Odessa w listach Adama Mickiewicza: 1825–1829

Abstract

The author makes yet another attempt to analyse the correspondence of Adam Mickiewicz written in Odessa in the days when he lived there as a defiant poet, sent to exile deep into Russia. Although the remaining letters written by Adam Mickiewicz do not describe Odessa and its social and cultural space, one can rather feel and hear than see Odessa from the pages of these letters, read through the prism of the poet's biography. One can hear the hum and murmur of parlour conversations and female flirtatious laughter. The letters, due to the fact that they originated in Odessa or in the context of residence in the city, deserve to be included in the collection of 19th-century texts describing this city. Mickiewicz's Odessa was immortalized in his love sonnets and texts written in this city. These descriptions do not apply so much to the city itself, but to thesphere of feelings and emotions. Erotic sonnets enclosed Odessa in sighs and ecstasies, longing and oblivion.