„Ukryty płonę”
“Ukryty płonę [I Burn in Hiding]”

On Bolesław Leśmian’s Cycle “Z księgi przeczuć” (“From the Book of Premonitions”)

Summary/Abstract: The paper is an analysis and interpretation of a nine-part Bolesław Leśmian’s poetic cycle “Z księgi przeczuć” (“From the Book of Premonitions”), published in 1902 in “Chimera”, and of a few other early pieces by the poet. Starting with “Epilog” (“Epilogue”) that completes the collection in which the speaking subject compares himself to God burning “on Sinai,” the author analyses the light motives present in the cycle, which leads to validate the opinion of Anna Czabanowska-Wróbel who states that Leśmian was inspired by Jewish mysticism, and to particularise this stance with Marranism (the poet at the age of nine converted with his father) and with a post-secular reflection upon secularising. The paper suggests two modes of reading of the cycle, namely a linear one in which it is viewed as a narration on identity transformation, and a concentric one in the light of which its central thought hidden topic is the problem of forgetting and changing name.

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