Pan Tadeusz

by Adam Mickiewicz

  The way the priest bedecked the church at Mir

  With ribs and bones of giants unearthed near there

  There was a custom of displaying in churches bones that had been dug up, and that were thought by the common people to be the bones of giants.

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  A comet of great size and brilliance

  The famous comet of 1811.

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  Father Poczobut, famed astronomer

  Father Poczobut, a former Jesuit and well-known astronomer, published a book on the zodiac of Denderah, and with his observations aided Lalande in calculating the courses of the moon. See the Life by Jan Śniadecki.

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  Among the retinue of the governor

  Was the German Prince de Nassau

  Properly the Prince de Nassau-Siegen, a renowned traveler and adventurer of those times. He served as a Muscovite admiral and defeated the Turks in the Dnieper delta, then later was himself thrashed by the Swedes. He spent some time in Poland, where he naturalized. De Nassau’s encounter with the tiger was reported in all the European newspapers of the time.

  BOOK IX

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  “D’you know the Yellow Book?” the Major said

  The “Yellow Book,” named for its cover, is the barbaric volume of Russian martial law. Often during peacetime the government declares entire provinces to be under martial law, and on the authority of the Yellow Book gives complete power over the lives and property of the citizens to a military commander. It is common knowledge that from 1821 right up until the revolution the whole of Lithuania was subject to the Yellow Book, whose executor was Grand Duke Konstantin, the Tsarevich.

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  And dragging behind him with the other one

  A massive six-foot length of wood, engrafted

  With flints and knobs

  A Lithuanian club is made as follows: A young oak is found, and incisions are made in it with an ax from bottom to top in such a way as to cut into bark and pulp, to injure the tree. Sharp flints are inserted into these notches, which eventually heal over, forming hard knobs. In pagan times clubs were the principal weapon of the Lithuanian foot soldiers; they are still sometimes used, and are known as hashers (nasieki).

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  One Czarnobacki, a lone citizen,

  Killed Deyov, and drove the Cossacks from the town

  After the Jasiński Uprising, when the Lithuanian forces were retreating towards Warsaw, the Russians drew close to the abandoned Vilna. General Deyov led his staff through Ostra Brama Gate. The streets were empty, the people having locked themselves in their houses. One citizen, noticing a loaded cannon left in an alleyway, aimed it at the Gate and fired it. That one shot saved Vilna at that time: General Deyov and several officers were killed, and the others, fearing an ambush, pulled back from the city. I do not know for certain the name of the citizen in question.

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  Thus the last foray in Lithuania ended

  In fact there were other forays even later, not so glorious, but still widely known and bloody. Around 1817, in the Nowogródek Voivodeship Citizen U. defeated the entire Nowogródek garrison and took its commanders prisoner.

  BOOK X

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  This one for Novi, this for Praysish-Ilov

  No doubt Preussisch-Eylau.

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  Then Targowica offered me a position

  The Pantler seems to have been killed around 1791, during the first war.

  BOOK XI

  In the list of contents:

  Spring portents

  A Russian historian similarly describes the prophecies and forebodings of the common people of Moscow before the war of 1812.

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  his tome – The Perfect Cook

  This book is hard to find today; it was published well over a hundred years ago by Stanisław Czerniecki.

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  Urban the Eighth admired these meals and praised them

  This Roman legation has frequently been described and depicted. See the introduction to The Perfect Cook:

  This legation, admired by every western country, demonstrated the boundless wisdom of my lord Ossoliński, and also the splendor of his house and the adornment of his table…such that one of the Roman princes declared: Today Rome is fortunate to have such an envoy.

  NB: Czerniecki himself was Ossoliński’s cook.

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  Picked by the county with one voice to be

  Provincial marshal for the confederacy

  In Lithuania, after the arrival of the French and Polish forces confederations were formed in the voivodeships and deputies were elected for the parliament.

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  At Hohenlinden

  It is widely known that at Hohenlinden the Polish Corps under General Kniaziewicz tipped the scales for victory.

  BOOK XII

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  The Orphan-Prince Radziwiłł, legend has it

  Radziwiłł the Orphan traveled far and wide, and published an account of his journey to the Holy Land.

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  In the meantime, though, the service had changed color

  In the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth centuries, in the age when the arts flourished, artists were often called in to organize feasts, which were filled with symbols and theatrical scenes. At the famous dinner given in Rome for Leo X there was a service depicting in turn the four seasons of the year; no doubt this was Radziwiłł’s inspiration. Dinner customs changed in Europe around the middle of the eighteenth century; in Poland they survived the longest.

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  Has old Pinetti shared his tricks?

  Pinetti was a magician famous throughout Poland. We do not know when he visited the country.

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  “Am I Cybulski,” the Steward said in a huff,

  “Who, the song says, played cards and lost his wife

  To a Russian?”

  A lament, well-known in Lithuania, about Mrs. Cybulska, whose husband lost her at cards to the Russians.

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  …his wife forbade him

  The kontusz, and by marriage contract made him…

  A fashion for wearing French attire swept the provinces from 1800 to 1812. Most young men changed their way of dressing before their marriage, on the insistence of their future wives.

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  Rejtan and the Prince of Nassau’s row

  The story of the quarrel between Rejtan and Prince de Nassau, which the Warden does not bring to a conclusion, is known from tradition. We include its ending for the curious reader.

  Rejtan, incensed by Prince de Nassau’s boasts, came and stood next to him in a narrow defile. Right then a huge boar, enraged by the shots and the dogs, came running into the defile. Rejtan snatched the gun from the Prince’s hands and threw his own on the ground; taking a hunting spear himself and handing another to the German, he said: “Now we’ll see who’s better with a lance.” The boar was almost upon them when Warden Hreczecha, who stood nearby, dropped the creature with a well-aimed shot. The gentlemen were angry at first, but later they reconciled and rewarded Hreczecha generously.

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  When he gave freedom to his serfs

  The Russian government does not recognize free people except for the gentry. Serfs freed by their owner are immediately recorded in the listings of the Tsar’s possessions, so that instead of corvée they have to pay a higher tax.

  It is common knowledge that in 1818, in the regional parliament the citizens of Vilna province voted to free all the serfs, and to this end appointed a delegation to send to the Tsar; but the government ordered the bill to be annulled and never mentioned again. The only way to free a person from the Russian government is to adopt him into one’s own
family. And in fact many people were made gentry in such a manner, out of kindness or for money.

  Translator’s Notes

  This translation was made on the basis of the Biblioteka Narodowa (National Library) eighth edition of Pan Tadeusz (Wrocław, 1980), edited by Stanisław Pigoń, possibly the greatest of the many great scholars of Mickiewicz and of Pan Tadeusz. Professor Pigoń’s footnotes were invaluable to me as I wrestled with the text. Many are included here, though I have of course selected and adapted them for English-language readers of the 21st century. Nevertheless, in many cases the information they contain comes from Stanisław Pigoń, and by rights he should be acknowledged as co-author of these notes.

  BOOK I

  this page Tadeusz Rejtan (1752–1780) was a member of the Polish parliament – representing Mickiewicz’s hometown of Nowogródek, as it happens – who is best known for his energetic efforts to prevent the parliament’s acceptance of the First Partition of Poland in 1773, including the dramatic gesture of throwing himself bare-chested on the ground in front of the door in an effort to prevent the other deputies from leaving the chamber (and thus ending the debate and accepting partition).

  this page Jakub Jasiński and Tadeusz Korsak both fought in the Kościuszko insurrection of 1794, and both died that year in the Massacre of Praga, during which the Russian General Suvorov massacred twenty thousand inhabitants of the Warsaw district of Praga after a battle there.

  this page Dąbrowski’s old mazurka: General Jan Henryk Dąbrowski (1755–1818) was the creator of the Polish Legions in Italy and the commander of the Polish forces in the Napoleonic army. He will appear later in the poem. It is his name that appears in the chorus of the Polish national anthem, which takes the form of a mazurka: “Marsz marsz, Dąbrowski, z ziemi włoskiej do Polski” – “March, march, Dąbrowski, from Italy to Poland.” Pigoń points out that though the mazurka dates from 1797, at the time the story takes place it was in fact unlikely that a clock should chime with its melody.

  this page the Półkozic crest: A coat of arms that was used by dozens of Polish gentry families. It featured the head of a goat (koza in Polish).

  this page Robak: The monk’s name means “worm” in Polish.

  this page or no nose at all: A consequence of syphilis, which was considered to have come from France – the Latin term for the malady is morbus gallicus or “the French disease.”

  this page Suvorov: Aleksandr Suvorov (1729–1800) was a renowned Russian general. He fought Napoleon, and was also the commander who finally put down the Kościuszko Uprising in 1794.

  this page Voivode: A voivode is the governor of a province – the latter are known as voivodeships in Polish.

  this page old King Lech: The legendary founder of Poland.

  BOOK II

  this page “Surge, puer!”: “Get up, boy!” Robak half-jokingly uses a phrase from the Latin textbook that Tadeusz would have read at school.

  this page haiduks: Footmen dressed in the Hungarian style.

  this page Telimena is not quite right here: dacha meant a settlement of summer houses, rather than a village. Today, of course, the word has come to refer to an individual summer house.

  this page mariasz: A card game that had been popular in Poland, though it was considered somewhat old-fashioned at the time the book takes place.

  this page This line does not have a rhyme. It was originally part of a passage that Mickiewicz later edited out; the orphaned line was accidentally left unrhymed in the final version.

  BOOK III

  this page Amalthea’s horn: The cornucopia or horn of plenty.

  this page five days’ socage work, two days’ corvée: Socage and corvée were different kinds of work duty that serfs were obliged to perform for their lord or master.

  BOOK IV

  this page kalpak: A tall fur-lined hat that was worn instead of a crown by Lithuanian monarchs.

  this page The linden of Czarnolas, that awoke ‡ In Jan so many rhymes!: Czarnolas was the home of poet Jan Kochanowski (1530 – 1584), the predominant figure in Polish writing before Mickiewicz. Kochanowski wrote a celebrated poem about the linden tree outside his house.

  this page tzitzit: Here Mickiewicz is of course mistaken. Tzitzit are the ritual fringes attached to a prayer shawl. The boxes referred to here are called tefillin; they are also known as phylacteries in English.

  this page the song now known worldwide: The Dąbrowski mazurka (see Book I, this page).

  this page Bernardine snuff: Robak is a member of the Bernardines, a Polish monastic order. Monasteries were known for producing snuff as well as certain fortified alcoholic drinks.

  this page Jasna Góra in Częstochowa: The best known monastery in Poland and its most important place of pilgrimage. The monastery, which is home to the Black Madonna (see Book I, this page), is run by the Pauline Fathers.

  this page German Kaiser Francis: Actually the Austrian Emperor Francis I.

  this page my friend Maro: Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) – though see Mickiewicz’s note about the actual source of this story.

  BOOK V

  this page This line has no rhyme in the original.

  this page Another tip of the cap toward Homer. This couplet is adapted from the Iliad III 359–360. Mickiewicz cites it in the 1791 translation by Franciszek Ksawery Dmochowski (1762–1808), which, like Pan Tadeusz, was written in thirteen-syllable lines in rhyming couplets. Lattimore’s translation reads:

  straight ahead by the flank the spearhead shore through his tunic,

  yet he bent away to the side and avoided the dark death.

  this page Forefathers’ Day: Or dziady, a pre-Christian Slavic feast to commemorate living and dead ancestors. The souls of the latter were said to join the feast after dark. Such a celebration is depicted in Mickiewicz’s other most important work, the play Dziady, usually translated as “Forefathers’ Eve.”

  this page Sarmatian: from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, Sarmatianism was a pervasive set of values, practices, ways of dressing and so on associated with the Polish gentry. The name derived from the ancient Sarmatians, from whom the gentry was supposed to have descended. Many aspects of Sarmatianism can be seen in the behavior and words of the older characters in Pan Tadeusz: its values included courtesy, gallantry, hospitality, and a love of conversation.

  BOOK VI

  this page Since the sixteenth century the żupan was regarded as a kind of national costume for male members of the gentry. It was a long-sleeved, long-skirted gown fastening at the front. From the seventeenth century it became common to wear the kontusz over it. The kontusz was an overgown of about the same length as the żupan, usually worn in a contrasting color; it too fastened at the front, though it was often worn open. Its sleeves had a long slit from the shoulder to the forearm, revealing the żupan underneath. The sleeves were often worn entirely thrown back over the shoulders. As Mickiewicz shows, it was only in his own lifetime that these garments ceased to be worn.

  this page Lithuania’s Pogoń rears, | The Żmudź bear roars: The Pogoń is the coat of arms of Lithuania; it depicts a white knight charging on a white horse. The bear is the symbol of Żmudź or Samogitia, one of the largest regions of Lithuania.

  this page Ponary is a district of Vilna.

  this page Jagiełło’s capital: Grand Duke Jagiełło (or, in Lithuanian, Jogaila) (1352/62–1434), later King Władysław II Jagiełło of Poland, who did much to establish the importance of Vilna as the Lithuanian capital. See also the note to Book XI, this page.

  this page The priest has cannon: Churches were sometimes thought to be used as makeshift armories at such times.

  this page John the Third: Polish King John III Sobieski (1629–1696, reigned 1674–1696), one of Poland’s elected monarchs. In 1683, through universal conscription he raised an army to fight the Ottoman Empire, which was preparing a campaign; later that year his expedition relieved the
Siege of Vienna (see note to Book VIII, this page).

  this page The Dobrzyńskis are marked as being impoverished gentry rather than peasants, and as being ethnically Polish: “Lechite” means Polish, from King Lech. Likewise, “Masurian” means Polish, from Masuria or Mazury, a northeastern region of Poland.

  this page since Swedish times: Probably the early stages of the Polish-Swedish War of 1655–1660.

  this page Zygmunt swords: A kind of saber produced in Poland and known for the high quality of its steel; the blade often bore a portrait of King Zygmunt III.

  this page bunchuk: Also known as a tug, a pole with a crescent on top, below which is a fringe of horsehair. It was the equivalent of a regimental banner in the Ottoman army.

  BOOK VII

  this page Königsberg: an East Prussian port city on the Baltic. Today it is the Russian city of Kaliningrad.

  this page the Babin Republic: A satirical society of the late sixteenth century that poked fun at social institutions, creating a mock state whose officials were absurdly mismatched with the offices they held.

  BOOK VIII

  this page armonica: A sweet-toned musical instrument, invented by Benjamin Franklin, which uses glass disks or bowls of varying sizes to produce different notes.

  this page the Sifter: Corona Borealis.

  this page Dragon: Draco.

  this page Mr. Tadeusz, your talk of stars: In fact, Tadeusz has said nothing. It is believed that this line is an uncorrected trace of an earlier draft in which Tadeusz had been speaking.

  this page Elżbieta Puzynina was a patron of astronomy in eighteenth century Vilna.

  this page Jan Śniadecki (1756–1830) was a leading scholar of Vilna University.

  this page in articulo mortis: at the point of dying, or at a moment when death is likely.

  this page Świtezianka: A water nymph in local legend, said to dwell in Lake Świteź near Mickiewicz’s birthplace in present-day Belarus. Mickiewicz included a long poem of this title in his Ballads and Romances (Ballady i romanse) of 1822.

  this page Giwojtos: In Samogitia or Żmudź, one of Lithuania’s five regions, there was a folk belief that such a snake looked after the inhabitants of a home.