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Jan Kochanowski
JAN KOCHANOWSKI - TO THE MOUNTAINS AND FOREST
TO THE MOUNTAINS AND FOREST
High mountains and forests attired in leaves,
How gladly I see you and reminisce
On my earlier years, left behind up there,
When for a stable life one didn't much care
1
.
Where haven't I been then? What haven't I savored?
Across the bottomless sea I have sailed,
I've called on the French, Germans, Italians,
I've visited the Sibylline caverns
2
.
One day a quiet scholar, the next day
A sworded knight
3
; one day in court array
In lord's palace, then a mute clergyman
In the council
4
, though not with holy men
In grey cowls, but in double scapular;
And why not, if you could be a rector?
5
Such was Proteus
6
, changing to a viper,
Then rain, then fire, then feigned shape of vapor.
What will happen next? My hair turns grey,
I keep with the man, who seizes the day
7
.
Translated by Michael J. Mikoś
Notes
1
In this autobiographical poem, Kochanowski recalls his carefree days of childhood and youth.
2
A reference to Sibyl, a prophetess who lived at Cumae near Naples, famed for longevity and oracular gifts. The cave of Sibyl is to this day a tourist attraction.
3
Kochanowski took part in a military campaign of 1567. In the original, he calls himself 'a knight attached to the sword', echoing Cicero's joke about a short soldier.
4
As a lay parish priest in Poznań and Zwoleń, Kochanowski was a 'silent' clergyman who did not perform any religious duties, but had the right to sit in the bishop's council.
5
The author refers here most likely to his unsuccessful attempts to become an abbot of a monastery in Miechów. 'Scapular'- in a monk's habit, a sleeveless outer garment which falls from the shoulders, a badge of membership in an order. The Polish words 'dwojaki płat' may also refer to a double pay.
6
Proteus was in the
Odyssey
(IV, 363-570), an 'ancient one of the sea', who herds the seals, knows all things, and has the power of assuming different shapes in order to escape being questioned.
7
Cf. Horace's "carpe diem" in
Odes
, 1, 11, 12. (
The Complete Works of Horace
. Edited, with an Introduction by Casper J. Kraemer, Jr. New York: Modern Library, 1936).