The Calm of the Sea (Upon the height of Tarkankut)

The pennant at the crow’s nest rises with the breeze,

Shafts of sunlight play upon the water’s breast

As on a bride-to-be who wakes to sigh and rest,

And wakes again and sighs for dreams that better please.

 

On naked spars the banner-shaped sails hang at ease.

The vessel is in chains now, leeside facing west,

Lulled by slow rocking. Passengers lampoon in jest,

Swabbies sigh to one another, slapping knees.

 

Blithe Sea! Among your jolly living creatures is

The polyp, sleeping in your depths when dark clouds swarm,

Wielding longish arms amid each starfish grave.

 

Sweet dreams! Below, a hydra of remembrances

Sleeps in the middle of mishaps and raging storm,

And when the heart is calm, its pincers flash and wave.

Adam Mickiewicz 

( Translated from Polish by Leo Yankevich )

Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (1798-1855) was a Polish-Lithuanian Romantic poet who is one of Poland's Three Bards, alongside Zygmunt Krasiński and Juliusz Słowacki. He is regarded as the national poet of Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. Mickiewicz is widely considered as one of the greatest Slavic poets alongside Alexander Pushkin.

The political situation in Poland in the 19th century was often reflected in Polish literature which, since the days of Poland's partitions took a powerful upward swing and reached its zenith during the period between 1830 and 1850 in the unsurpassed patriotic writings of Mickiewicz, among others. The writings of Mickiewicz have had such a tremendous influence upon the Polish mind that they cannot be underestimated.

Because of the greater simplicity of his style and the directness of presentation, Mickiewicz reached more Polish hearts than either Krasiński or Słowacki and came to be regarded as the greatest interpreter of the people's hopes and ideals...His two monumental works, marking the zenith of his power, are Dziady (Forefathers' Eve) and Pan Tadeusz. The latter is universally recognized as "the only successful epic which the 19th century produced." George Brandes says that Mickiewicz alone approached those great names in poetry which stand in history as above all healthy, far healthier than Byron, healthier, even than Shakespeare, Homer and Goethe.