A performance in a puppet show. On Stanisław Barańczak’s poem Bist Du bei mir once again Cover Image

Spektakl w teatrze marionetek. O wierszu Stanisława Barańczaka Bist Du bei mir raz jeszcze
A performance in a puppet show. On Stanisław Barańczak’s poem Bist Du bei mir once again

Author(s): Joanna Dembińska-Pawelec
Subject(s): Review, Comparative Study of Literature, Polish Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Poznańskie Studia Polonistyczne
Keywords: Stanisław Barańczak; Bist Du bei mir; Johann Sebastian Bach; Adam Mickiewicz; G. Herbert; mystical poetry;

Summary/Abstract: This essay presents an interpretation of Stanisław Barańczak’s Bist du bei mir – a poem that has often been the subject of literary studies. The author refers to the poem’s motto – a fragment of an aria by Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel from Clavierbüchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach, often falsely attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach. She also points at the context of mystical poetry: Adam Mickiewicz’s epigrams from Zdania i uwagi z dzieł Jakuba Bema, Anioła Ślązaka (Angelus Silesius) i Sę-Martena [Sentences and remarks. From the works of Jacob Böhme, Angelus Silesius, and St. Martin] and G. Herbert’s poems translated by Barańczak. In the author’s reading, the poet, in an ironic gesture of reference, strips the reader of literary delusions, discovering deeply tragic dimensions of life and, possibly, also of personal experience of suffering.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 36
  • Page Range: 195-212
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Polish