Funeral ceremony (drama)
The drama cycle Funeral Celebration or Ancestral Celebration ( Polish original title: Dziady ) is one of the most important works of the Polish writer Adam Mickiewicz and of Polish literature in general. It consists of four volumes and was published in three editions: first parts two and four in 1823. The third part was published in Paris in 1832 . It was not until 1860, after Mickiewicz's death, that the first part appeared from his estate, also in Paris, which the poet no longer completed.
In Polish literary history, the work is considered the introduction to Romanticism . It was created in exile in Paris at the time of the partitions of Poland , when the Polish state had disappeared from the map. At the end of the drama, a vision of a free, newly risen Poland is drawn. The work was understood by Mickiewicz's compatriots as a call for more patriotism and resistance against the occupying powers.
The word Dziady means “ancestors”, “ forefathers ” or “ grandfathers ” in Polish . The title Dziady describes the pre-Christian (Baltic-Slavic) custom of worshiping the dead, which was no longer practiced at the time of Mickiewicz . In Germany, similar celebrations to commemorate the dead on the Sunday of the Dead and All Saints' Day have survived the centuries. In Poland and the Baltic States , too , this festival is still celebrated as the Christianized All Souls' Day ( Zaduszki ). Dziady was celebrated twice a year in spring and autumn .
Important productions
- 1930s - Leon Schiller in Lviv , Vilnius and Warsaw
- 1960s - Kazimierz Dejmek in Warsaw (banned by the communist regime in January 1968, see March 1968 riots in Poland )
- 1970s - Konrad Swinarski in Krakow
- 1990s - Jerzy Grzegorzewski in Warsaw
- 2016 - Michał Zadara Polish Theater in Wroclaw
German translations
- The ancestral celebration . A poem / dziady. Transl., Ed. u. with an afterword by Walter Schamschula. Foreword by Hans Rothe. Cologne, Weimar, Vienna: Böhlau 1991. XIII, 506 pp. (= Writings of the Committees of the Federal Republic of Germany for the Promotion of Slavic Studies 14) Bilingual edition. ISBN 3412046914
- Funeral ceremony . A dramatic poem in two parts. Translated into German and edited for the stage by Gerda Hagenau, in: Hagenau, Gerda: Adam Mickiewicz als Dramatist: Poetry and Stage History. Dziady funeral ceremony. German translation. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang 1999. pp. 187-319. (= European university publications; series 16. Slavic languages and literatures; vol. 61).