poems, including The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems (2010) and Gabriel: A Poem (2014), a book-length elegy for his son that The New Yorker called \u201ca masterpiece of sorrow.\u201d He has also published five prose books about poetry. His latest book of essays, 100 Poems to Break your Heart was published in 2021. He is president of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in New York City. Currently he is finishing a book of essays called The Heart of American Poetry. It will be published in April to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Library of America. The book consists of deeply personal readings of forty essential American poems. It rethinks the American tradition in poetry. Ed Hirsch lives in New York City.\nLead image: Portrait of Adam Mickiewicz painted by Julian Mackiewicz | Public domain \nModerator: Edward HirschWriter and Director: Ewa Zadrzy\u0144skaCinematography: Jacek Mieros\u0142awski and Mila AntoniszczakEditor: Anna J\u0119drzejewskaCurator and Executive Producer: Bartek Remisko\nThe video about Adam Mickiewicz from the POLISH POETRY UNITES video series was realized with additional support from: New York Women in Film & Television and The Adam Mickiewicz Museum of Literature in Warsaw."},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"pl-PL","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2025\/04\/08\/adam-mickiewicz-cosmopolitan-polish-romantic-bard\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/04\/Adam_Mickiewicz_by_Julian_Mackiewicz.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/04\/Adam_Mickiewicz_by_Julian_Mackiewicz.jpg","width":1816,"height":1671},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2025\/04\/08\/adam-mickiewicz-cosmopolitan-polish-romantic-bard\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Adam Mickiewicz: Cosmopolitan Polish Romantic Bard"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/","name":"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","description":"Instytuty Polskie","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"pl-PL"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/c732b2695ee92026d080eec35471c7f1","name":"stypulkowskaa","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"pl-PL","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a29bb1802c91e057084d5d112dd59dc4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a29bb1802c91e057084d5d112dd59dc4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"stypulkowskaa"},"url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/author\/stypulkowskaa-2\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16846"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16890,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16846\/revisions\/16890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}