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 Anhelli |
 uliusz Slowacki (1809-49) was throughout his life a rival of Mickiewicz, with whom he was on no friendly terms. Though he was quite as much a visionary as Mickiewicz, he did not share his ardent faith in the capacity of the existing generation of Poles to regenerate their country and to become leaders of the world. In his fantasy, Anhelli, he wrote a reply to the Books of Mickiewicz. He composed the work while on a journey to the Holy Land, probably in part while tarrying in a monastery on Mount Lebanon; to it he gave the form of prose arranged in short verses, reminiscent of the Bible (and also of the Books of Mickiewicz) . Yet few direct references to the Bible occur in it, and even the style is more indebted to later writers, such as Chateaubriand and Krasinski, than to the Scriptures.In Anhelli (published in Paris in 1838) Slowacki pictures with tender sympathy the sufferings and miseries of the Poles, but at the same time he scourges their weakness, their folly, and their disunion. The present generation must pass away before Poland can be restored. After that he sees a chance of relief only in a democratic revolution throughout Europe. |
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Unlike Mickiewicz, Slowacki gives little direct moral counsel. Yet he proffers the hope that possibly the sacrifice of a sinless victim, even the poet Slowacki himself, represented by Anhelli, may be a means for the redemption of Poland. Such is the fundamental idea of Anhelli, an idea congenial to the romantic school of poetry, and to the nervous, self-centred character of Slowacki himself. The conception is, of course, of Biblical origin : Anhelli, though unconscious of his high destiny, is to die that Poland may be redeemed, just as Christ died that He might bring salvation to mankind. In the words of Caiaphas "Consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not" (John xi. 50). But we need not assume that Slowacki arrogantly compared himself to Christ. He was probably more directly inspired by a passage in Chateaubriand. In Les Natchez (at the close of liare viii) the aged hero Chactas speaks thus of his aspiration to save his own people: "J'avance a grands pas vers le terme de ma carriere : je prie le ciel de detourner les orages dont il a menace les Natchez, ou de me recevoir en sacrifice. .A cette fin je tache de sanctifier mes jours, pour que la purete de la victime soit agreable aux genies: c'est la seule precaution que j'aie prise contre 1'avenir. Je n'ai point interroge les jongleurs : nous devons remplir les devoirs que nous enseigne la vertu, sans rechercher curieusement les secrets de la Providence. Il est une sorte de sagesse inquiete et de prudence coupable que le ciel punit." Here, as in Anhelli, great emphasis is laid on the personal purity of the victim. The interest and charm of Anhelli, however, lie not so much in the intellectual opinions and theories held by Slowacki as in the poetical imagery with which he clothes them, or rather which he allows to flutter about and conceal them. Slowacki s poetry was the culmination of the romantic spirit in Polish literature. Though Slowacki was profoundly influenced by Byron, of whom he is the chief disciple in Poland, he was by temperament far more akin to Shelley. In Anhelli, as in Prometheus Unbound, there is a firm underlying idea, and this poem, like Shelley's, would be of far less worth if it lacked its intellectual substructure; but in each case the idea is hidden rather than illustrated by the wealth of ornament heaped about it. To trace the idea in plain prose may for some readers even spoil the impression of the poem. So Shelley's Cloud, to make our illustration almost grotesque, contains reasonably exact meteorological information, but it would be absurd to call it didactic poetry; its imagery, "of imagination all compact", gives it poetic beauty. Anhelli deals with the destinies of Poland, but as an imaginative fantasy it should appeal even to readers who know little of Poland and have only a distant interest in its destiny. Its atmosphere is symbolic rather than allegorical ; Slowacki's method was not so much to formulate a moral and historical theory and then devise a story that should illustrate it, as to create poetic images that prove capable of symbolic interpretation, sometimes definite, sometimes vague and indistinct. The scene of Anhelli is laid among Polish exiles in Siberia. For his description of Siberia and its inhabitants Slowacki, who had never been in the country, drew somewhat on literary sources, but his picture has few traits of reality. His Siberia is a snowy waste, suggested to him mainly by the view of Mont Blanc from the window of his boarding-house in Geneva. The action of the poem takes place mostly under a sky lighted only by the stars or by the flickering aurora borealis. This Siberia is but a symbol of the state of the Polish people, and above all of the Polish exiles, whether they be in Siberia or in France. It is noteworthy that only three Polish names occur in the poem, and these (Kimbar, Lach, and Piast, all in minor positions) are such as do not clash with the fanciful names of the main characters, Anhelli, Eloe, and Ellenai, which may have been modelled on the equally fanciful name of Elsinoe, the heroine of the drama Iridion, by Slowacki's friend Krasinski. Thus Slowacki throughout his work carefully avoids any pretence at realism. To the Polish exiles comes a "Shaman", the king and "medicine man" of the Siberian aborigines. He apparently symbolizes reason, intelligence, perhaps the wisdom acquired by the Poles of olden times through their historical experience, now reawakened in them in consequence of their sufferings. He chooses among the exiles a sinless youth, Anhelli, the angel-hero, to whom he will show the sufferings of the Polish nation, and through whom the nation shall be redeemed. The personality of Anhelli represents that of Slowacki himself. The exiles now living, including even Anhelli, must perish, but through them hope shall pass to future generations. The Shaman guides Anhelli through the wastes and the mines of Siberia, showing him the torments endured by the Poles, as Virgil showed Dante the torments of mankind in Hell. The exiles in the wastes suggest the Polish emigrants in Western Europe, those in the mines represent the actual sufferers in Siberia. There follows a picture of the quarrels and the folly of the exiles, who destroy themselves in their misery. Finally, they murder the Shaman, their friend and helper. Anhelli is left alone, consoled only by the angel Eloe, the symbol of pity, and by the repentant criminal Ellenai, his "sister", the symbol of love. With Ellenai he wanders into the totally uninhabited deserts of the north. She dies and he remains in utter solitude. Meanwhile the Siberian exiles, that is, the present generation of Poles, have wholly perished. Two angels inform Anhelli of their destruction. They foretell to Anhelli his own death, but are forbidden to tell him of the future of his people. Anhelli dies; the angel Eloe broods over his grave. A knight comes riding from the north, proclaiming the resurrection of the nations, and bidding strong men arise from their graves. But Eloe forbids him to waken Anhelli. Anhelli "was destined for a sacrifice, even a sacrifice of the heart" ; he is not fit to be a warrior : he must sleep, not even knowing whether his sacrifice has been effective. Literary influences are prominent in Anhelli, as they are in all Slowacki's poems. As might be expected from a work written in the Holy Land, and after earnest reading of the Bible, a Biblical atmosphere prevails. The idea of priest (Shaman) and victim (Anhelli) is of the Old Testament; that of teacher (Shaman) and disciple (Anhelli), of the New Testament. The Shaman is a distant reflection of Moses; Anhelli, of Christ Himself. The influence of Dante is also important. Slowacki had once planned and begun to write a poem to be composed in terza rima, like The Divine Comedy, in which Dante should guide him through the Polish Hell. The fundamental conception of Anhelli is the same, though the form of the work is altered. Certain details are also borrowed from Dante. Eloe, the angel of pity, is taken from the poem Eloa of Alfred de Vigny, though she also represents in certain ways Ludwika Sniadecka, whom Slowacki had loved in his early years. The conception of Anhelli as a poet victim may also be inspired by Vigny. To quote Kleiner "The sacrifice of Anhelli is of a somewhat different sort from the typical religious sacrifice. It is no ordinary martyrdom. It is a boundless absorption of his own woes and those of others, then an isolation not brightened even by hope, and finally a death before the day on which his ideals shall begin to be realized and the worth of his life shall be made plain. "This is a special sacrifice, the tragedy of the poet, of whom Alfred de Vigny has said that he must be solitary and unfortunate, that he has a curse on his life and a blessing only on his name, that he must cherish no hope during his lifetime. "The Docteur-Noir of Stello . . . thus applies to the poet the words of Christ, that His Kingdom is not of this world : `Votre royaume n'est pas de ce monde sur lequel vos yeux sont ouverts, mais de celui qui sera quand vos yeux seront fermes"' (Stello, ch. 40). For the suggestion of the episode of Ellenai Slowacki seems to have been indebted to Le mie prigioni (My Prisons), by Silvio Pellico, rather than as has hitherto been supposed to the story of Mary Magdalen in the Gospels. In his prison at Milan, Pellico was cheered by the singing of his neighbour Maddalena, a woman whom he regards as a penitent sinner; later, in his prison at Venice, he was comforted by the compassionate girl Zanze, daughter of his jailer. Verbal resemblances are sufficient to show that Slowacki had read Pellico's book with attention. Yet Ellenai may also owe something to Eglantine Pattey, "the daughter of the keeper of the boarding-house in which Slowacki lived in Geneva. She loved the poet with the same quiet, shrinking love with which Ellenai loves Anhelli, and this love consoled the poet in his longing for his native land, just as the love of Ellenai consoled Anhelli" (Ujejski). Thus in Ellenai, as in Eloe, Slowacki may have blended his reading with his personal experience. Some minor debts to preceding authors are noted in the commentary to the present translation. In 1839, writing to his friend Gaszyfiski concerning a projected French translation of Anhelli, Slowacki explains that such a version would require an introduction and extensive notes "The notes should be an interpretation of the work. Anhelli, like Dante, requires a commentary, for I purposely wrote it with concision and with great economy of detail. Therefore if the reader does not work with his imagination on every phrase of Anhelli, everything in it will be pale; for the literature of the present day is defective through its extreme fondness for enlarging on every point and bestrewing everything with false diamonds. Hence the imaginations of readers have gone lame, and are lazy." The poet then explains certain historical and personal references in the poem, but admits that some of them are by no means exact. Anhelli, however, is far from being a mosaic of suggestions from other writers, and of cryptic allusions. Like Shakespeare and many other great poets, Slowacki borrowed from his reading whatever pleased him. Like all great poets, he transformed by his own individuality whatever he borrowed, and fused all the elements of his work into an harmonious whole. Slowacki's friend and brother poet Krasinski, on hearing of his death, wrote that his grave should be marked with the inscription, To the Author of Anhelli: "This alone will suffice to secure his fame to future generations." And in truth, despite its obscurity, Anhelli has already charmed three generations of Poles by its imaginative suggestiveness. Some portion of its beauty may remain even in a translation. G. R. NOYES | |