Jan Kasprowicz

Jan Kasprowicz
Born	(1860-12-12)12 December 1860 Szymborze, Inowrocław District, Kingdom of Prussia
Died	1 August 1926(1926-08-01) (aged 65) Zakopane, Second Polish Republic
Occupation	Poet
Period	1889–1926
Literary movement	Young Poland
Signature

Jan Kasprowicz (12 December 1860 – 1 August 1926) was a

.

Biography

Kasprowicz was born in the village of Szymborze (now part of

socialist

circles he was twice arrested by Prussian police and spent half a year in prison.

After his release from prison, at the age of 28 Kasprowicz moved to Lwów, where he spent the next 35 years of his life. He worked as a journalist and critic of literature and theatre, working for two years in the editorial department of the newspaper, the Polish Courier (Kurier Polski) and for the following four years (1902–1906) editorializing for the newspaper, the Polish Word (Słowo Polskie). At the same time, with unusual productivity, Kasprowicz wrote and had published his own works and poetry, to critical acclaim.

In 1904 he received a doctorate from

, a department founded for him to run.

The largely self-taught Kasprowicz mastered the classical Latin and Greek languages, as well as French and English. His works included critically acclaimed translations of great literary works:

• Greek (Aeschylus, Euripides)
• English (
  Shakespeare, Marlowe, Lord Byron, Shelley, Keats, Tagore, Swinburne, Wilde
  , among others)
• German (
  Goethe, Schiller
  )
• French (Vauvenargues, Bertrand, Rimbaud, Maeterlinck)
• Italian (d'Annunzio)
• Norwegian (Ibsen)
• Dutch (Heijermans)

Nature gifted Kasprowicz with good health and a strong constitution. Stanisław Lem wrote of him: "He had in his bearing the originality of a gypsy and the hustle of a journalist, which, over time, allowed him to earn the money he needed, gave him the good humour of a friend, and - even then - a professorial gravity."^[1] He was - with a notable group of friends - a frequent guest at the pubs and wineries of Lwów, especially the famous winery and wine bar of Stadtmueller still present at the market, number 34.

His first marriage — to Teodozja Szymańska in 1886 — dissolved after a few months. In 1893 he married Jadwiga Gąsowska. In 1899 she dramatically left him and their daughters for the writer

.

In 1921-22 he was

Lwów University

.

In the last twenty years of his life, Kasprowicz more and more frequently visited the Tatra Mountains.^[2] In 1923 he permanently settled in the villa, "Harenda", between Poronin and Zakopane, where he died on 1 August 1926.

Reception

Kasprowicz's work has been compared to Arthur Rimbaud^[3] and Percy Bysshe Shelley.^[4] In his Diary, Witold Gombrowicz characterized Kasprowicz as follows: "wholemeal bread, a pigeon's soul, a sincere singer... But also: a peasant-traitor, a false peasant, an unnatural nature, a manufactured simplicity. Kasprowicz, having left the peasant and transformed himself into an intellectual, nevertheless wanted to remain a peasant - as an intellectual".^[5]

Works

• (1889) Poezje (Poems)
• (1890) Chrystus (Christ)
• (1891) Z chłopskiego zagonu (From Rustic Field)
• (1894) Anima lachrymans i inne nowe poezje (Anima lachrymans and another new poems)
• (1895) Miłość (The Love)
• (1898) Krzak dzikiej róży (The Briar's Bush)
• (1901) Ginącemu światu (To The Perishing World)
• (1902) Salve Regina (Hail Holy Queen)
• (1908) Ballada o słoneczniku (The Ballad About Sunflower)
• (1911) Chwile (Moments)
• (1916) Księga ubogich (The Book of The Poor)
• (1921) Hymny (The Hymnal)

References

Further reading

• Mortkowicz-Olczakowa, Hanna (1961). Bunt wspomnień. Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy.

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Jan Kasprowicz

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jan Kasprowicz.

• Works by or about Jan Kasprowicz at Internet Archive
• Brief biography (in English and Polish)
• Jan Kasprowicz poems in poezja.org (in Polish)