Pan Tadeusz

by Adam Mickiewicz

  The glory that still echoes quietly—

  We had no strength to think of these!

  For nations can face such agonies

  That, gazing upon their misery,

  Even Courage stands helplessly.

  Those mourning-blackened generations,

  The air replete with imprecations—

  The mind did not dare fly towards

  A place whose roar daunts even birds.

  O Mother Poland! Your grave’s so new

  I lack the spirit to speak of you!

  Today, is there anybody who

  Believes they’ve a heartfelt word to share

  To soften that marble-hard despair,

  Lift the stone lid where hearts are held—

  Unbandage eyes that tears have filled

  And then to rid those eyes of tears?

  You’d seek that speaker a hundred years.

  One day—when the vengeful roaring’s done,

  The ranks are broken, the trumpet blown—

  When the last enemy, having screamed,

  Falls silent, and freedom is proclaimed;

  And when our eagles like lightning flares

  Descend on Poland’s old frontiers,

  Consume their fill of flesh, of blood,

  And finally fold their wings for good—

  Then, wreathed with oak leaves, bows unstrung

  And swords laid down, massed in a throng

  Our knights will sit and call for song!

  Envied by all the world, they’ll rest

  And listen to their past expressed.

  Their fathers’ fates now sadden them;

  Now though, their tears entail no shame.

  For a Pole—uninvited guest

  Wherever he goes—in all the past

  And all the future, there’s one sole land

  Where some slight happiness can be found:

  The land of childhood. It will endure

  As sacred as first love, as pure;

  Unmarred by flaws of memory,

  Unharmed by hope’s cruel fallacy,

  Unchanged by the flow of history.

  In my thoughts, I’d hurry to where

  I never fretted, where tears were rare:

  Childhood’s domain. You’d run for hours,

  Look only at the pretty flowers—

  Drop those that sting, and turn your gaze

  From those with useful properties.

  As the world is God’s, that happy zone,

  Confined and simple, was our own!

  Yes, all things there belonged to us!

  How to remember all there was:

  From the grand linden tree whose boughs

  Gave all the village children shade,

  To creeks and boulders where we played,

  We knew each inch of ground, as far

  As the neighbors’ houses—our frontier!

  And only citizens of that land

  Could become either faithful friend

  Or still-true ally. For who lived there?

  Mother, brothers—kin they were!

  Good neighbors who, when they lost someone

  Would talk of the person who was gone:

  Mourning is longer, memories vaster

  In a realm where a servant loves his master

  More than wives love husbands in other places;

  Where a veteran’s grief for his sword surpasses

  The grief of sons for their fathers here;

  More than heroes here, a dog’s mourned there.

  And friends would tell me the words of songs

  And help by talking with me awhile—

  Like mythic cranes on a wild isle

  Who see a spellbound castle one spring

  Where a spell-trapped boy is clamoring;

  Each bird throws down one feather; with them

  The boy makes wings, and flies back home…

  I’d know such joy if ever this book

  Should find its way to a cottage nook

  Where peasant girls at spinning wheels

  Swap favorite songs—the one that tells

  Of the fiddler girl who loved to play

  So much, her goslings went astray;

  Or the orphan, lovely as the dawn,

  Leading her geese as night comes on—

  If in the end the spinners would bring

  This book, plain as the songs they sing.

  In my time, at village fairs we’d loll

  Beneath the linden, and read for all

  The song of Justyna, or Wiesław’s tale.

  The steward, or the manager,

  Or master, dozing in a chair,

  Would let us read, and listen in;

  He’d help the youngsters out, explain,

  Excuse the faults, praise what was fine.

  And the young men envied the poets—for still

  Forest and meadow rang with their fame,

  And dearer than Roman laurels to them

  Were wreaths that village girls made, with blue

  Of cornflowers, and the green of rue.

  Mickiewicz’s Explanations

  Mickiewicz provided his own commentary on the text of Pan Tadeusz; these notes, which he called “Objaśnienia” (“Explanations” or “Glosses”), appeared at the end of the text. I have translated them as they are, though I have omitted a few of the notes referring to Polish expressions that do not appear in my translation of the poem.

  In the title:

  The Last Foray in Lithuania

  Under the Polish Republic the carrying out of judicial verdicts was extremely difficult in a country in which the executive powers had no police to speak of under their command, while the wealthier citizens kept their own private regiments, some, like the Radziwiłł princes, even maintaining their own armies of several thousand men. The plaintiff, then, having obtained a decree, in order to carry it out was obliged to turn to the knightly class, which is to say the gentry, who also had such executive power. Armed relatives, friends, and neighbors rode out with the decree in hand and, accompanied by the bailiff, in many cases not without bloodshed, took whatever the plaintiff had been awarded, which the bailiff legally conveyed temporarily or permanently into the plaintiff’s possession. An armed execution of a decree was called a foray (zajazd).

  In former times, when the law was respected, even the wealthiest magnates did not dare oppose the court’s verdicts; armed attacks were rare, and violence hardly ever went unpunished. History has taught us the sorry end of Prince Wasil Sanguszko and that of Stadnicki, known as The Devil.

  The lessening of decorum under the Republic led to an increase in the number of forays, which continually disrupted the peace of Lithuania.

  BOOK I

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  Our Lady! You safeguard Częstochowa; shine

  In Ostra Brama

  Everyone in Poland knows of the miraculous image of Our Lady at Jasna Góra in Częstochowa. In Lithuania the images of Our Lady of Ostra Brama in Vilna, Our Lady of the Castle in Nowogródek, and of Żyrowice and Boruny, are all known for miracles.

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  …but don’t conclude

  The Judge’s household lacked solicitude

  In the countries it conquered, the Russian government did not immediately abolish civil laws and institutions, but gradually undermined and eroded them with ukases. In Little Russia for instance, the Statutes of Lithuania remained in force till very recently. In Lithuania the entire former system of civil and criminal courts was left in place. Thus, county and city judges, and regional judges in the provinces, are elected as before. But appeals are directed to Petersburg, to many instances at different levels, and so local courts are left with only a shadow of their traditional authority.

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  …for the Warden to get changed

  The Warden (tribunus) was at one time the official guardian of the gentry’s wives and children at times of a general levy. For a long time now this position has been titular alone, without duties.

  In Lithuania there is a custom by which respected persons are given for the sake of courtesy any ancient title that can legally be bestowed. Thus, for example, neighbors will appoint a friend of theirs Prefect, Pantler, or Cupbearer, at first only in conversation and in correspondence, then later even in official documents. The Russian government forbade such titles and has attempted to ridicule them, and replace them with titles from their own official hierarchy, which Lithuanians continue to execrate.

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  The Chamberlain’s here, with wife and girls in tow

  Chamberlain, once a notable and important office, Princeps Nobilitatis, under the Russian government has become merely titular. The Chamberlain continued for some time to occasionally adjudicate boundary disputes, but in the end lost even this part of his jurisdiction. Now he sometimes deputizes for the Marshal and appoints the district surveyors.

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  The Warden and Protazy the Bailiff stood

  With candles in the hall

  The Bailiff or General, selected by the tribunal or the court from among the resident gentry, delivered summonses, announced repossessions, conducted court-ordered visitations, convened current court cases, etc. This office was usually held by someone from the petty gentry.

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  He was sought out, the way small birds harass

  A falcon

  It is common knowledge that small birds, especially swallows, in large numbers will chase after hawks.

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  Bonaparte knew magic

  In Russia, among the common people there are many stories about the magic performed by Bonaparte and Suvorov.

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  Assessor and Notary ever more loudly

  Were sparring

  Assessors constitute the police of a country district. In accordance with particular ukases, they are sometimes elected by the citizens, sometimes appointed by the government; the latter are referred to as royal assessors. Lithuanian High Court judges are also known as assessors, but it is not they who are being referred to here.

  Filing notaries are in charge of a lawyer’s chambers; scribing notaries record the verdicts; all are appointed by the clerk of the court.

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  And Voivode Niesiołowski – how would he

  React?

  Count Józef Niesiołowski, the last voivode of Nowogródek, was chairman of the revolutionary government during the Jasiński uprising.

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  Even Białopiotrowicz was rejected!

  Jerzy Białopiotrowicz, the last Royal Scribe of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, played an active role in the Lithuanian uprising led by Jasiński. He presided over the trials of traitors in Vilna. He was much respected in Lithuania for his righteousness and patriotism.

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  The Bailiff then removed the Judge’s sash –

  Słuck handiwork

  The Słuck weaving mill, producing cloth of gold and sashes made of it, was famous throughout Poland; it was improved by Tyzenhauz.

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  It was a lawsuit register

  The Lawsuit Register or Vocanda was a slim, elongated little book in which were recorded the names of the opposing parties in the sequence in which their cases appeared in the court records. Every lawyer and bailiff had to be in possession of such a register.

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  …tossing down

  Before the French the bloodied flags he’d won

  General Kniaziewicz, sent by the Italian army, laid down before the Directory the colors he had captured.

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  Of Jabłonowski, who went voyaging

  Where the sugarcane grows

  Prince Jabłonowski, commander of the Danube Legion, died in Saint-Domingue, where almost the entire Legion perished. A few veterans of that ill-fated expedition still can be encountered among the Polish exiles; one of them is General Małachowski.

  BOOK II

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  An organ, various instruments there’d be

  In former times an organ would be installed in the gallery of a castle.

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  …and he

  Was served black soup

  Black soup, served at table to a young man asking for the hand of a young lady, meant a refusal.

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  Or from the barges

  The barges are large vessels plying the Niemen; the Lithuanians use them in their trade with East Prussia, delivering grain and bringing back colonial goods in return.

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  …from Prince Dominik once

  When we went hunting

  Prince Dominik Radziwiłł, a great lover of the hunt, emigrated to the Duchy of Warsaw and at his own cost raised a regiment of cavalry, which he commanded. He died in France. With him ended the male line of princes in Ołyka and Nieśwież, the greatest lords in Poland and probably in Europe.

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  …and General Mejen too

  Mejen distinguished himself in the national war in Kościuszko’s time. The Mejen Line of trenches can still be seen outside Vilna.

  BOOK III

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  The ladies looked for the slim boletus known

  In song as the mushrooms’ general

  In Lithuania there is a popular folk song about the mushrooms going to war under the command of a boletus. The song describes the properties of edible mushrooms.

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  The Polish painter Orłowski

  A well-known genre artist; a few years before his death he began to paint landscapes. He died not long ago in Petersburg.

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  …my two mastiffs…

  The dog’s called Sheriff, the bitch Inquisitor.

  The English breed of stocky, powerful dogs known as “mastiffs” is used for hunting big game, especially bears.

  A sheriff is the chief of police in a country district. An inquisitor is a kind of government prosecutor. These officials often abuse their power and are held in abhorrence by the citizens.

  BOOK IV

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  He dreamed of an iron wolf

  According to tradition, on Ponary Hill Grand Duke Gediminas had a dream about an iron wolf and on the advice of the archpriest Lizdejko founded the city of Vilna.

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  …the last king to wear

  King Witold’s kalpak

  Sigismund Augustus was elevated in the ancient manner to the throne of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania; he fastened on his sword and crowned himself with a kalpak. He was very fond of hunting.

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  Is Baublis still alive?

  In the county of Rosienie, on the property of District Secretary Paszkiewicz, there grew an oak tree known as Baublis, which in pagan times had been worshipped as an object of veneration. Inside this rotted giant Paszkiewicz set up a cabinet of Lithuanian antiquities.

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  By the parish church, does Mendog’s Grove still bloom?

  Not far from the parish church in Nowogródek was a group of ancient lindens, many of which were cut down around 1812.

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  The speaking oak

  Which told the Cossack bard such prodigies!

  See Goszczyński’s poem The Castle of Kaniów.

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  …kolomyjkas he’d heard played

  In Halicz

  Kolomyjkas are Ukrainian songs resembling Polish mazurkas.

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  …he knew grain markets, trade

  By river barge


  See note to Book II, this page.

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  His spot…the “corner place”

  The place of honor where formerly the household gods were kept, and where to this day Russians place holy images. It is here that the Lithuanian peasant seats a guest to whom he wishes to show especial respect.

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  The eagle no longer able to take food,

  His ancient beak grown crooked and closed for good

  The beaks of large birds of prey become more and more bent with age until in the end the upper part curves around so much it closes the bill and the bird must die of starvation. Certain ornithologists have lent credence to this folk belief.

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  This is the reason that on human ground

  Bones of dead animals are never found

  Indeed, there is no case of a dead animal’s skeleton being found.

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  How about it? A wee fowling-piece like this

  A fowling-piece is a small-caliber shotgun that fires a little bullet. A good marksman can hit a bird in flight with such a gun.

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  …till gold dripped in the sun

  At the bottom of bottles of Gdańsk vodka there are sometime flakes of gold.

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  …a piece of land

  That could be covered by an oxhide

  Queen Dido had an oxhide cut into strips, and in such a way, within the hide she enclosed an extensive piece of land upon which she founded Carthage. The Warden had read the account of this incident not in the Aeneid, but probably in the commentaries of the scholiasts.

  NB: Certain passages in the fourth canto came from the pen of Stefan Witwicki.

  BOOK VI

  The title:

  The Settlement

  In Lithuania “settlement” (zaścianek) was the name given to a gentry community, to distinguish it from regular villages or hamlets.

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  Wołodkowicz, known for his insolence

  After causing numerous disturbances, he was captured in Minsk, tried, and shot by firing squad.

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  To rescue Pociej

  Aleksander Count Pociej, having returned to Lithuania after the war, lent support to his compatriots leaving the country to fight, and donated considerable sums to the Legions.

  BOOK VIII

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  Up higher is David’s Wagon, hitched and ready

  David’s Wagon is the constellation known to astronomers as Ursa Major.

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