Na co zmarła Orszula Kochanowska?
What Did Orszula Kochanowska Die of?

On the Interpretive Potential of Some Metaphor

Summary/Abstract: The author of the study, focusing on a documentary dimension of Jan Kochanowski’s “Treny” (“Laments”), attempts to establish to which extent the poetic images contained in the cycle promote the real course of the little Orszula’s agony and whether, as based on the images, it is possible to settle anything about her premature death. Special attention is paid to “Tren IV” (“Lament IV”) that tells about “shak[ing] the green fruit from her parent’s’ boughs,” a significant image as it is preceded by a note revealing the writer’s exceptionally strong emotions connected with it. Considerations about “Treny” (“Laments”) are followed by a cursory overview of such places in Kochanowski’s creativity which tells something about the death of a person. Against the background of the multifarious examples of superficial treatment of the subject, “Pamiątka Janowi Baptyście, hrabi na Tęczynie” (“A Memento of Jan Baptysta, the Count of Tęczyn”) stands out above the others as being in fact the only one description with features of pathographic character.

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