Pan Tadeusz
By Adam Mickiewicz.
Translated by Maude Ashurst Biggs.
Imprint
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Rules for Pronunciation of the Polish Words in the Text
The letters b, d, f, h, k, m, n, p, r, s, t, z, are pronounced as in English, except when modified, as several of them are, by particular dots or accents, necessary for the expressing of Slavonic sounds in Roman letters.
C is invariably pronounced soft, like tz, before all vowels and before consonants, even in cases where it is hard in other languages; as Soplica, pronounced Soplitza. Before the vowel i it has a palatal sound, not unlike c in Italian.
G is invariably hard, as in gill, get.
J has the same sound as in Italian or German.
K is used for the hard c of other languages, and in foreign words is substituted for it, as Catholic, written in Polish Katolik.
The letter l has two forms, one corresponding to our own; the other with a delicate stroke down has a peculiar sound, slightly resembling our w, scarcely ever mastered by foreigners. In the present work it has been judged best, owing to the impossibility of procuring suitable type, to use the simple i throughout.
N accented is pronounced like the Spanish ñ in cañon.
W like v.
Z as in English; when dotted ż, pronounced like j in French; with an accent ź the sound is sharper.
Sz has the sound of sh in English.
Cz is pronounced like ch in church.
Rz has the sound resembling that of the dotted ż or French j; thus the proper name of Dobrzynski is pronounced as if written Dobrjiñskee.
Szcz is pronounced with both sounds of sz and cz thoroughly distinct, so that the combination resembles shtch.
The vowels a, e, i, o, u, are pronounced as in all Continental languages, very broad and full. A and e are, however, susceptible of modifications, causing them to sound like en and in in French. Particular forms of the letters are used for these sounds in Polish; but in this translation the nasals are expressed by m or n, as Rembajlo, Czenstochowa—a form of spelling warranted by Polish usage.
N.b.—Consonants are pronounced far more lightly than in English.
Introduction
The Slavonic languages and their literatures are so little studied in our own country, that it is to be feared that many English men and women have not even heard the name of Poland’s greatest poet, Adam Mickiewicz. When, a few years ago, a tablet was affixed to the house at Rome in which the poet had for a short time lodged, there were many oracular utterances in the newspapers to make clear to wondering foreigners what sort of person that name implied. And yet the writings of Mickiewicz are well worth our attention. He is preeminently the national poet of Poland; in him is to be found the voice of its sufferings and struggles—the echo of its history and long-cherished traditions. No writer has more faithfully reproduced the old Polish life and manners and the spirit of its national songs. He has himself beautifully said that in the popular lay lies hidden the weapon of the nation’s hero, and the woven thread of the nation’s thoughts—
“With the wings and voice of the archangel
Sometimes also thou holdest the sword of the archangel;”1—
and all this will assuredly be found in his own poetry, with its quaint tales of old Polish life and Lithuanian chivalry, its fantastic legends of enchanted lakes and oaks of immemorial sanctity.
It is probable that only the circumstance of his poems being written in a difficult language, which it is not the fashion to study in England, has kept them so absolutely unknown to our countrymen. Such is far from being the case in Germany and France. But in the words of doom, vae victis, may also be read the degradation of the language
