’To the Polish Mother’ in Brazil: The Experience of Slavery in South America Hashtag (topic) #Influence #Features Nagłówek super artykułu Title on page in header ’To the Polish Mother’ in Brazil: The Experience of Slavery in South America Image or video headery-6.png Podpis dla multimediów Influence. Adam Mickiewicz - collage #6. A portrait of Antonio Frederico de Castro Alves was used. Author: Matej Kaniewski for Culture.pl Header text color rgb(255, 255, 255) Enable audio for video Off Negative header audio button Wyłączony Negative side audio button Wyłączony Zawartość (treść strony Super Artykułu) Columns style left column static Left column A view of Rio de Janeiro, around 1889, photo: Wikimedia Right column ‘To the Polish Mother’ is surely one of Mickiewicz’s most powerful and influential poems, and also, as Maria Janion put it, ‘one of the most terrifying works of Polish poetry’. Tekst The ‘Polish Mother’ in Brazil Text size standard fonts size Columns style left column static Left column Brazilian poet Antonio Frederico de Castro Alves, photo: Wikimedia Right column In 1868, Mickiewicz’s work became the inspiration and point of departure for a poem written by one of Brazil’s most outstanding Romantic poets, Antonio Frederico de Castro Alves (1847–71). Tekst The Slave versus the conspirator Text size standard fonts size Columns style left column static Left column Brazilian slave with a sleeping child on her back, Source: Moreira Salles Institute Right column These differences emerge right from the first stanza, in which Alves’s paraphrase drastically marks how the ‘Polish mother’ and ‘slave mother’ differ – along with their children. Tekst Transatlantic solidarity ‘To the Slave’s Mother’ was not published during Castro Alves’s lifetime – it only appeared in print in 1921 as part of a posthumous poetic cycle, titled Os Escravos (Slaves). The cause for which he sacrificed his life came to a happy conclusion in 1888, when slavery was abolished in Brazil. The fact that the Brazilian poet found an unexpected ally across the ocean in his strivings for freedom and abolition of slavery, in a totally different social and political context, only shows the incredible power of literature. As well as solidarity that crosses all boundaries, which literature brings to the fore, helping us to understand others’ experiences and our own. Author: Mikołaj Gliński, August 2023. Translated by Soren Gauger. Sources: Henryk Siewierski, ‘Dwa wiersze Adama Mickiewicza i ich brazylijskie odczytania’, in Światowa historia literatury polskiej, 2020. Text size standard fonts size Link URL Tap to return More Super Articles Title The Tatar Crimean Sonnets: Resistance & Poetry in an Occupied Territory URL /en/feature/the-tatar-crimean-sonnets-resistance-poetry-in-an-occupied-territory Title Faris, A Polish Rider amid the Sands of the Desert – Among the Arabs and Jews URL /en/feature/faris-a-polish-rider-amid-the-sands-of-the-desert-among-the-arabs-a… Title ‘Let your Spirit descend’ – Mickiewicz and the Church URL /en/feature/let-your-spirit-descend-mickiewicz-the-church Introduction What could a Romantic nineteenth-century poet from Brazil have seen in Adam Mickiewicz’s ‘To the Polish Mother’? And what does his interpretation tell us about the experience of political and colonial oppression on both sides of the Atlantic? Not standard color version Off Summary What could a Romantic nineteenth-century poet from Brazil have seen in Adam Mickiewicz’s ‘To the Polish Mother’? And what does his interpretation tell us about the experience of political and colonial oppression on both sides of the Atlantic? Cover headery-6.png Thumbnail size standardowy
