Jan Kochanowski

“ Alone of all created things
Has man the joy that laughter brings,
While birds and beasts lack power to show
The mirth and happiness we know.
He who disdains God’s gifts and care
Is surely mad beyond compare ”

“ For thou wilt not spring up when blossoms quicken
But leave mine eyes forever sorrow-stricken.
[19]
LAMENT XIII
Ursula, winsome child, I would that I
Had never had thee if thou wert to die
So early. For with lasting grief I pay,
Now thou hast left me, for thy sweet, brief stay.
Thou didst delude me like a dream by night
That shines in golden fullness on the sight,
Then vanishes, and to the man awake
Leaves only of its treasures much heartbreak. ”

“ Some men spend weary lives at court,
Or sail the seas from port to port,
Where storms pursue from day to day,
And death is never far away.
One man may give his tongue for gold,
And freely is his counsel sold ”

“ No better thing we know,
No dearer gem we owe,
For all that we possess:
Pearls, stones of great finesse,
High offices and power
– One may enjoy this hour –
And so the gifts of youth,
And beauty are, in truth,
Good things, but only when
Our health is with us then.
For when the body’s weak,
The world around is bleak.
O jewel dear, my home
Awaiteth thee to come;
With thee it shall not perish.
’Tis all for thee to cherish.
This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content. ”

“ The Church cannot contain Thee, Thou art everywhere:
Down in the depths and seas, in the earth and in the air.
For gold Thou cravest not, belongeth all to Thee
Whate’er on earth a man his own may claim to be. ”

“ And when the spirit leaves us, it is vain
To weep so long; it will not come again.
And herein man is hardly just to fate,
To bear in mind what is unfortunate
In life and to forget all that transpires
In full accordance with his own desires. ”

“ May he who first called men to war
Endure grim tortures evermore;
And he as well whose fertile mind
Gave deadly firearms to mankind!
How stupidly in gruesome fight
Men seek for Death’s eternal night. ”

“ Thou wilt not come with archness and delight,
But every corner lodges lurking grief
And all in vain the heart would seek relief.
[15]
LAMENT IX
Thou shouldst be purchased, Wisdom, for much gold
If all they say of thee is truly told:
That thou canst root out from the mind the host
Of longings and canst change a man almost
Into an angel whom no grief can sap,
Who is not prone to fear nor evil hap.
Thou seest all things human as they are—
Trifles. ”

“ And drives them forth to joyless cypress glades.
But do thou not desert me, lovely lute!
Be thou the furtherance of my mournful suit
Before dread Pluto, till he shall give ear
To our complaints and render up my dear.
To his dim dwelling all men must repair,
And so must she, her father's joy and heir ”

“ Kochanowski's sincerity of grief, his fatherly love for his baby girl, after more than three centuries have not lost their power to touch our hearts. In the Laments Kochanowski embodied a wholesome ideal of life such as animated the finest spirits of Poland in the years of its greatest glory, a spirit both humanistic and universally human. ”

“ For good and bad alike it nothing cares.
Where blows its breath, no man can flee away;
Both false and righteous it hath power to stay.
Yet still we vaunt us of our mighty mind
In idle arrogance among our kind ”

“ The mother bird doth beat and twitter near
And strike the monster, till it turns and gapes
To swallow her, and she but just escapes.
"'Tis vain to weep," my friends perchance will say.
Dear God, is aught in life not vain, then? Nay,
Seek to lie soft, yet thorns will prickly be:
The life of man is naught but vanity. ”

“ The Laments, to be sure, are not based on any classic model and they contain few direct imitations of the classical poets, though it may be noted that the concluding couplet of Lament XV is translated from the Greek Anthology. On the other hand they are interspersed with continual references to classic story; and, more important, are filled with the atmosphere of the Stoic philosophy, derived from Cicero and Seneca. And along with this austere teaching there runs through them a warmer tone of Christian hope and trust; Lament XVIII is in spirit a psalm. ”

“ Or, casting off thy human, maiden veil,
Art thou enfeathered in some nightingale?
Or in grim Purgatory must thou stay
Until some tiniest stain be washed away?
Or hast returned again to where thou wert
Ere thou wast born to bring me heavy hurt?
Where'er thou art, ah! pity, comfort me;
And if not in thine own entirety,
Yet come before mine eyes a moment's space
In some sweet dream that shadoweth thy grace.
[17]
LAMENT XI
"Virtue is but a trifle!" Brutus said
In his defeat; nor was he cozenèd.
What man did his own goodness e'er advance
Or piety preserve from evil chance? ”

“ Jan Kochanowski (1530-84) was the greatest poet of Poland during its existence as an independent kingdom. His Laments are his masterpiece, the choicest work of Polish lyric poetry before the time of Mickiewicz.
Kochanowski was a learned poet of the Renaissance, drawing his inspiration from the literatures of Greece and Rome. He was also a man of sincere piety, famous for his translation of the Psalms into his native language. ”