[SHAKESPEARE, MICKIEWICZ - ROMEO AND JULIA] KORSAK- NEW POEZYE Vilnius 1840

KORSAK JULIAN

NEW POETRY

Volume I

Romeo and Juliet

Elegies, Miscellaneous Poems.

Vilnius 1840, Printed by Jozef Zawadzki, pp [4] 239 [1], format: 10.5x17cm

"Julian Korsak (1806-1855) was a poet and translator, one of the most representative figures of the national current of Polish Romanticism. He translated only Romeo and Juliet, however, this translation became the charge of the first
heated critical discussion of the Polish translation of Shakespeare's dramas. In turn, in retrospect, it appears as a unique mirror of clashing aesthetics and literary doctrines."

"Korsak was fluent in Latin and Greek, he also knew modern languages: French, German, English, Italian. From all these languages he translated. He also composed his own literary works, first read among friends, and later published in three more collections consisting of poems, poems, poetic letters and translations: Poezye (St. Petersburg 1830, Poznan 1833), Poezye (St. Petersburg 1836, Poznan 1836) and New Poezye (Vilna 1840, Volumes 1 and 2). In the New Poezye he included a translation of Romeo and Juliet, in which he included a fragment of Mickiewicz's translation from thesecond scene ofAct II. Like Mickiewicz, he translated the whole thing in rhyming thirteen-note meter. After publishing the single translation, Korsak never returned to Shakespeare again."

Source: "Polish translations of Shakespeare in the 19th century," Anna Cetera-wlodarczyk - Alicja Kosi

A rare early translation of Shakespeare into Polish!

HARDCOVER SEMI LEATHER FROM THE PERIOD

Condition DB-/ cover tattered, losses on spine, rubbing, cracks on spine, browning of paper, smudged stamp of owner.