KONRAD WALLENROD BY ADAM MICKIEWICZ IN LESYA UKRAINKA INTERPRETATION

Abstract

The article presents Lesia Ukrainka’s Prometheusism on the example of her translation of the historical story in the poems Konrad Wallenrod by Adam Mickiewicz. There are parallels between the romantic tradition of the Polish literary school and the Ukrainian so-called neo-romantics in the first half of the twentieth century to which Lesya Ukrainka belonged. The author of the translation deliberately chose a fragment in the description of a girl from Lithuania who is compared to the local river Vilija, and showed the tragedy of women’s destiny full of patriotic motives. At the same time, the heroism of a woman-citizen, a woman- artist arouses admiration and awakens hope for the speedy liberation of the enslaved people. Mickiewicz’s poetic lines translated into Ukrainian opened new perspectives for neo-romantics to combine both national and European traditions, and at the same time pointed to the tragedy of national histories.

Lesya Ukrainka went beyond the tragedy of the final scene of Mickiewicz’s drama in her creative conception of the reinterpretation. Proceeding from the vicious circle of writing literary works exclusively “for domestic use” the poet sought to awaken the national consciousness in society to enable the synthesis of coexistence with other cultures. She took on the mission of ancient Prometheus symbolizing not only a rebellion against the power or charity towards the people, but also the revival of hope for salvation from imminent death. Following romantic motives she gives them a rebellious spirit, purposeful protests, which from the individual thoughts of the progressive groups were to move to the community level, which in literature is expressed in the ideas of Prometheusism.

It is assumed that tangible natural kinship of Polish and native languages grew in Lesya Ukrainka’s work from the Volyn roots where noble traditions were very strong and had a decisive influence on the language picture of the writer.

The poetic material is especially valuable from an artistic point of view since it is based on samples of oral folk art, in particular the song, which can be traced not only in the original but also in translation.