Required reading in Polish schools, Pan Tadeusz has been translated into many languages and adapted into TV and film versions, most recently in 1999 by Polish director Andrzej Wajda.

A revolt against the local Russian garrison brings the families together, inspired by a shared passion to restore Poland to its former glory: “When talk was to raise Poland again from this rubble.” Set during the years 18 in a Lithuanian village, the narrative focuses on a feud between two prominent families, complicated by the love between Tadeusz and a daughter of the rival family named Zosia. Written in Paris, the 12-part saga captures the spirit of Poland at a time when much of its territory was partitioned between Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Although, to be fair, most of them read much dumber books, and also the constant switch between Poland and Lithuania of the confederate years would probably be a bummer.On this day in 1834, the Polish Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz published his masterpiece, Pan Tadeusz, often considered one of the last great epic poems in European literature. Like, I can picture some contemporary neo-Nazi somewhere in Rzeszow reading Pan Tadeusz and being like, hell yeah. Also the numerous jabs at Jewishness irked me a ton. I’m always iffy about nationalism, and observed from the time of right-wing sentiments on the rise in contemporary Poland, it was sometimes hard to find distance between the praise for a nation-state emerging from the constraints of colonialism in Mieckiewicz’s verse from the sad aftermath of it we currently see in the 98% National majority country. The text itself accomplished a lot: epic and sweeping in its take, it offered anything from the microcosm of a couple’s relationship, to a macrocosm of Poland’s history and nature. Johnston’s translation is remarkable because I felt like I was hearing Slavic rhyming throughout my reading experience. To see the struggle of the war of 1812 (the European one, you know) through the eyes of the colonized by Russia was refreshing, illuminating and very interesting. And Pan Tadeusz, in a fresh new translation by Bill Johnston, is perfect for this purpose.

Now that I’m starting to delve into Russia’s imperial history, and trying to understand the postcolonial circumstances all across the region, I love looking at things from the other perspective.

I grew up reading Borodino, Mikhail Lermontov’s romantic poem on the deadliest battle of the Napoleonic wars, and along with War and Peace, it formed a certain understanding of the time period in my head.

Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz