Pielgrzym w kraju rozkoszy : o poezji Konstantego Gaszyńskiego

Abstract

Konstanty Gaszyński was bom on the 10Lh of March 1809 in Mała Wieś in the Mazovia district, and, after his father’s death, lived in Warsaw together with his mother and sisters. The friendship between Gaszyński and Zygmunt Krasiński had begun in Liceum Warszawskie and was also continued during the years of his university studies (the poet started them in the year 1828), and later in exile. In 1830 Gaszyński, together with Leon Zienkowicz, published a literary magazine titled Pamiętnik dla płci pięknej [A Diary For the Beautiful Sex] in Warsaw. He also wrote a comedy Wariat z potrzeby [Insane Because of a Need] which was successfully staged in 1829 in the Rozmaitości Theatre. His novel Dwaj Śreniawici. Romans historyczny z czasów Władysława Łokietka oryginalnie napisany [Two of the Śreniawici Clan. A Historical Romance From the Times of the King Władysław Łokietek, Originally Written] was published in 1830. During the November Uprising Gaszyński served in Gwardia Honorowa, and, after its dissolution, in a sapper battalion in the Lithuanian corps of generał Giełgud. After the defeat, he crossed the Prussian border and left the country. That was the beginning of his emigrational exile which eventually led him - after short periods of residence in Paris and in Brussels - to the South of France, to Aix-en-Provence, where he lived permanently during the years 1833-1844, and where he regularly retumed later. In 1833 a volume of his poems devoted to the uprising, titled Pieśni pielgrzyma polskiego [The Polish Pilgrim ‘s Songs], was published in Paris. During the period of his residence in Aix-en-Provence, Gaszyński was engaged in different kinds of literary work, writing poems in Polish as well as making efforts to become a French poęt. He was interested in history as well as in the art of Provence, and published numerous articles devoted to those problems. In the years 1838-1842 he was acting as the editor-in-chief of a French newspaper “Memoriał d’Aix”. His major works in French, such as the brochure about a monumental cathedral in Aix Ueglise cathedrale de Saint-Sauveveur a Aix published in 1836, as well as a description of the private local art collections Les cabinets et les collections artistiąues de la ville Aix, were written during that period. A collection of his short stories Nord et Midi was published in 1839. The next volume of Gaszyński’s poetry was printed only in 1844, and its “wydanie drugie pomnożone” [Second Edition, Multiplied] was issued in 1856. A cycle of more than 50 sonnets devoted to reflections on monuments, art and landscape as well as to the historical past of Provence constituted the main part of both of the volumes. In 1844 Gaszyński left Aix-en-Provence for Paris. During the period between November 1851 and June 1852 he made a trip to Italy, where he spent more than a half of a year. Gaszyński had also retumed to writing prose and in 1846 published a satirical story about the political life of the emigrants Pan Dezydery Boczko i sługa jego Pafnucy[Mister Dezydery Boczko and His Servant Pafnucy], a year later he published a pastiche Reszty pamiętników Macieja Rogowskiego, rotmistrza konfederacji barskiej [The Reminders ofthe Diary of Maciej Rogowski, Captain of Horse of the Bar Confederacy], and finally Kontuszowe pogadanki i obrazki z szlacheckiego życia [Robes Tales and Pictures from the Nobility’s Life] which were adapted to the style of a gentlemani tale. Konstanty Gaszyński died on the 81" of October 1866 in Aix-en-Provence, where there is his grave till now. It is difficult to delimit some decisively differing periods and tuming points in the literary output of Gaszyński. Therefore, the particular chapters of the book have not been arranged chronologically as a description of the subsequent phases of his writings. On the contrary, they have been built around some essential problems of that work, such as the attitude towards the early Romantic tendencies, to the uprisings, tyrteism and messianism, and finally to the concept of art postulated in his works as well as to the moralistic tendencies appearing in them.