Franciszka Arnsztajnowa
Franciszka Arnsztajnowa | |
---|---|
Second World War | |
Genre | Modernism Neo-romanticism Lyric poetry |
Notable works | Poezye: serya druga (1899) Odloty (1932) |
Notable awards | Silver Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature (1936)[5] |
Spouse | Marek (Mordko) Arnsztein (from 1885) |
Children | Stefanja Arnsztajnówna (married name Mieczysławska; daughter) Jan Arnsztajn (son) |
Relatives | Janina Arnsztajn-Titkow (b. 1923; granddaughter)[6] |
Franciszka Arnsztajnowa ([fraɲˈt͡ɕiʂka arnʂtajˈnɔva]; in full: Franciszka Hanna Arnsztajnowa; 19 February 1865 – August 1942) was a Polish poet, playwright, and translator of Jewish descent.[7] Much of her creative oeuvre falls within the Young Poland period, stylistically encompassing the twilight of neo-romanticism. She is called "the legend of Lublin".[8]
Family
Franciszka Arnsztajnowa was the daughter of the Lublin-based novelist Malwina Meyerson (real name, Małka Meyerson, née Horowicz (Horowitz); 1839–1921), a Lublin native, and Bernard (Berek, or Ber) Meyerson (b. 1837), a native of Tykocin, an international trader and a major Lublin financier.[7] Her brother was the French philosopher, Émile Meyerson, based in Paris. She attended high school for girls in Lublin, and went to Germany for higher studies in biology, travelling extensively in Europe. On 7 January 1885 she married Marek Arnsztein (alternative spellings: Arnsztejn, Arnsztajn, Arnstein; 1855–1930), a physician educated in Warsaw, Vienna, Berlin, and Paris, and a political and social activist, a native of Kazimierz Dolny based in Lublin from 1884.[6] They had a daughter, Stefanja Arnsztajnówna (c.1890–1942; married name Mieczysławska), and a son, Jan Arnsztajn (1897–1934), much beloved of Arnsztajnowa and whose death from tuberculosis left her devastated.
Life and work
As a poet Arnsztajnowa debuted at the age of 23 with the poem "Na okręcie" (On Board a Ship) published in the newspaper
Her next collection appeared in 1899 under the title Poezye: serya druga ("Verses: Second Series"; 2nd ed., 1911).
Meran… pamiętam… nieraz dziś w zimy rozgwarze,
Mroźnem tchnieniem owiana, nagle zamknę oczy,
I o błogosławionej dolinie zamarzę.[14]
__________________________________
Meran… I recall… as nowadays oft by winter's clamorous decree
Frosty gusts me shroud, I soon close my eyes asudden
And slip down the blessed valley into reverie.
The First World War
O Dniu Jutrzejszy! Krwi bratniej opary Oto Dziś w imię Jutra na nas woła. |
"O Dniu Jutrzejszy" (O, Thou Day of the Morrow!; 1914) — from Archanioł jutra (1924)[16] |
During the
Archanioł jutra contains verses of great strength and incisiveness, unparalleled in her prior work, the composition "O Dniu Jutrzejszy" (O, Thou Day of the Morrow!), written in 1914, belonging to the most beautiful among them in the opinion of the historian of literature, Feliks Araszkiewicz.[19] The poem speaks of the brethren's (comrades-in-arms') blood shed in the struggle, whose rising vapours conceal the mystery of tomorrow (the day is personified in the poem, addressed as "you", and conceived of as a day of reckoning, indeed, as a metonymy for retributive justice itself): the mystery of tomorrow will be revealed once we tear down your deadly veil to look you directly in the face, without the sort of fear that makes the victim bow his head before the executioner: for tomorrow we know full well will be the day of payback for today. (The poem, heavily dependent on stylized linguistics and medieval vocabulary (e.g., gzło, line 3, a medieval term for a kind of female garment, here used figuratively in the sense of "veil"), does not lend itself easily to verse translation but is reproduced in the original to the left.) Thus the archangel of the title of the entire collection, Archanioł jutra (“The Archangel of the Morrow”), can easily be construed as the avenging angel.
Another composition belonging to this period is the poem entitled "Powrót" (The Return) published in a literary journal in April 1916. Comprising five ottava rima stanzas, the 40-line poem brought her the Silver Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature, a (now historical) body awarding the most prestigious literary honours of the land at the time.[20]
The interwar period
During the
Odloty represents a continuation of the modernist esthetics that dominated the first phase of Arnsztajnowa's literary life, as evidenced in the imagery employed and in the method of shaping of the lyrical persona, as well as in the return of the fairy-tale motifs favoured by the Young Poland poets, such as lakes, mirrors, and shadows. Although on occasion she adopts a new cadence closer to the spirit of the Skamander circle then gaining an ascendancy over Polish poetics, such diversions are rare.[25] The title poem, "Odloty" (Flying Away), first printed in a literary magazine in 1905, is a mystical allegory on the inevitability of the departure, of parting despite the ties thereby shattered.[26]
Arnsztajnowa was co-founder of the historically important Kraków periodical Życie famously associated with the artistic avant-garde and with the person of Stanisław Przybyszewski, for which she wrote a programmatic poem,[11] and had close ties to the literary magazine Kamena (see Kamena), founded and edited by K. A. Jaworski: the journal began publication in 1933 with a poem by Arnsztajnowa, "Na Olejnej" (In Olejna Street), on the first page of the first issue.[27]
Right-wing critics (such as Juljan Babiński, 1900–1943) accused Arnsztajnowa of left-wing bias against the szlachta, in favour of the common people.[28]
Prose
Arnsztajnowa's innumerable writings in prose, strewn across innumerable journals and magazines, frequently published under pseudonyms that even Arnsztajnowa could not keep track of during her lifetime, present an impossible task for a compiler wishing to present a reasonably comprehensive picture of her bibliography — as observed by the historian of literature and her contemporary, Feliks Araszkiewicz (1895–1966).[29] Among the pen-names she is known to have used are J. Górecka, and Stefan Orlik.
Dramatic works
Arnsztajnowa's dramatic works remain largely confined to manuscript, including her award-winning play Na wyżynach (Krystyna) ("On the Heights: Christina") which was staged to great acclaim in Lvov in 1899. Her other plays which were seen on the stages of Kraków and Łódź, in addition to those of Lublin and Lvov, but which remain unpublished, are (with dates of theatre production) Na kuracji ("A Stay at a Spa"; 1894), Perkun ("Perkūnas"; 1896), and W stojącej wodzie ("In the Stagnant Water"; 1901). Only two one-act plays have been published (in literary journals), Widmo: Ballada w I akcie ("The Spectre: A Ballad in One Act"; published in Ateneum in 1905, a dialogue between two characters identified only as male and female),[30] and Luxoniolo (published in the Kurjer Lubelski in 1911).[31] The play Córka ("The Daughter") has never been staged or published.
Translatorial work and other avocations
Arnsztajnowa participated in the women's suffrage movement, supporting with readings from her poems the meetings and events of organizations involved in the movement, including the Związek Równouprawnienia Kobiet Polskich (Union for the Equal Rights of Polish Women) founded in 1907 by Paulina Kuczalska-Reinschmit (1859–1921).[32] In 1912 Arnsztajnowa participated in a feminist exhibition mounted by Polish women writers in Prague.[33]
Apart from her own extensive poetic oeuvre, Arnsztajnowa produced several translations from English literature. Her translation of
O toi qui sur mes jours de tristesse et d'épreuve
Seule reluis encor...
reads better than the original:
O, ty, co dni mych smutkom i zmaganiom
blaskiem przyświecasz wytrwałym...[36]
Always respectful of and ready to honour others for their achievement in their field, in 1899 Arnsztajnowa contributed to the liber amicorum for Aleksander Świętochowski on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his editorial work, a sumptuously produced volume that opens with her poem "Grajek" (The Fiddler; from the Poezye of 1895).[37] Some of her tributes in verse, even when marked by a high level of artistic accomplishment, were entirely private, meant solely for the honouree. Her poem composed in tribute to the Polish geographer, Wacław Nałkowski (1851–1911), the father of the writer Zofja Nałkowska, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his scholarly work in January 1903, did not come to light until 55 years later, for example.[38] Her patriotic feelings found expression in the contribution she made to the collective volume published by the Teachers' Union to commemorate the school strikes in Partitioned Poland mounted in protest against marginalization of Polish culture by the occupying powers;[39] while in 1935 Arnsztajnowa served on the editorial board of a commemorative volume for the Polish Military Organisation, to which she contributed the keynote poem (on the theme of the Unknown Soldier) serving as a motto for the publication.[40]
Arnsztajnowa's patriotic fervour carried her so far as to contribute three technically accomplished, genuinely high-calibre poems — "Jego Imię" (His Name), "O, Wodzu!" (O Leader!), and "Wodzowi-twórcy" (To the Leader-Creator) — to the collection of panegyrics in honour of Józef Piłsudski published in 1924, two years before his coup d'état of May 1926.[41] Among the 33 contributors to the collection (some of them not established poets), only the names of Józef Czechowicz, Jan Lechoń and Kazimierz Tetmajer stand in the same rank with Arnsztajnowa's. After the coup d'état of May 1926, during a visit to Lublin in June 1931 of Piłsudski's figurehead president, Ignacy Mościcki, she wrote in poetic prose a fulsome welcome for him in a local newspaper ("whole streets are running out to Him with open arms while ancient city walls silvered by age reverberate with the Good News: hail Thou the visible manifestation of the Independence!", etc.).[42]
Antisemitic attacks on Arnsztajnowa
In 1910 and 1911 Arnsztajnowa was the object of a book boycott motivated by antisemitic sentiment and spearheaded by the
In the summer of 1937 Arnsztajnowa, then a 72-year-old
After Łobodowski's protest published in the most prestigious literary journal of the
Death
Published sources differ on the circumstances of her death, but there is a consensus that she did not die in Lublin, all the sources citing the
Arnsztajnowa's first book, Poezye (1895), published when she was 30, contains this reference to Dante Alighieri:
I ja byłem w piekle… we śnie, czy na jawie
Niewiem… lecz, zaprawdę, Danta piekieł kręgi
Mąk takich nie mieszczą, nie szarpią tak krwawie…[53]
___________________________
To hell I've also been… in dream or waking hours
Can't say… but, forsooth, Dante's infernal circles
Contain not such torment as bloodily overpowers…
Postscript
Franciszka Arnsztajnowa was decorated by the government of the
Works
Poetry
- Poezye (1895)
- Poezye: serya druga (1899)
- Archanioł jutra (1924)
- Odloty (1932)
- Stare kamienie (1934)
Drama
- Widmo: Ballada w I akcie (1905)
- Luxoniolo (1911)
See also
References
- ^ Ludwik Czarkowski, Pseudonimy i kryptonimy polskie, Wilno, Księgarnia Stowarzyszenia Nauczycielstwa Polskiego, 1922, p. 29.
- ^ Słownik pseudonimów i kryptonimów pisarzy polskich oraz Polski dotyczących, vol. 1 (Pseudonimy i kryptonimy od A–K), ed. A. Bar, et al., Kraków, Krakowskie Koło Związku Bibliotekarzy Polskich, 1936, p. 134. Arnsztajnowa's first name is here mistakenly identified as "Felicja" and her surname misspelled as "Armsteinowa" (sic).
- ^ Ludwik Czarkowski, Pseudonimy i kryptonimy polskie, Wilno, Księgarnia Stowarzyszenia Nauczycielstwa Polskiego, 1922, p. 31.
- ^ Słownik pseudonimów i kryptonimów pisarzy polskich oraz Polski dotyczących, vol. 2 (Pseudonimy i kryptonimy od L–Ż), ed. A. Bar, et al., Kraków, Krakowskie Koło Związku Bibliotekarzy Polskich, 1936, p. 72. Arnsztajnowa's first name is here mistakenly identified as "Felicja" and her surname misspelled as "Armstajnowa" (sic).
- ^ Ilustrowany Kuryer Codzienny (Kraków), vol. 27, No. 313, 10 November 1936, p. 4.
- ^ a b Cf. The oral recollections of Janina Arnsztajn-Titkow, Franciszka Arnsztajnowa's granddaughter, recorded by A. Zińczuk on 26 March 2010 for the Ośrodek Brama Grodzka/Teatr NN of Lublin. See transcript online.
- ^ a b So Słownik biograficzny miasta Lublina (see Bibliography).
- ^ ISBN 8361060766.
- ^ F. Arnsztajnowa, Poezye, Warsaw, Gebethner i Wolff, 1895. (88 pp.)
- id., Poezye, Warsaw, Gebethner i Wolff, 1895, p. 88.
- ^ a b Feliks Araszkiewicz (see Bibliography), p. 115.
- ^ Cf. Stanisław Zdziarski, Pierwiastek ludowy w poezji polskiej XIX wieku: studja porównawczo-literackie, Warsaw, E. Wende, 1901.
- ^ F. Arnsztajnowa, Poezye: serya druga, Kraków, G. Gebethner i Spółka, 1899.
- id., Poezye: serya druga, 2nd ed., Warsaw, Gebethner i Wolff, 1911, p. 90.
- ^ Wacław Gralewski, Stalowa tęcza: wspomnienia o Józefie Czechowiczu, Warsaw, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1968, p. 60.
- .
- ^ F. Arnsztajnowa, Archanioł jutra, Lublin, Spółdzielnia Wydawawnicza Placówka Lubelska, 1924. (31 pp.)
- ^ Feliks Araszkiewicz (see Bibliography), p. 119.
- ^ So Feliks Araszkiewicz (see Bibliography), p. 117.
- ^ F. Arnsztajnowa, "Powrót", Sprawa Polska (Lublin), No. 13, 18 April 1916, p. 11.
- Ilustrowany Kuryer Codzienny (Kraków), vol. 25, No. 28, 28 January 1934, p. 3.
- ^ F. Arnsztajnowa, Odloty, Lublin, Związek Literatów w Lublinie, 1932.
- ^ Franciszka Arnsztajnowa & Józef Czechowicz, Stare kamienie: [poezye], Lublin, [n.p.], 1934.
- ^ K. W. Zawodziński, "Liryka" (Lyric Poetry); in Rocznik Literacki za rok 1934, ed. Z. Szmydtowa, Warsaw, Instytut Literacki, 1935, p. 53.
- ^ ISBN 8391501825.
- ^ F. Arnsztajnowa, "Odloty", Ateneum (Warsaw), vol. 3, No. 9, September 1905, p. 165.
- ^ Franciszka Arnsztajnowa, "Na Olejnej (z cyklu Stare kamienie)" (In Olejna Street — from the Stare kamienie Cycle), Kamena (Chełm Lubelski), vol. 1, No. 1, September 1933, p. 1. See online.
- ^ Juljan Babiński, "Na marginesie", Tęcza: ilustrowany miesięcznik (Poznań), vol. 11, No. 5, May 1937, p. 85.
- ^ Feliks Araszkiewicz (see Bibliography), p. 114.
- ^ F. Arnsztajnowa, "Widmo: Ballada w I akcie", Ateneum (Warsaw), Year III, vol. 1, Nos. 1–3, January–March 1905, pp. 104–109.
- ISBN 8304003902.
- ^ "Z życia prowincji" (From the Life of the Provinces), Głos Warszawski (Warsaw), vol. 2, No. 92, 2 April 1909, p. 2. (See also Paulina Kuczalska-Reinschmit.)
- ^ Památník výstavy práce ženy polské v Praze 1912, comp., ed. & tr. Pavla Maternová, Prague, Ústřední spolek českých žen, 1912. Cf. Helena Rzepecka, "Zbiorowy głos doraźny" (The Collective Voice of the Moment), Literatura i Sztuka (Poznań), vol. 4, No. 36, 8 September 1912, pp. 563–567.
- ^ Feliks Araszkiewicz (see Bibliography), p. 118.
- ^ Rudyard Kipling, "Grody i Trony w obliczu czasu..." (Cities and Thrones and Powers), tr. Franciszka Arnsztajnowa, Kamena (Chełm Lubelski), vol. 1, No. 4, December 1933, p. 68. Rudyard Kipling, "Pieśń harfiarska duńskich niewiast" (Harp Song of the Dane Women), tr. Franciszka Arnsztajnowa, Kamena, vol. 2, No. 7 (17), March 1935, p. 134.
- ^ Jean Moréas, "Przekłady z poezyj J. Moréasa" (Translations of J. Moréas's Verses), Kurjer Lubelski (Lublin), vol. 10, No. 4, 4 January 1932, p. 2. Includes two poems from Les Stances by Moréas in Arnsztajnowa's translation: Book 2, VII; and Book 3, XII. The latter poem reprinted in Jean Moréas, "Ze Stanc * * *" (From Les Stances * * *), tr. Franciszka Arnsztajnowa, Kamena (Chełm Lubelski), vol. 3, No. 4 (24), December 1935, p. 73.
- ^ Franciszka Arnsztajnowa, "Grajek" (The Fiddler); in: "Prawda": książka zbiorowa dla uczczenia dwudziestopięcioletniej działalności Aleksandra Świętochowskiego, 1870–1895, Lvov, Księgarnia H. Altenberga [etc.], 1899, pp. 1–8.
- ^ Roman Rosiak, "Franciszka Arnsztajnowa w hołdzie Wacławowi Nałkowskiemu" (Arnsztajnowa's Tribute to Wacław Nałkowski), Kamena (Lublin), vol. 25, No. 19 (161), 15 October 1958, p. 3.
- ^ Walka o szkołę polską: w 25-lecie strajku szkolnego, ed. S. Drzewiecki, et al., Warsaw, [n.p.; but under the imprint of the Związki Nauczycielstwa Polskich Szkół Powszechnych i Średnich], 1930, p. 294.
- ^ Franciszka Arnsztajnowa, [untitled poem]; in Pod sztandarem P.O.W.: szkice i wspomnienia zebrane dla uczczenia uroczystości poświęcenia sztandaru, odsłonięcia tablicy pamiątkowej ś.p. płk. Mieczysława Więckowskiego i połączenia okręgu siedleckiego Związku Peowiaków z okręgiem lubelskim: Lublin w marcu 1935 roku, ed. F. Arnsztajnowa, et al., Lublin, Zarząd Okręgu i Koło Związku Peowiaków, 1935, p. 5.
- Id., "Wodzowi-twórcy" (To the Leader-Creator), in: ibid., p. 6.
- ^ F. Arnsztajnowa, "Dostojnemu Gościowi na powitanie" (Welcoming the Distinguished Guest), Ziemia Lubelska (Lublin), vol. 27, No. 148, 3 June 1931, p. 2.
- ^ a b Hanna Mortkowicz-Olczakowa (see Hanna Mortkowicz-Olczakowa), "Na pięterku" (Up the Little Flight of Stairs), Kamena (Lublin), vol. 27, No. 18 (208), 30 September 1960, pp. 1 & 4. As a first-hand testimonial, this is one of the major primary sources for the biography of Arnsztajnowa.
- idiomaticexpression meaning "without beating about the bush", "straightforwardly", "point-blank".
- ^ Józef Łobodowski, "W obronie zasługi" (In Defence of Merit), letter to the editor, Wiadomości Literackie (see Wiadomości Literackie) (Warsaw), vol. 14, No. 32 (718), 1 August 1937, p. 8.
- ^ st. p.) [sic: lower-case initials in parentheses, with the left parenthesis missing], "Wycinanki" (Newspaper Cuttings), Prosto z mostu (see Prosto z mostu) (Warsaw), vol. 3, No. 37 (145), 8 August 1937, p. 8.
- ^ Jerzy Pietrkiewicz, "W rozmównicy" (In the Chat Room), Myśl Narodowa (Warsaw), vol. 17, No. 29, 18 July 1937, p. 458. (See online.)
- ^ T. R. [sic: anonymous article], "Nauka i literatura: Rocznik Literacki" (Sciences and Literature: The Literary Annual), Myśl Narodowa (Warsaw), vol. 17, No. 35, 29 August 1937, p. 552. (See online.)
- ISBN 8385083286.
- ISBN 8307019141.
- ^ Roman Rosiak, "O Franciszce Arnsztajnowej" (About Franciszka Arnsztajnowa), Kamena (Lublin), vol. 27, No. 4 (194), 29 February 1960, p. 7. The date of 1943 is again repeated in Tadeusz Kłak, "Poetka Ziemi Lubelskiej" (The Poetess of the Lublin Land), Kamena, vol. 32, No. 8 (318), 1–15 May 1965, p. 6.
- sc. Warsaw Ghetto], in 1942 at the age of 77.": see page 109.)
- id., Poezye, Warsaw, Gebethner i Wolff, 1895, p. 85. Arnsztajnowa employs the authorial "I"in the masculine form ("ja byłem", not "ja byłam").
Bibliography
- Feliks Araszkiewicz, Refleksy literackie: studja, szkice, notatki, Lublin, [Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk w Lublinie], 1934, pages 113–121.
- Ewa Łoś, Franciszka Arnsztajnowa, 1865–1942, Lublin, Muzeum Lubelskie, Oddział im. Józefa Czechowicza, 1988.
- Michał Domański, entry ISBN 8322705646.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- A photograph of Arnsztajnowa in her youth.
- A photograph of Arnsztajnowa with her siblings: the French philosopher Émile Meyerson, her brother, is in the middle, her sister Henrietta on the right.
- A photograph of Arnsztajnowa in her mature period.
- A photograph showing Arnsztajnowa in 1939 among a group of writers. (Arnsztajnowa is third from the left.)
- Commemorative plaque on the town house (kamienica) in the ulica Złota No. 2 in Lublin that was owned by Arnsztajnowa. The inscription reads: "IN THIS HOUSE | BETWEEN THE YEARS 1899 and 1934 THERE LIVED | FRANCISZKA ARNSZTAJNOWA | POET | INDEPENDENCE ACTIVIST | CO-FOUNDER IN 1932 | OF THE WRITERS' UNION IN LUBLIN || ON THE 65TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WRITERS' UNION".