Poetry
W mroku gwiazd
Not translated into English
Tadeusz Miciński · 1902
Opening lines
Ruinom podobne serce moje — ruinom ogromnym i bezkształtnym.
Mrok otulił rany moje, po lazurowych wschodach prowadzi mię zaduma w gwiazdy.
Like ruins is my heart, like vast and shapeless ruins.
Darkness has wrapped my wounds, reverie leads me up azure stairs to the stars.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from wolnelektury.pl
Synopsis
Poems arranged in seven cycles, in which suffering, lonely and frightened beings struggle on the borders of good and evil. Lucifer, a fallen angel torn between light and darkness, himself speaks in them, and from one poem to the next the sea, the lakes, the mountains, the ice, the chasms and the stars recur, which do not describe the world but the storms of a soul.
Context
The collection appeared in Kraków in February 1902, at the author's expense, adorned with three drawings by Stanisław Wyspiański; the dedication says the poems were written in the Tatras, in Rome, on the Atlantic shore and in the forests of Polesia. It was its author's only book of verse, he then turned to drama and the novel. At first received with reserve, it was read closely by Karol Szymanowski, who drew from it two cycles of songs for voice and piano, in 1904-1905 and then in 1909.
Who it is for
Dense, obscure poems, steeped in gnosis and the occult; the references are not explained. No French or English translation.
Prizes and reception
His most widely read and most influential book, regarded as a harbinger of Polish Expressionism and Surrealism.
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