Pan Tadeusz

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Title page from 1834
Pan Tadeusz's manuscripts and Adam Mickiewicz's signature, Ossolineum in Wrocław.

Pan Tadeusz (full title: Pan Tadeusz or The Last Entry into Lithuania. A nobility story from 1811 and 1812 in twelve books of verse , original title: Pan Tadeusz, czyli ostatni zajazd na Litwie. Historia szlachecka z roku 1811 i 1812 we dwunastu księgach wierszem ) is a great verse epic by the Polish writer and philosopher Adam Mickiewicz and is considered the latest of the great verses in European literary history. It is the national epic of the Poles. The book was first published in Paris in 1834 .

To this day, Pan Tadeusz is required reading in Polish schools and the most widely read book in Poland after the Bible . In 1999 Andrzej Wajda produced the very successful and award-winning feature film Pan Tadeusz based on the epic .

content

characters

Leading roles

The heroes of the epic are Polish country nobles:

  • Jacek Soplica (priest Robak) - father of Tadeusz; fled to the monastery after his murder of Stolnik Horeszko
  • Tadeusz Soplica - the 20-year-old son Jacek Soplica
  • Zosia Horeszkówna - daughter of Ewa Horeszkówna in the care of the count; in love with Tadeusz Soplica
  • Judge Soplica - brother of Jacek Soplica and landlord of the noble estate Soplica; a staunch patriot
  • Telimena - Zosia's nanny and resident of Saint Petersburg
  • The Count - the adversary of the judge Soplica in the dispute over the castle of the murdered Stolnik Horeszko; sees himself right to the castle by saying that Horeszko is related to him over seven corners (Book VI, verse 16); Gerwazy explains his precise relationship with the locals at the beginning of the verse epic in the story of the castle
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Horeszko
(grandfather of Stolnik)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Castellan
(uncle of Stolnik)
 
 Horeszkówna
(Aunt of Stolnik)
 
 
 
 
 Horeszko
(father of Stolnik)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1st daughter of the castellan
 
 2nd daughter of the castellan
 
 
 
 Stolnik Horeszko
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Łowczyna
(mother of the count)
 
 
 
 Ewa Horeszkówna
(daughter of Stolnik) courted
her Jacek Soplica in vain
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Count
 
 
 
 Zosia Horeszkówna
(Stolnik's granddaughter)
loves Tadeusz Soplica

Red = noble family Horeszko.
Green = noble family of castellans

  • Gerwazy Rębajło - the Count's castle administrator (served under Stolnik Horeszko)

Supporting roles

action

Polish emigrants in Paris remember the last uprising against the Tsar in Poland-Lithuania in 1834 . Adam Mickiewicz is one of them and tells the story of Pan Tadeusz . In 1811, after completing his studies, the young Tadeusz Soplica returned to the Polish aristocracy of his family in Lithuania. His guardian and brother of his father, the judge Soplica, awaits him there . The judge runs the property. His family's house looks completely empty. Tadeusz visits his former nursery and discovers the girl Zosia .

In the evening there is a big party in the castle of the count family. Tadeusz falls in love with the beautiful Telimena , who is much older than Tadeusz and is also courted by the count. It turns out that the girl Zosia is under the care of the count's family and lives in his former room. Young Tadeusz is confused by his feelings for Telimena and for Zosia. They blind him to what is going on around him. He does not recognize his father Jacek Soplica in the priest Robak . Jacek Soplica brought shame on the Soplica family. He fled to a monastery because of the murder of Stolnik Horeszko, who once ruled the castle . Since then, the Soplica family has been living in a quarrel with the count's family and is exposed to the lust for revenge of the loyal castle manager Gerwazy . Jacek Soplica now returns in the robe of the priest Robak. The patriotic priest Robak recognizes the possibility that Poland can regain independence. There is an uprising against the Tsar. Robak is fatally wounded and reveals himself on his deathbed. The families reconciliation and Tadeusz becomes engaged to Zosia.

Twelve Books (Chants)

Adam Mickiewicz published his great epic poem spread over 12 books (or 12 songs ) and had about each book
by Michał Elwiro Andriolli an illustration fit make the book title:

  • Book I
    The Economy

  • Book II
    The Castle

  • Book III
    Kurmacherei

  • Book IV
    Diplomacy and Hunting

  • Book V
    The Dispute

  • Book VI
    The Edelweiler

  • Book VII
    The Advice

  • Book VIII
    The Inn

  • Book IX
    The Struggle

  • Book X
    The Emigration. Jacek

  • Book XI
    The year 1812

  • Book XII
    Let's Love Each Other!

Importance and fame

Adam Mickiewicz wrote all of his works in Polish. He lived in the culture of Poland-Lithuania in the 18th century, the multicultural state that today comprises the separate countries Poland , Lithuania , Latvia , Belarus and Ukraine . Numerous quotes from his Pan Tadeusz have found their way into everyday Polish. Every Pole knows the first two verses of the book:

“Litwo! Ojczyzno moja! ty jesteś jak zdrowie;
Ile cię trzeba cenić, ten tylko się dowie, Kto cię stracił. ”

"Lithuania! You are like health, my country;
Those who have never lost you have not recognized you. "

German translations

  • 1882: Mr. Thaddäus or The Last Entry into Lithuania. A nobility story from the years 1811 and 1812 in verse and twelve books. Translated from the Polish metric by Albert Weiß. Wilhelm Friedrich, Leipzig 1882, 281 pages
  • 1882: Mr. Thaddäus or The Last Entry into Lithuania. Translated by Siegfried Lipiner . Breitkopf and Härtel, Leipzig 1882, 313 pages (full text online here)
  • 1955: Pan Tadeusz or The Last Entry into Lithuania. Verse epic in 12 books. Re-poetry by Walter Panitz. Structure, Berlin 1955, 602 pages [also at Rowohlt, Hamburg 1956]
  • 1963: Pan Tadeusz or The Last Feud in Lithuania. Verse epic. Adaptation by Hermann Buddensieg . Eidos, Munich 1963, 381 pages
  • 1977: Pan Tadeusz. The work of the great Polish romantic, a hymn of homeland love. Translated sound image into German by Walburg Friedenberg. European publishing house, Vienna 1977, 332 pages

Play and film adaptations

literature

  • Barbara Breysach: Pan Tadeusz. In: Dan Diner (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture (EJGK). Volume 4: Ly-Po. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2013, ISBN 978-3-476-02504-3 , pp. 488-491.

Web links

Wikisource: Pan Tadeusz  - Sources and full texts (Polish)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry = until 1792 the armed enforcement of a court order; In the aristocratic republic of Poland-Lithuania , the enforcement of judicial judgments was a very difficult matter, because the executive state had almost no police available and the powerful kept house troops (some even many thousands strong). If a plaintiff had obtained his decree, he had to turn to the knighthood, ie the Szlachta , for enforcement . The plaintiff's relatives, friends and comrades in the district then moved on the spot, accompanied by the court boy (Wozny) and with their decree in hand, and had to (often with bloodshed) conquer the properties awarded to him, which the court boy legally "traded" or in Handed over possession. This armed enforcement of a court order was called zajazd (German: E inritt ).
    Source: Introduction to the verse epic, In: Poetic Works, Leipzig 1882, Volume I. First printing: Paris 1834 (2 vols). Translated by Siegfried Lippiner .
  2. ↑ Czesław Miłosz: The history of Polish literature . IV. Romanticism. Page 228. Google Books. University of California Press, 1983. ISBN 0-520-04477-0 . Retrieved October 7, 2011.
  3. ↑ "Edelweiler" (Polish: Okolica or Zascianek ) is the name given to an aristocratic colony in Lithuania, in contrast to the actual villages or hamlets: the rural settlements