Leopold Staff

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Leopold Staff

Leopold Henryk Staff (born November 14, 1878 in Lemberg , † May 31, 1957 in Skarżysko-Kamienna ) was a Polish poet, playwright and literary translator.

Life

Born and raised in Lviv in a Polonized family and in a multiethnic environment: his father František Staff was a confectioner and came from Czech, his mother Leopoldyna nee. Fuhrherr came from an originally Silesian family. Already in his early youth he spoke several languages ​​and was able to deepen his knowledge on numerous later trips abroad. After graduating from high school, he studied law, philosophy and Romance studies at the University of Lemberg . While still a student he began to work as a literary editor and worked as an editor for the Krakow magazine Młodość (Youth). His first poems and translations he published around 1900. During this time he belonged to Jan Kasprowicz and Maryla Wolska in the literary circle Płanetnicy .

After the First World War, which he spent in Ukraine , Staff settled in Warsaw . There he was, now a recognized poet, employee of various cultural magazines and from 1934 to 1939 Vice-President of the Polish Academy of Literature and honorary member of the PEN Club . At the same time he edited several volumes of poetry and translated a great deal from Latin, ancient Greek, French, Italian, German (including Goethe and Nietzsche), Norwegian and Swedish. During the Second World War, he gave literary lectures on behalf of the Polish underground at the officially banned University of Warsaw . After the city was completely destroyed by German occupation troops in 1944, he moved to Krakow for five years . After his return to Warsaw in 1949, he processed the war trauma in numerous poems. Honored as one of the most brilliant Polish artists of the 20th century, he died in May 1957 shortly after the death of his wife Helena.

plant

In Poland, Leopold Staff is known as a poet of three generations . His debut (1901) with the volume Sny o potędze ( Dreams of Power) was influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche , whom he was just translating into Polish. Unlike the German author, however, he did not renounce a Christian and cheerful attitude. Starting as a typical representative of Young Poland , Staff evaluated in the 1910s in the direction of neoclassicism and Franciscanism, whereby he placed the everyday in the foreground. This perspective had a great influence on the next generation of poets, the Scamandrites . Staff's late work by is primarily shaped by the experience of the war and the awareness of one's own mortality.

Grave in the Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw

Publications

  • 1901 Sny o potędze (Dreams of Power)
  • 1902 Mistrz Twardowski. Pięć śpiewów o czynie (Master Twardowski)
  • 1903 Dzień duszy (Day of the Soul)
  • 1904 Skarb (The Treasure)
  • 1905 Ptakom niebieskim (The Sky Birds )
  • 1908 Gałąź kwitnąca (Flowering Branch)
  • 1910 Kwiatki św. Franciszka z Asyżu (Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi)
  • 1910 Uśmiechy godzin (Smiling Hours)
  • 1911 W cieniu miecza (In the shadow of the sword)
  • 1914 Łabędź i lira (The Swan and the Lyre)
  • 1916 Siew doli (The Seed of Destiny)
  • 1918 Tęcza łez i krwi (The Rainbow of Tears and Blood)
  • 1919 Oczy otchłani (Eyes of the Abyss)
  • 1919 Pieśń o skowronku (Song about the Lark)
  • 1919 Sady (orchards)
  • 1919 Ścieżki polne (paths in the field)
  • 1919 Wino miłości (Wine of Love)
  • 1921 Szumiąca muszla (rustling clam)
  • 1922 Żywiąc się w locie ( Feeding on the fly )
  • 1924 Chrystus i nędza (Christ and Poverty)
  • 1927 Ucho igielne (Eye of the Needle)
  • 1932 Wysokie drzewa (Tall Trees)
  • 1936 Barwa miodu (The color of honey)
  • 1946 Martwa pogoda (The Dead Weather)
  • 1954 Wiklina (willow branches)
  • 1957 Dziewięć muz (Nine Muses)

References

literature

  • OV Babler: Leopold Staff, the Polish poet , in: Mickiewicz-Blätter 5 (1960)
  • Hans-Peter Hoelscher-Obermaier: Leopold Staff (1878–1957) , in: Panorama of Polish Literature of the 20th Century: Portraits. Edited by Karl Dedecius, Zurich 2000, pp. 814–817.

Web links

Commons : Leopold Staff  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Staff, Leopold
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Staff, Leopold Henryk (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish poet, playwright and literary translator
DATE OF BIRTH November 14, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Lviv
DATE OF DEATH May 31, 1957
Place of death Skarżysko-Kamienna