{"id":19876,"date":"2026-02-24T22:21:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T21:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/?p=19876"},"modified":"2026-03-13T15:53:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:53:40","slug":"boleslaw-lesmian-the-poet-of-enchanted-existence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/02\/24\/boleslaw-lesmian-the-poet-of-enchanted-existence\/","title":{"rendered":"Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian – the Poet of Enchanted Existence"},"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

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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

\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

This episode of Polish Poetry Unites<\/strong><\/a> introduces to American audiences the life and work of Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


Following the forward by Edward Hirsch about the life and work of the poet, the video showcases the story of Kinga Fulara, a high school student from Starachowice, Poland who presents Lesmian\u2019s poem The Secret, in translation of Joanna Trzzeciak Huss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edward Hirsch states: \u201cLesmian is a remarkable figure in Polish poetry. He is born in 1877. He died in 1937. He’s writing at a time when Polish literature was very nationalistic, filled with political and social concerns. He took Polish poetry in another direction, in a more inward, psychological, philosophical direction. He’s hard to get a handle on because he was so formally inventive. His work is filled with neologisms and a very experimental syntax. He’s a cosmopolitan person, the first European poet really to bring the techniques of symbolism and expressionism into Polish poetry. He’s been hard for me to understand and to get a feeling for because his experimental technique and his wordplay make him almost untranslatable, which has been difficult for his reputation internationally. But hopefully we’re going to continue to get better translations of his work because he’s an original figure. There is a term in Polish literature, which is Lesmianesque, which is sort of the equivalent of Kafkaesque. And it means sensual, dreamlike, and a slightly eerie atmosphere. And this blend of the surreal and the natural is one of the things that gives his poetry its distinctive quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The poem in the film, wonderful poem, sometimes translated mystery, but more accurately, I think, translated by Joanna Huss as The Secret, is a marvelous poem in which a couple are in the woods. in some kind of embrace and secret communication. And they’re caught or spied on by the woman’s younger sister. What I love about the film is the high school girl in the film knows this poem from the time she’s six years old. And at first, she identified with the younger sister. who spies the lovers. And then later the poem comes back to her when she herself is more womanly and she identifies not with the younger sister, but with the lover herself. I think this is a wonderful way that a poem can mean different things to you at different times in your life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n

The Secret<\/em> by Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one saw us, except perhaps
The flying, fluttering moths
How sweet that our caresses
are known only to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harvesting heather, your younger sister
Has heard us from far away.
She now speaks to us in a whisper.
Once silent, she lowers her gaze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across the garden and everywhere
she flits, lost in her singing!
To us \u2018tis sweet that she\u2019s aware
Of that which no one else is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated from the Polish by Joanna Huss<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Tajemnica <\/strong><\/em>Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nikt nas nie widzia\u0142 – chyba te \u0107my,
Co puszy\u015bciej\u0105 w przelocie.
I tak nam s\u0142odko, \u017ce tylko – my
Wiemy o naszej pieszczocie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

M\u0142odsza twa siostra, zrywaj\u0105c wrzos,
\u015aledzi\u0142a szept nasz daleki\u2026
I m\u00f3wi\u0105c z nami, ucisza g\u0142os –
A milkn\u0105c – spuszcza powieki.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I po ogrodzie mknie wzd\u0142u\u017c i wszerz,
Zaprzepaszczona w swym \u015bpiewie!
I tak nam s\u0142odko, \u017ce ona te\u017c
Wie o tym, o czym nikt nie wie\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian<\/strong> (born Lesman) was likely born on January 22, 1877, in Warsaw, though he sometimes claimed 1878 as his birth year. He died on November 5, 1937, also in Warsaw. A lyric poet, Le\u015bmian was among the first to bring Symbolism and Expressionism into Polish poetry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born into a Jewish family, Le\u015bmian was educated in Kiev, Ukraine, where he studied law. He spent several years in France. During most of his later life he functioned as a minor public official in provincial Polish towns. Among his few works are Sad rozstajny (1912; \u201cOrchard\u201d); \u0141\u0105ka (1920; \u201cThe Meadow\u201d), the volume that established his reputation; Nap\u00f3j cienisty (1936; \u201cThe Shadowy Drink\u201d); and Dziejba le\u015bna (1938; \u201cWoodland Tale\u201d). Le\u015bmian published little and met with limited recognition. Nonetheless, he was elected a member of the Polish Academy of Literature in 1933.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Influenced by the Young Poland movement\u2019s poetry, Le\u015bmian soon developed an original style, combining elements of the fantastic with folklore, the grotesque with realistic observations, and the symbolic with the visionary. A volume of his poems appeared in English translation as Mythematics and Extropy: Selected Poems of Boleslaw Le\u015bmian<\/em> (1984).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Source Britanica<\/em>) <\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The POLISH POETRY UNITES episode about Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian was produced with additional support from: the Museum of Literature in Warsaw and New York Women in Film & Television<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lead image: Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian. Fot. NAC
Bio image: Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian. \u0179r\u00f3d\u0142o: NAC<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moderator: Edward Hirsch<\/em>
Writer and Director: Ewa Zadrzy<\/em>\u0144<\/em>ska
Curator and Executive Producer: Bartek Remisko<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 to American audiences […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":19882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"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-19876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-literature"],"yoast_head":"\nBoles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian - the Poet of Enchanted Existence - 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\/2026\/02\/24\/boleslaw-lesmian-the-poet-of-enchanted-existence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"pl_PL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian - the Poet of Enchanted Existence - 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 to American audiences […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/02\/24\/boleslaw-lesmian-the-poet-of-enchanted-existence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-24T21:21:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-13T14:53:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/02\/lesmian_boleslaw.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"564\" \/>\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=\"6 minut\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"event\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/02\/24\/boleslaw-lesmian-the-poet-of-enchanted-existence\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/02\/24\/boleslaw-lesmian-the-poet-of-enchanted-existence\/\",\"name\":\"Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian - the Poet of Enchanted Existence\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/02\/24\/boleslaw-lesmian-the-poet-of-enchanted-existence\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":[\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/02\/lesmian_boleslaw.jpg\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/02\/lesmian_boleslaw-300x226.jpg\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/02\/lesmian_boleslaw.jpg\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/02\/lesmian_boleslaw.jpg\"],\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/02\/lesmian_boleslaw.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-24T21:21:53+02:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-13T14:53:40+02:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/c732b2695ee92026d080eec35471c7f1\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/02\/24\/boleslaw-lesmian-the-poet-of-enchanted-existence\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/02\/24\/boleslaw-lesmian-the-poet-of-enchanted-existence\/\"]}],\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"startDate\":\"2026-02-25\",\"endDate\":\"2026-05-25\",\"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 to American audiences the life and work of Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian. \\nFollowing the forward by Edward Hirsch about the life and work of the poet, the video showcases the story of Kinga Fulara, a high school student from Starachowice, Poland who presents Lesmian\u2019s poem The Secret, in translation of Joanna Trzzeciak Huss.\\nEdward Hirsch states: \u201cLesmian is a remarkable figure in Polish poetry. He is born in 1877. He died in 1937. He's writing at a time when Polish literature was very nationalistic, filled with political and social concerns. He took Polish poetry in another direction, in a more inward, psychological, philosophical direction. He's hard to get a handle on because he was so formally inventive. His work is filled with neologisms and a very experimental syntax. He's a cosmopolitan person, the first European poet really to bring the techniques of symbolism and expressionism into Polish poetry. He's been hard for me to understand and to get a feeling for because his experimental technique and his wordplay make him almost untranslatable, which has been difficult for his reputation internationally. But hopefully we're going to continue to get better translations of his work because he's an original figure. There is a term in Polish literature, which is Lesmianesque, which is sort of the equivalent of Kafkaesque. And it means sensual, dreamlike, and a slightly eerie atmosphere. And this blend of the surreal and the natural is one of the things that gives his poetry its distinctive quality.\\nThe poem in the film, wonderful poem, sometimes translated mystery, but more accurately, I think, translated by Joanna Huss as The Secret, is a marvelous poem in which a couple are in the woods. in some kind of embrace and secret communication. And they're caught or spied on by the woman's younger sister. What I love about the film is the high school girl in the film knows this poem from the time she's six years old. And at first, she identified with the younger sister. who spies the lovers. And then later the poem comes back to her when she herself is more womanly and she identifies not with the younger sister, but with the lover herself. I think this is a wonderful way that a poem can mean different things to you at different times in your life.\u201d\\nThe Secret by Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian\\nNo one saw us, except perhapsThe flying, fluttering mothsHow sweet that our caressesare known only to us.\\nHarvesting heather, your younger sisterHas heard us from far away.She now speaks to us in a whisper.Once silent, she lowers her gaze.\\nAcross the garden and everywhereshe flits, lost in her singing!To us \u2018tis sweet that she\u2019s awareOf that which no one else is.\\nTranslated from the Polish by Joanna Huss\\nTajemnica Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian\\nNikt nas nie widzia\u0142 - chyba te \u0107my,Co puszy\u015bciej\u0105 w przelocie.I tak nam s\u0142odko, \u017ce tylko - myWiemy o naszej pieszczocie.\\nM\u0142odsza twa siostra, zrywaj\u0105c wrzos,\u015aledzi\u0142a szept nasz daleki\u2026I m\u00f3wi\u0105c z nami, ucisza g\u0142os -A milkn\u0105c - spuszcza powieki.\\nI po ogrodzie mknie wzd\u0142u\u017c i wszerz,Zaprzepaszczona w swym \u015bpiewie!I tak nam s\u0142odko, \u017ce ona te\u017cWie o tym, o czym nikt nie wie\u2026\\nBoles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian (born Lesman) was likely born on January 22, 1877, in Warsaw, though he sometimes claimed 1878 as his birth year. He died on November 5, 1937, also in Warsaw. A lyric poet, Le\u015bmian was among the first to bring Symbolism and Expressionism into Polish poetry.\\nBorn into a Jewish family, Le\u015bmian was educated in Kiev, Ukraine, where he studied law. He spent several years in France. During most of his later life he functioned as a minor public official in provincial Polish towns. Among his few works are Sad rozstajny (1912; \u201cOrchard\u201d); \u0141\u0105ka (1920; \u201cThe Meadow\u201d), the volume that established his reputation; Nap\u00f3j cienisty (1936; \u201cThe Shadowy Drink\u201d); and Dziejba le\u015bna (1938; \u201cWoodland Tale\u201d). Le\u015bmian published little and met with limited recognition. Nonetheless, he was elected a member of the Polish Academy of Literature in 1933.\\nInfluenced by the Young Poland movement\u2019s poetry, Le\u015bmian soon developed an original style, combining elements of the fantastic with folklore, the grotesque with realistic observations, and the symbolic with the visionary. A volume of his poems appeared in English translation as Mythematics and Extropy: Selected Poems of Boleslaw Le\u015bmian (1984).\\n(Source Britanica) \\nThe POLISH POETRY UNITES episode about Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian was produced with additional support from: the Museum of Literature in Warsaw and New York Women in Film & Television\\nLead image: Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian. Fot. NACBio image: Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian. \u0179r\u00f3d\u0142o: NAC\\nModerator: Edward HirschWriter and Director: Ewa Zadrzy\u0144skaCurator and Executive Producer: Bartek Remisko\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/02\/24\/boleslaw-lesmian-the-poet-of-enchanted-existence\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/02\/lesmian_boleslaw.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/02\/lesmian_boleslaw.jpg\",\"width\":750,\"height\":564},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/02\/24\/boleslaw-lesmian-the-poet-of-enchanted-existence\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian – the Poet of Enchanted Existence\"}]},{\"@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":"Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian - the Poet of Enchanted Existence - 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\/2026\/02\/24\/boleslaw-lesmian-the-poet-of-enchanted-existence\/","og_locale":"pl_PL","og_type":"article","og_title":"Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian - the Poet of Enchanted Existence - 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 to American audiences […]","og_url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/02\/24\/boleslaw-lesmian-the-poet-of-enchanted-existence\/","og_site_name":"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","article_published_time":"2026-02-24T21:21:53+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-03-13T14:53:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":564,"url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/02\/lesmian_boleslaw.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"stypulkowskaa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Napisane przez":"stypulkowskaa","Szacowany czas czytania":"6 minut"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"event","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/02\/24\/boleslaw-lesmian-the-poet-of-enchanted-existence\/","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/02\/24\/boleslaw-lesmian-the-poet-of-enchanted-existence\/","name":"Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian - the Poet of Enchanted Existence","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/02\/24\/boleslaw-lesmian-the-poet-of-enchanted-existence\/#primaryimage"},"image":["https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/02\/lesmian_boleslaw.jpg","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/02\/lesmian_boleslaw-300x226.jpg","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/02\/lesmian_boleslaw.jpg","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/02\/lesmian_boleslaw.jpg"],"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/02\/lesmian_boleslaw.jpg","datePublished":"2026-02-24T21:21:53+02:00","dateModified":"2026-03-13T14:53:40+02:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/c732b2695ee92026d080eec35471c7f1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/02\/24\/boleslaw-lesmian-the-poet-of-enchanted-existence\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"pl-PL","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/02\/24\/boleslaw-lesmian-the-poet-of-enchanted-existence\/"]}],"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","startDate":"2026-02-25","endDate":"2026-05-25","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 to American audiences the life and work of Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian. \nFollowing the forward by Edward Hirsch about the life and work of the poet, the video showcases the story of Kinga Fulara, a high school student from Starachowice, Poland who presents Lesmian\u2019s poem The Secret, in translation of Joanna Trzzeciak Huss.\nEdward Hirsch states: \u201cLesmian is a remarkable figure in Polish poetry. He is born in 1877. He died in 1937. He's writing at a time when Polish literature was very nationalistic, filled with political and social concerns. He took Polish poetry in another direction, in a more inward, psychological, philosophical direction. He's hard to get a handle on because he was so formally inventive. His work is filled with neologisms and a very experimental syntax. He's a cosmopolitan person, the first European poet really to bring the techniques of symbolism and expressionism into Polish poetry. He's been hard for me to understand and to get a feeling for because his experimental technique and his wordplay make him almost untranslatable, which has been difficult for his reputation internationally. But hopefully we're going to continue to get better translations of his work because he's an original figure. There is a term in Polish literature, which is Lesmianesque, which is sort of the equivalent of Kafkaesque. And it means sensual, dreamlike, and a slightly eerie atmosphere. And this blend of the surreal and the natural is one of the things that gives his poetry its distinctive quality.\nThe poem in the film, wonderful poem, sometimes translated mystery, but more accurately, I think, translated by Joanna Huss as The Secret, is a marvelous poem in which a couple are in the woods. in some kind of embrace and secret communication. And they're caught or spied on by the woman's younger sister. What I love about the film is the high school girl in the film knows this poem from the time she's six years old. And at first, she identified with the younger sister. who spies the lovers. And then later the poem comes back to her when she herself is more womanly and she identifies not with the younger sister, but with the lover herself. I think this is a wonderful way that a poem can mean different things to you at different times in your life.\u201d\nThe Secret by Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian\nNo one saw us, except perhapsThe flying, fluttering mothsHow sweet that our caressesare known only to us.\nHarvesting heather, your younger sisterHas heard us from far away.She now speaks to us in a whisper.Once silent, she lowers her gaze.\nAcross the garden and everywhereshe flits, lost in her singing!To us \u2018tis sweet that she\u2019s awareOf that which no one else is.\nTranslated from the Polish by Joanna Huss\nTajemnica Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian\nNikt nas nie widzia\u0142 - chyba te \u0107my,Co puszy\u015bciej\u0105 w przelocie.I tak nam s\u0142odko, \u017ce tylko - myWiemy o naszej pieszczocie.\nM\u0142odsza twa siostra, zrywaj\u0105c wrzos,\u015aledzi\u0142a szept nasz daleki\u2026I m\u00f3wi\u0105c z nami, ucisza g\u0142os -A milkn\u0105c - spuszcza powieki.\nI po ogrodzie mknie wzd\u0142u\u017c i wszerz,Zaprzepaszczona w swym \u015bpiewie!I tak nam s\u0142odko, \u017ce ona te\u017cWie o tym, o czym nikt nie wie\u2026\nBoles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian (born Lesman) was likely born on January 22, 1877, in Warsaw, though he sometimes claimed 1878 as his birth year. He died on November 5, 1937, also in Warsaw. A lyric poet, Le\u015bmian was among the first to bring Symbolism and Expressionism into Polish poetry.\nBorn into a Jewish family, Le\u015bmian was educated in Kiev, Ukraine, where he studied law. He spent several years in France. During most of his later life he functioned as a minor public official in provincial Polish towns. Among his few works are Sad rozstajny (1912; \u201cOrchard\u201d); \u0141\u0105ka (1920; \u201cThe Meadow\u201d), the volume that established his reputation; Nap\u00f3j cienisty (1936; \u201cThe Shadowy Drink\u201d); and Dziejba le\u015bna (1938; \u201cWoodland Tale\u201d). Le\u015bmian published little and met with limited recognition. Nonetheless, he was elected a member of the Polish Academy of Literature in 1933.\nInfluenced by the Young Poland movement\u2019s poetry, Le\u015bmian soon developed an original style, combining elements of the fantastic with folklore, the grotesque with realistic observations, and the symbolic with the visionary. A volume of his poems appeared in English translation as Mythematics and Extropy: Selected Poems of Boleslaw Le\u015bmian (1984).\n(Source Britanica) \nThe POLISH POETRY UNITES episode about Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian was produced with additional support from: the Museum of Literature in Warsaw and New York Women in Film & Television\nLead image: Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian. Fot. NACBio image: Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian. \u0179r\u00f3d\u0142o: NAC\nModerator: Edward HirschWriter and Director: Ewa Zadrzy\u0144skaCurator and Executive Producer: Bartek Remisko"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"pl-PL","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/02\/24\/boleslaw-lesmian-the-poet-of-enchanted-existence\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/02\/lesmian_boleslaw.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/02\/lesmian_boleslaw.jpg","width":750,"height":564},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/02\/24\/boleslaw-lesmian-the-poet-of-enchanted-existence\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Boles\u0142aw Le\u015bmian – the Poet of Enchanted Existence"}]},{"@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\/19876","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=19876"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20057,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19876\/revisions\/20057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}