Waclaw Rolicz-Lieder

Waclaw Koźma Damian songs, too: Rolicz songs ( born September 27, 1866 in Warsaw, Poland, † April 25, 1912 ibid ) was a Polish poet and translator of German poetry in the epoch of symbolism.

Life

Waclaw was born in Warsaw, the son of bank officials in January († 1903), who was also active as a writer in his youth, and his wife Katarzyna born Rola Sadkowska († 1904). His father was the son of 1820 from Warmia, from near Rossel, today ( Reszel ), immigrated to Warsaw German teacher Franz ( Franciszek ), which for decades as a professor and author of textbooks (including a used until about 1914 grammar of the German language ) worked at Warsaw high schools. The mother came from depossediertem nobility of Mazovia of the coat of arms tribal Rola. The suffix " Rolicz ", the Waclaw from 1893 used, the name of the noble coat of arms, which his father this year by Tsar Alexander III. Was was awarded in connection with the collection to the nobility of the Kingdom of Poland (the father was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir for 30 years government service, which meant automatic ennoblement ). The coat of arms was designed by the way of Waclaw itself and provided with a coat of arms coming from his mother's name.

Because of a violent conflict with a Russian teacher at his high school was Waclaw, who spoke Polish at school, which was banned in 1883 relegated and had to complete his high school education in Krakow. 1888-1889 he studied law at the Cracow University and went afterwards, with brief stays in Munich and Switzerland, to Paris, where he studied at the School of Oriental Languages ​​to 1892. Already in 1893 he created an elementary book of the Arabic language, a textbook for Polish students, and a grammar of Turkish. Then moved songs to Vienna, where he continued his Orientalist studies. In 1894 he applied for a place at Theresianumgasse, but did not get him and went back to Paris, where he remained until 1897 and studied at the École Pratique des Hautes Études and the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques.

During his years in Paris songs learned many important poets of the era know, especially Paul Verlaine, Stéphane Mallarmé and Stefan George, who became his close friend and should have great importance for his development as a poet. Songs became friendly with the Czech Symbolists Julius Zeyer.

1897 songs definitely came back to Warsaw, worked for two years in a metal industrial company office, then as a French teacher in the commercial correspondence courses for accountants. After the death of both parents, he inherited their large apartment building with 35 apartments and several shops in the center of Warsaw (demolished 1951) and was able to live off the income without having to work. After 1898, he wrote almost nothing and only published from time to time his old poems in literary magazines. At the same time he collected material for his planned history of the Old Polish language, the plans were on but, as the essays that heralded his book, bad recording found at the linguists. Warsaw, he rarely left, he drove only sometimes to Bingen, Munich and Berlin to meet Stefan George. He never married, died in 1912 of heart failure and was buried in the traditional Warsaw Powązki cemetery in the family tomb next to his parents and grandparents.

The lyrical work

Already as a student wrote Rolicz songs poems in the style of imitative romance, often of patriotic content that appeared in magazines since 1887 and published his first book in 1889. In Paris, then a year later appeared his poetic manifesto Z księgi lirycznej (From the book of poetry). Two eminent Polish poet of the century, Zenon Przesmycki and Jan Kasprowicz, wrote rave reviews about Lieder's work, but the majority of critics was bitingly negative. The sensitive poet withdrew it from the literary arena back and published his volumes of poetry in ever-smaller number of species (see plants), " prohibited reproduction and reviews " with the note that all fitted and in a fine graphic design, such as the books Georges, published, self-published. This meant that he remained almost totally unknown in his homeland, while his fame in Germany through the many translations of Stefan George, which appeared in the sheets for Art, grew. It was not until 1930 he experienced a renaissance in Poland, including by the essays of Iwaszkiewicz.

In his work, united songs the elements of French Symbolism and the Seal of George with the Polish national traditions, such as the seal by Jan Kochanowski, but also with oriental influences. His poems were enigmatic and hermetic, the imagery required a lot of effort and concentration from the reader, he also used many traditional Polish expressions and forms of speech, who felt his contemporaries as antiquated.

Czesław Miłosz ( see References ) says of Lieder by Stefan George: "Songs 's poems Addressed to Stefan George, as well as George's poems to songs, and Their translations of eachother Constitute one of the most striking instances of Polish - German literary exchange. Those close to George songs called " Callimachus ", the name Refers To Alexandrian poet and at what used by an Italian humanist who lived in Poland in the fifteenth century - Filippo Callimachus Buonaccorsi ".

Works

• Poezje I, Krakow 1889;
• Poezje II, Krakow 1891 (only 60 copies were printed );
• Elementarz języka arabskiego ( elementary book of Arabic ), Kirchhain, 1893;
• Wiersze III, Krakow 1895 (only 50 copies);
• Abu Sajid Fadlullah Ben Abulhair i tegoż czterowiersze ( translation from Persian ), Krakow 1895;
• Moja Muza, Krakow 1896 ( only 30 copies );
• Wiersze V, Krakow 1898 ( only 20 copies );
• Nowe Wiersze, Krakow 1903 ( Collected Poems, 100 copies );
• Wybór Poezji, Krakow 1962 (500 copies);
• Poezje wybrane, Warsaw 1962 (1000 copies).
• Waclaw Rolicz songs, Stefan George: Poems. Letters. Stuttgart 1996.

• Translations into German: see links.