Jan Kochanowski Songs Midsummer's song about Sobótka
Sobótka midsummer (having a pagan folk origin rite performed during the shortest night of the year, z 23 on 24 June) became the starting point for Kochanowski to write a cycle of twelve bucolic, idyllic songs. The whole is made up of the stories of twelve virgins participating in the ceremony: burning fires, throwing wreaths on the water, dances and games. The entire piece has a rather complicated form, it is essentially a cycle of poems. The virgins praise modest rural life, but in their songs the countryside is not only a place of work, there is no shortage of time and plenty of entertainment:
Various songs already there,
There will be talks covered,
There is a hit with a bow,
Also have dinner, there and chased.
Your obligatory reading is the song of the Virgin XII: Peaceful countryside, cheerful village. The work of a farmer is considered the most convenient occupation: fair, ensuring a prosperous life in the countryside. Peaceful and cheerful village. Here one feels really free, need not be morally questionable (np. stain, borrowing money at high interest), to fall into dependence on the more powerful – nothing outside. Here we have a clear opposition between rural and urban life, the former is good, the second is bad, full of hypocrisy, falsehood, hypocrisy, various dangers awaiting man. Happiness does not come from wealth, but harmony, living in accordance with divine laws and nature, virtue – like in other songs by Kochanowski.
The noble job of the farmer ensures that others are supported, the whole nation. Nature generously bestows her gifts: wild game, fish, the fruits of the forests. After work, songs are sung together, dances, properly brings up children:
A day here, but bright auroras
They would fall into the sea again,
Than my voice had uttered all
Rural holidays and benefits.
It is an idealized image of the countryside (as seen through the eyes of a landlord, not a peasant), the poet appears to be an idyllic land. The eternal myth of Arcadia returns here – unreal land of happiness, which the poets longed for, philosophers of different ages. Naturally, a real village of the 16th century had little to do with this picture of weather, happiness, carefree. Optimism, affirmation (full acceptance, love) life, in all its many aspects, it is a very important message of the song (but also epigrams) Jan Kochanowski.
The song was composed of fifteen four-verse stanzas written in eight-syllable with even rhymes. The language is distinguished by its clear simplicity, everyday life, contains few epithets and figuratively. It is easy to indicate the many inspirations of Kochanowski, np. the poetry of Ovid, Horace, Virgil, Italian (first of all Petrarch) and French Renaissance poets. Nevertheless, the song is an original piece, perfectly combining ancient traditions, revival with Polish folklore, color.
