Jan Czeczot

January Antoni Czeczot, Herb Ostoja ( born July 24, 1796 in Maluszyczy, today Belarusian Малюшыч in Hrodsenskaja Woblasz near Nawahradak; † August 23, 1847 in Druskininkai, now in Lithuania) was a Polish ethnographer and writer of Polish Romanticism with Belarusian origin.

Fascinated by Folklore and traditional folk songs of the founders of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which was part of the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth, he called hundreds of these texts melody with his works back into consciousness. Inspired by the folk songs, he also wrote some poetry in a kind of pre-modern Belarusian. He is often cited as one of the first Polish ethnographers ever and one of the pioneers of the national revival of Belarus after the country coincided with the partitions of Poland-Lithuania under Russian rule.

Biography

January Czeczot was the son of Tadeusz Czeczot, was once a part of the Polish szlachta to the wealthy noble house Ostoja. He attended school in Nawahradak of the Dominican Order and studied from 1816 at the University of Vilnius. There he made ​​friends with many Polish Romantics, including Adam Mickiewicz, the Czeczot 's early works supported. Their friendship is immortalized in the dedication to Mickiewicz's third part of his famous drama Dziady. Was Czeczot also Managing Director of Towarzystwo Filomatów, a secret student organization at the University of Vilnius, which existed from 1817-23 (from Greek: Philo Mathes, lover of wisdom ), and was a friend of Ignacy Domeyko, with whom he shared his passion for the Belarusian folklore. After the disclosure of the organization in 1823 by the Okhrana ( Russian secret police ), Czeczot was in custody and was taken to Siberia. After his Imprisonment In 1833 he settled in Lepel, where he worked temporarily in channel management until 1839.

In 1837 he was allowed to publish his first book, the Piosnki wieśniacze znad Niemna i Dźwiny, niektóre przysłowia i idiotyzmy w mowie sławiano - krewickiej z postrzeżeniem nad Nia uczynionymi ( folk songs from Memel and the Dvina, some sayings in Slavonic krewischen words. . ) - the second edition of this collection of poems, published in 1844, later was significantly expanded and included many translations of his works, which are considered as the predecessor of the modern Belarusian.

In 1839 was granted Czeczot the trip home to Maluszyczy. But since he found a job there, the writer worked for five years as a librarian of a family home of Chrebtowicze family who was a friend of his parents' house.

From his Imprisonment in Siberia to Czeczot never recovered completely. In 1846 he visited the Spa Druskininkai, but the medical treatment was unsuccessful and Jan Czeczot died there a year later. He was in a small cemetery in Rotnica, Lithuania, buried.

Some of his works, published in the last period of his life, achieved great popularity. Among the fans of his poems was very significant, Stanisław Moniuszko Polish composer, who even decided to illustrate some of the poems Czeczot 's with music. The most famous among them is Moniuszko Prząśniczka ( The woman at the spinning-wheel ) from his well-known house Songbook for Solo Voice and Piano ( Śpiewników domowych ).