Szekspir Kasprowicza

Abstract

The article is devoted to a Polish translation of Shakespeare’s King Lear by a popular poet Jan Kasprowicz who lived and worked at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He translated many British and German literary texts as well, but it was Shakespeare whom he appreciated the most, also because of Kasprowicz’s work as a theatre critic. The article offers a comparative analysis of Kasprowicz’s translation and two other nineteenth- century Polish translations of King Lear (by Jozef Pasz- kowski and Stanislaw Egbert Kozmian). In the first part of the paper special attention is given to the ‘storm scene’ (1,2, III) with the sounds of upcoming thunder corresponding to Lear’s frantic behaviour and his fervent monologue. The second part of the article shows Shakespeare’s influence on Kasprowicz’s work, particularly in his poem Krol Lear z Biedaczewa (King Lear from Biedaczewo).