Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (24 December 179826 November 1855) was a Polish<!-- DO NOT CHANGE NATIONALITY PER TALK DISCUSSION --> poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. He also largely influenced Ukrainian literature and affected Russian literature. A principal figure in Polish Romanticism, he is one of Poland's "Three Bards" () and is widely regarded as Poland's greatest poet. After graduating, under the terms of his government scholarship, he taught secondary school at Kaunas from 1819 to 1823. Celina would die on 5 March 1855. In Pan Tadeusz, there is an un-Polonized Lithuanian name Baublys. Furthermore, due to Mickiewicz's position as lecturer on Lithuanian folklore and mythology in Collège de France, it can be inferred that he must have known the language sufficiently to lecture about it. It is known that Adam Mickiewicz often sang Lithuanian folk songs with the Samogitian Ludmilew Korylski. For example, in the early 1850s when in Paris, Mickiewicz interrupted a Lithuanian folk song sung by Ludmilew Korylski, commenting that he was singing it wrong and hence wrote down on a piece of paper how to sing the song correctly. which are the sole, as of now, known Lithuanian writings by Adam Mickiewicz. The folk songs are known to have been sung in Darbėnai.

Legacy

thumb|[[Adam Mickiewicz Monument, Kraków, Poland]]

thumb|[[Adam Mickiewicz Monument, Warsaw, Poland]]

thumb|[[Adam Mickiewicz Monument, Lviv|Adam Mickiewicz Monument, Lviv, Ukraine]]

A prime figure of the Polish Romantic period, Mickiewicz is counted as one of Poland's Three Bards (the others being Zygmunt Krasiński and Juliusz Słowacki) and the greatest poet in all Polish literature. Mickiewicz's works began to be translated into the Lithuanian language when he was still alive (e.g. Simonas Daukantas, one of the pioneers of the Lithuanian National Revival, translated and retold a story ' / ' in 1822, Kiprijonas Nezabitauskis translated ' / ' and it was published in Paris in ~1836, Liudvikas Adomas Jucevičius translated a ballad ' / ' in 1837). or Belarusian. The Cambridge History of Russia describes him as Polish but sees his ethnic origins as "Lithuanian-Belarusian (and perhaps Jewish)." while Tomas Venclova described this attitude as "the story of Mickiewicz's appropriation by Lithuanian culture".

Sources

Further reading

  • Four Sonnets translated by Leo Yankevich
  • Translation of "the Akkerman Steppe"
  • Sonnets from the Crimea (Sonety krymskie) translated by Edna W. Underwood
  • Adam Mickiewicz Selected Poems (in English)
  • Mickiewicz's works: text, concordances and frequency list
  • Polish Literature in English Translation: Mickiewicz
  • Adam Mickiewicz Museum Istanbul (in Turkish)
  • Polish poetry in English (includes a few poems by Mickiewicz)
  • Adam Mickiewicz at Culture.pl
  • Translating Mickiewicz: Poland's International Man of Mystery at Culture.pl
  • Adam Mickiewicz Slept Here! A Worldwide Guide to Museums of Poland's Poetic Hero at Culture.pl
  • Adam Mickiewicz at poezja.org (polish)