KOCHANOWSKI, JAN

KOCHANOWSKI, JAN. — Poet, b. at Sycyna in 1530, d. at Lublin on 22 August 1584, he is the dominant figure of the golden age of Polish literature. He studied at the Academy of Cracow, then at the University of Padua; he travelled in Italy and France. Upon returning to his homeland, he became secretary to King Sigismund Augustus; later he withdrew to the quiet of his ancestral home at Czarnolas.

The work of K., essentially lyrical, is characterized by profound religious feeling and a serene Horatian balance; in his poetry the classicism of the Renaissance, assimilated in Italy, and fresh, spontaneous national inspiration blend harmoniously. Some poems on varied subjects (Pieśń o potopie, “Song of the Flood”; Szachy, “Chess”) were followed by others that reveal the poet’s interest in the life of his country (Zgoda, “Concord”; Satyr, “The Satyr”; Proporzec, “The Standard,” the finest, containing Virgilian accents), and by the tragedy Odprasca poślów greckich (“The Refusal of the Greek Ambassadors”). But the measure of K.’s genius is given by the Praszki (“Trifles”), brief lyrics that are by turns playful, amorous, and satirical; and by the Pieśni (“Songs”), in the Horatian manner. K.’s masterpiece is the work inspired by the grief of losing his little daughter Ursula, which he poured out in the Treny, with the profoundly human accent of paternal anguish comforted by faith, in forms so vivid that they seem to have been written today. Finally, among K.’s works are remembered a folkloric poem (Pieśń Świętojańska o Sobótce, “Song of St. John at Sobótka,” a Polish popular festival) and the translation of the Davidic Psalter, a work of great value for the philological perfection of its interpretation and the beauty of its verse. Through the variety of the psalms K. established the system

KOANGO, VICARIATO APOSTOLICO di. — Seminary of Najdi.

of Polish metrics; a distinction, too, which earned him the title of “father of national poetry.”

Marina Bersano Begey