O literackich losach opowieści o bitwie na Kosowym Polu i próbie przybliżenia jej polskim czytelnikom dziecięcym

Abstract

This article is devoted to the Polish edition of a collection of Serbian folk songs, which was published in 1962 by the Polish publishing house Nasza Księgarnia under the title Bitwa na Kosowym Polu (The Battle of Kosovo). It is the first and only complete edition of the songs of the Kosovo cycle in Polish, translated for young readers by Zygmunt Stoberski, an outstanding translator and promoter of Serbian literature in Poland. The article is divided into several parts. In the first one, attention is focused on the battle itself, which took place in 1389, the folk songs commemorating this event and the importance of the Kosovo myth. In the second part, the focus is on the fascination with the Serbian Middle Ages in Serbian literature for children and youth. In the following parts, Polish‑Serbian literary contacts after World War II and the history of translations of texts for children, the translation and popularization activities of Zygmunt Stoberski, and the reception of Serbian folk song in Poland were reviewed. The main purpose of the article was to show how the translator and the publishing house Nasza Księgarnia adapted the Serbian epic to the perceptual abilities of young readers. It also shows how Bitwa na Kosowym Polu can be seen against the background of Polish historical prose for children, which was written in the 1950s and 1960s.