Pan Tadeusz is an epic poem by the Polish poet, writer and philosopher Adam Mickiewicz. The book was first published on 28 June 1834 in Paris, and is considered to be the last great epic poem in European literature. Its poetic rhythm is Polish alexandrines.Pan Tadeusz, the national epic of Poland, is compulsory reading in Polish schools and was translated into 33 languages.. A film based on the poem was made in 1999 by Andrzej Wajda. In 2014, it was included on Poland's list of UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme.
“Sound as a burrow'd marmot he slept
On the straw where he'd tumbled fully-dressed that night.”
Book Four: Tadeusz' Awakening (trans. Christopher Adam Zakrzewski).
Pan Tadeusz (Sir Thaddeus) http://www.ap.krakow.pl/nkja/literature/polpoet/mic_pan.htm
Litwo! Ojczyzno moja! ty jesteś jak zdrowie;
Ile cię trzeba cenić, ten tylko się dowie, Kto cię stracił...
Opening lines, translated by Marcel Weyland
Pan Tadeusz (Sir Thaddeus) http://www.ap.krakow.pl/nkja/literature/polpoet/mic_pan.htm
