
Zenon Przesmycki (
pen name
A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...
''Miriam'';
Radzyń Podlaski, 22 December 1861 – 17 October 1944,
Warsaw
Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
), was a Polish poet, translator and an art critic of the literary period of
Młoda Polska, who studied law in Italy, France and England; in years of 1887 and 1888, he served as the editor-in-chief of the Warsaw magazine ''Życie'' (Life), an influential first-ever publication on
modernism
Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
in Poland.
Professional career
Zenon Przesmycki was a member of the prestigious
Polish Academy of Literature. He first discovered and popularised the work of Polish national poet
Cyprian Norwid
Cyprian Kamil Norwid (; – 23 May 1883) was a Polish poet, dramatist, painter, sculptor, and philosopher. He is now considered one of the four most important Polish Romanticism, Polish Romantic poets, though scholars still debate whether he is ...
, who was almost forgotten in exile. Przesmycki published the art magazine ''Chimera'' (1901–1908) featuring the works of Norwid.
One of his closest friends was
Bolesław Leśmian also involved there. Another friend of his, poet
Antoni Lange, wrote an ode to him, in a series of ''Odes to Friends'' (" Pieśni dla przyjaciół").
Przesmycki published many translations of renowned French poets, including
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics ...
and
Paul Verlaine
Paul-Marie Verlaine ( ; ; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolism (movement), Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the ''fin de siècle'' ...
, as well as
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...
and
Algernon Charles Swinburne from English. His own 1892 translation of
Arthur Rimbaud's ''The Drunken Boat'' (''
Le Bateau ivre'') became a literary event in
partitioned Poland.
In
the interwar period, Przesmycki served as Minister of Culture and Art (1919).
See also
*
Polish literature
References
External links
*
Zenon Przesmyckiat poezja.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Przesmycki
1861 births
1944 deaths
Burials at Powązki Cemetery
Polish translators
Members of the Polish Academy of Literature
Culture ministers of Poland
Polish male poets