Zrozumieć piękno: cytaty polskich pisarzy, poetów & filozofów

Józef Mehoffer, Słońce majowe (May Sun), 1911. (oil on canvas)

For ages, people have been trying to define, understand or somehow capture one of the most elusive and subjective things on Earth – beauty. Here we take a look at how ten different Polish writers, poets and philosophers from various eras approached this tricky subject…

Tylko Wierszem by Anna Pogonowska

Beauty is a promise, a vision of happiness. It is not yet happiness; it has an element of sadness that comes from it being just an endowment.

The poet and essayist Anna Pogonowska was, according to the writer Jerzy Narbutt, ‘a real Simone Weil of Polish poetry – possibly the only Polish example of poetry so deeply, irrevocably linked to philosophy in a woman’s writing’.

The quote comes from her 1984 volume of essays entitled, conversely, as it's written in prose, Only in Rhyme (Tylko Wierszem).

Piękno Czasu by Cyprian Kamil Norwid

No more shine the frail lilies and roses

Their silk petals taken by the wind;

Today no one seeks Beauty… no rhymer-

No woman – conjurer – no amateur,

Today you seek what’s alluring

And that – which surprises!

A deeper understanding of beauty was one of the things that preoccupied one of Poland’s most important poets, Cyprian Kamil Norwid. In his 1880 Piękno Czasu (The Beauty of Time), beauty appears as something eternal, divine, a platonic idea not susceptible to the erosion of time. The poet than contrasts this vision of beauty with superficial appearances, asking toward the end of the poem whether these are what one really needs.

Please, continue reading here (kontynyacja artykułu): https://culture.pl/en/article/understanding-beauty-10-quotes-by-polish-writers-poets-philosophers

Vocabulary:

Elusive – ulotny, nieuchwytny

Capture - pochwycić

Tricky subject – skomplikowany temat

Endowment – uposażenie, przyrodzony dar

Irrevocably - nieodwołalnie

Conversely – z drugiej strony

Frail – wątły, delikatny

Petals - płatki

Conjurer - sztukmistrz

Alluring - ponętny

Susceptible – podatny na

Superficial - powierzchowny

Misguided – wprowadzający w błąd

Debunk - obalać

Respectively - kolejno

Dystopian – dystopijny (przedstawiający czarną wizję rzeczywistości, cywilizację zmierzającą ku zagładzie)

Quirky – dziwaczny, specyficzny

Peculiar – charakterystyczny, osobliwy

Futile - daremny

Illegible - nieczytelny

#Beauty #Polishartists