Najwcześniejszy ogłoszony drukiem polski przekład poezji hiszpańskiej
The Earliest Printed Translation of Spanish Poetry

Summary/Abstract: The study examines the Polish translation of a renowned anonymous sonnet from the Spanish Golden Age, the incipit being “No me mueve, mi Señor, para quererte / No me mueve, mi Dios, para quererte” (“It doesn’t move me, my God, to desire you”), sometimes misattributed to St. Francis Xavier, among others. Authored by the Jesuit Tomasz Elżanowski, the translation was published in “Akty i afekty cnót. Setnik pierwszy o miłości” (1646), a Polish adaptation of Giovanni Rho’s “Degli atti ed affetti delle virtù: centuria prima dell’amore” (“Acts and Affects of the Virtues: First Century of Love,” 1644). Elżanowski’s rendition of the poem, based on Francesco Sforza Pallavicino’s Italian version, diverges from the sonnet’s formal structure, presenting it as a fourteen-line, paired-rhymed poem in eleven syllables. This translation holds historical significance as the earliest known and published Polish rendition of Castilian poetry, providing valuable insights into the sonnet tradition and its adaptations within early modern Polish literature, while also underscoring the cultural contributions of Jesuit translations.

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