For whom did Jan Kochanowski write? (poetry from Poland cycle)

 

Jan Kochanowski (pronounce Yan Ko-hanofskee) (1530-1584) is the best known poet of the Polish Renaissance. A son of a noble family affluent enough to send him to the best universities, first to Cracow, later to Padua in Italy. Padua at that time was one of the best European universities, a centre of humanism, Kochanowski would meet there the best minds of the continent. After he returned to Poland he had a career in administration, for some time he was a secretary to king Sigismund Augustus. After the king’s death he retired from official duties and lived in his manor in a village called Czarnolas.

The Kingdom of Poland was at the hight of its power at that time. It was one of the great powers of Europe, the one that stopped the expansion of the Ottoman empire. Consequently in Kochanowski’s poetry there are no worries about the independence of the motherland, so typical of the later Polish poetry. On the other hand it seems that Kochanowski aimed at including Polish poetry in the broader European stream. He also wrote in Latin, which in his time would gain him educated readers in other countries. When he wrote in Polish, he seemed to write in a style not dissimilar from Horace, albeit in a different language. Also important is the fact that he wrote his poems so they could be published in books; it seems obvious today, but at the time a printed book was a new technology, the printing press having only been invented. Which meant of course that even when he wrote in Polish, he wrote for the educated, at least enough to read a book.

Below an example of a poem not dissimilar from Horace, albeit written originally in Polish.

SONG 5 (of the First Book of Songs)

He who has his bread

All that one can need

Does not need to worry about high incomes

About villages, towns and walled castles.

A lord is someone (this is what I say)

Who is satisfied with whatever he has.

Whoever seeks more, shows himself

That in his own opinion he is still inferior.

Great riches has gained

Who has got rid of greed.

It is more difficult than to conquer Turks

Or to make fierce Tartars pay tribute.

The king of Macedon

Won in a short time,

A big chunk of the world, but still he thought

That it won't be enough to have the whole world.

What's the use of armour

Or temporal power?

Gold is no medicine for your heart.

It won't drive worries away from your head.

Mrs. Death is nasty

Grabs by their throats

Both lowly servants and their rich lords

Won't give you time to pay all you owe.

Most people (I think),

Worry about one thing:

How to acquire more silver and gold.

A glutton will never have enough to eat.

It will all stay here

When you are deceased

And somebody else's house will decorate

All that you hoarded here with such greed.

This supposed safe house

One day will fall apart

And the wine that today you worry so much about

Will be given to horses by your own grandchild.

If you would like to read these poems (and some more) on paper, 

You can get a printout of my book "POLISH INSPIRATIONS"