#polishromanticism

[ropuszysko]

Toad vs Adam Mickiewicz

i don't know why, but i actually have a good laugh while reading Mickiewicz's works. i mean, it is not supposed to be funny, i guess, but some of it is hilarious.

— in 'Romantyczność' you have a line, which can be directly translated to

'"Listen to me, girl!"

She is not listening'

and for me this is just so funny. just imagine the first line read in serious voice, with intonation and stuff and then a second one in this emotionless voice from shows about animals

— 'Świtezianka' is whole new level, as while reading it i can only think about my lame teacher of Polish, who used to teach me in sixth grade and made the whole class learn a part of 'Świtezianka' by heart and we still remember it and make fun by saying it in strange, overemotional way (also my classmates created ponys based on rhymes from it, 'młody — wody' (young guy of water) and 'dziewica — księżyca' (virgin of the moon))

— 'Dziady' is fucked up story, mostly about ghosts (a lot of Halloween vibe, tbh), it has four parts, every part tells totally different story, but we can assume, that Gustaw/Konrad takes part in every single one, but they are not in chronological order, you start with second part and the other three are also mixed. i like 'Dziady', though. however, i never managed to go through Gustaw/Konrad's monologue, this is just whole new level and my friends like to quote it randomly

[ropuszysko]

Toad vs Pan Tadeusz

Sooo, I've recently read ten out of twelve books of 'Pan Tadeusz' (one of Polish classic literature's best known pieces, written by Adam Mickiewicz, Polish poet of romanticism era; title means Mister Tadeusz) and it is generally good, however:

— maybe it is just me, but I cannot really describe main character's (Tadeusz) personality. all i can say about him, is that he is young and thus not mature yet. oh and also he is not afraid to fight, but i guess we can just link it to his youth

— in fact, Zosia, character that was probably only introduced to be Tadeusz's love interest and because romanticism pieces need that pure young girl character, who is so helpless and pure and needs her hero is actually more complex than Tadeusz

then here is some funny stuff:

— action takes place during like five days and this is enough for everyone to have some stupid fight/argument with everyone and also there are some random affairs. it even evolved into a damn foray and then into regular battle with tsar's soldiers, like wtf

— that's a spoiler, but you can say Jacek Soplica is pretending to be a worm for almost whole book (he is pretending to be a bernardine monk, whose name is Robak (worm), but come on, doesn't it sound silly?)

— Tadeusz and Telimena had a moment because of ants

— there is a place called Dobrzyn and every man in there is called either Bartek or Maciek and every women is called either Kachna or Maryna

— Gerwazy killed Russian officer Płut 'pro publico bono'

— Count talks a lot about the time, when he took an important part in some battle at Birbante-rokka, whatever it is, except for some 'fortress in Italy'

— Count is constantly described as 'ostani z Horeszków, chociaż po kądzieli' (the last Horeszko — distaff side)

— there are some minor jokes, Mickiewicz actually had some sense of humor (i can bet that Dobrzyn was totally intended pun)

— basing on 'Pan Tadeusz', one of i guess first Polish PWP was created (i don't remember the author, though. but it is not Fredro, as it was assumed at first). it is called 'XIII book' and it describes *spoiler* Tadeusz and Zosia's wedding night. and call me stupid, but reading it actually made me laugh (so called gimbohumor, i guess (junior high humor))