Pieśni Osjana. Antologia polskich przekładów (1782-1828)

Abstract

The publication is a scholarly, critical edition of an anthology of Polish translations of The Poems of Ossian, attributed to the legendary Celtic bard Ossian, the alleged author of works in Gaelic, which James Macpherson (1736–1796), a Scottish writer, claimed to have collected, translated into English and published in the 1760s. The Poems of Ossian consist of the following ‘fragments’: Fragments of Ancient Poetry Collected in the Highlands of Scotland (1760); Fingal, an Ancient Epic Poem… (1762); Temora, an Ancient Epic Poem… (1763). The actual author of the poems turned out to be their publisher, J. Macpherson, who freely compiled fragments of ancient Gaelic poetry collected in the mountains of Scotland, Sky Island and other Hebrides islands, and then wrote a cycle of poems partly based on the Ossianic legend. The songs gained immense popularity throughout Europe, although they reached cultural circles under the classicist French influence, including Polish readers, indirectly, in a version adapted to the requirements of French aesthetics. The most influential proponent of the adaptation of original English works to forms corresponding to the aesthetics of 18th-century classicism was Pierre Le Tourneur (1737–1788), a French writer, translator and publisher. He compiled a 600-page prose version of the English poem in French, which he entitled Ossian, Fils De Fingal, Barde Du Troisème Siècle: Poésies Galliques (Ossian, son of Fingal, third-century bard: Gaelic poems, 1776–1777). Polish eighteenth- and nineteenth-century translators, adapters and imitators wanted to make the work accessible to Polish readers, using Letourneur’s translation, as well as his extensive analyses and footnotes, with occasional reference to Macpherson himself. The anthology of translations of The Poems of Ossian contains a selection of several dozen translations of the ‘Gaelic poetry’ into Polish. These texts originate from the late 18th and early 19th century and vary in terms of volume (from a few to several hundred pages of the original) and artistic level. The oldest one was authored by Franciszek Karpiński (ca. 1782) and was included in his treatise O wymowie w prozie albo w wierszu (On Expression in Prose and Poetry) (published in the collection: Zabawki wierszem i prozą (Games in Poetry and Prose)). In turn, the latest work is the translation (from the English original) by Seweryn Goszczyński (1828). This text was not included in the publication due to the fact that it initiates the next epoch in the history of Polish literature - Romanticism, while the intention of the editors was to highlight the initial phase of the birth and development of the literary phenomenon that was sparked off by The Poems of Ossian. Goszczyński’s translation is widely available thanks to an edition in the National Library series: The Poems of Ossian, transl. [from English] Seweryn Goszczyński, edited and compiled by Jerzy Strzetelski, Wrocław: Ossolineum, 1980. The majority of the presented source texts come from first edition and publications scattered in various periodicals. Some were also extracted (I. Krasicki, F. D. Kniaźnin) from collective editions. This anthology contains translations of selected fragments of The Poems of Ossian (mostly from Letourneur’s prose) by the following authors [in alphabetical order]: A. Borzewski, K. Brodziński, J. Brykczyński, M. D. Brzozowski, F. S. Dmochowski, J. Januszewski, S. Jaszowski, F. Karpiński, B. Kiciński, F. D. Kniaźnin, I. Krasicki, A. E. Odyniec, W. Ostrowski, B. Śmigielski, D. Bończa Tomaszewski, K. Tyminiecki, S. Witwicki, H. A. Zalewski, as well as several anonymous translations, whose authors could not be identified. The most extensive texts in terms of volume are the translations by two poets: Ignacy Krasicki and Franciszek Dionizy Kniaźnin. As far as Krasicki’s translation is concerned, it is based on two publications: Pieśni Osjana syna Fingala, z angielskiego tłumaczona na francuski język, a z francuskiego na polski, przez Ignacego hrabię Krasickiego, księcia biskupa warmińskiego (The Poeams of Ossian, son of Fingal, translated from English into French, and from French into Polish, by Count Ignacy Krasicki, Prince Bishop of Warmia) (1793/1793) and texts from the first collection of this poet’s works published in 1802 and edited by Franciszek Ksawery Dmochowski. Kniaźnin’s manuscript, dated 1794–1795, did not appear until 1828 (in Warsaw, edited and printed by the publisher, Franciszek Salezy Dmochowski). The collection consists of the following works: Fingal (three poems), Carthon, Lathmon, Oscar, Erragon, Caros, Temora (eight poems) and The Songs of Selma (Colma, Ryno, Alpin, Armin). The source texts have been edited in accordance with the principles adopted for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century works, with critical footnotes and editorial commentary. In addition, their spelling has been modernised. The publication is preceded by a foreword by Łukasz Zabielski, PhD (Książnica Podlaska) in Białystok, in which he explains both the nature of the publication and the phenomenon of Ossian among Polish poets and readers from the period immediately preceding the birth of Polish Romanticism. The source text is accompanied by illustrations from 19th-century periodicals, as well as scans of the first pages of the first edition of the work from which the edited poems were extracted. The volume is published as part of the project of the Ministry of Education and Science – the National Programme for the Development of the Humanities under the grant “Continuation of critical editions of outstanding, forgotten works of 19th-century Polish Romantic literature in the Academic Publishing Series ‘Black Romanticism’ in twelve volumes”. The project was designed by Prof. Halina Krukowska (1937–2019).