Pan Tadeusz quotes

… first meeting in a chamber, a second at table—Valuable instructions of the Judge concerning politeness—The Podkomorzy’s political views on fashions—The beginning of the quarrel of Kusy and Sokol—The Wojski’s sorrow—The last Wozny of the tribunal—A glance over the contemporary political situation in Lithuania and Europe.

Litva! my country, like art thou to health, For how to prize thee he alone can tell Who has lost thee.

I behold thy beauty now In full adornment, and I sing of it Because I long for thee. O holy Virgin! Thou, who defendest Czenstochowa bright, And shinest in the Ostra Gate, who shieldest The castled town of Nowogrodek with Its faithful people;

She saw, And laughed, and clapped her hands; then from the wall She flew like a white bird, and glided o’er The garden, over beds and over flowers, And on a plank against the chamber-wall, Before the traveller marked it, through the window

She darted, shining, sudden, silent, light, Like to a moonbeam.

Singing, she caught up The frock, and ran towards the mirror. Then She first perceived the youth, and from her hands The garment fell, and pale she grew with fright And wonder.

Thus decency commands. None held discourse Of precedence, none ranked the men and women, But each kept order due despite himself; For in his house the Judge old customs kept, And never suffered any lack respect For age, for office, birth, or intellect.

’Tis by such order, said he, houses flourish, And nations; by its fall they come to ruin.

The household and the servants thus were used To order, and the guest but lately come, Kinsman or stranger, all who visited The Judge, received those customs, whereof all Around was redolent.

So at last, Soon as the fashion changed, this Marquis took Title of Democrat; at length with change Of fashion, when Napoleon reigned, the Democrat Arrived from Paris as a Baron. Had he Lived longer, with some other alteration, He had rebaptized himself a Democrat.

For Paris glories in repeated change Of fashion, and in what the French invent The Pole delights.

“Praise be to God that now If our young men beyond the frontier pass, ’Tis not to seek for dress, or legislation In shops of booksellers, or eloquence To learn in Paris cafés.

In age perhaps was greatest difference; The gardening nymph had seemed a little maid; This lady was a woman grown in years.

But youth for beauty’s birth certificate Doth never ask; all women to young men Seem young, to boys each beauty doth appear Of their own age, and to the innocent Will every one beloved appear a maid.

Though Thaddeus numbered well-nigh twenty years, And had from childhood dwelt in Wilna’s town, He had a priest as tutor, who restrained him, In strictest bonds of ancient discipline. But Thaddeus from his parents had derived A pure heart, lively spirit, innocent soul;

for now From his first shyness he was quite restored; And gazed with bolder glance, wherein burned fire.

And likewise she gazed, so the four eyes burned Towards each other, bright as Advent candles.

She first began discourse with him in French: He came from town, from school, so of new books, Of authors, his opinion she inquired, And from such sentence led new questions on.

Of the whole kennel but two greyhounds now Remained, and yet of that one they denied The glory! Near he drew, and leisurely His favourite stroking, answered with a smile, And ’twas a venomed smile: “

A tailless greyhound Is like a nobleman without an office.

Likewise the tail much helps the dog in running: You, sir, a crop-tail hold as proof of goodness, We’ll ask your aunt’s opinion for the rest.

The fruit-trees, set in rows, did shadow o’er The broad fields; ’neath the trees the garden beds.

The cabbage here, its bald and hoary pate Low bending, seems to meditate upon The fate of vegetables

; the slim bean, Weeping its pods into the tresses of The carrot green, did turn a thousand eyes Upon it; there the Indian corn upraised Its golden plume;

White stalks of poppies tower further on; Thou thinkest, swarms of butterflies thereon Are sitting, fluttering their wings, whose lustre Of precious gems doth change with rainbow tints. With lively colours of much variousness The poppy lures the eye. Among the flowers

Like the full moon among the lesser stars, A sunflower, with its round, large, burning face, From east to west twists, following the sun.

Beneath the hedge long, narrow, convex hillocks, Without or trees, or flowers, or bushes, made A garden there for cucumbers; they grew Luxuriantly, with their large, wide leaves, Covering the beds, like carpet with deep folds.

they grew Luxuriantly, with their large, wide leaves, Covering the beds, like carpet with deep folds. Among them walked a damsel, clothed in white, Plunging in green luxuriance to her knees. Down-bending in the furrows from the beds,

It seemed she walked not, but she swam through leaves, While bathing in their colour.

She had veiled Her head with a straw hat, and from her brow Two rosy ribbons waved, and some bright curls Of loose dishevelled tresses. In her hand She held a basket;

For in Poland, In a well-ordered house, by ancient custom, There is a woman, whose especial labour Is to make coffee, called the kawiarka. She brings from town, or from the barges chooses The finest coffee-beans, and secrets knows

How to prepare a drink, which has the blackness Of coal, transparency of amber, odour Of Mocha, and is thick as honey flows.

Well know we what to coffee is good cream; This is not in the country hard to get.

They chose them judges, and laid pledges down. Oginski lost a hundred hides of forest About a wolf! badger cost some hamlets To Niesiolowski! And you, gentlemen, Follow the old example, and decide Your quarrel, even though by lesser pledge,

For words are wind; word quarrels ne’er have end; Pity to dry up lips about a hare.

So choose ye judges first to arbitrate, And what they shall decree, religiously Subscribe. I will entreat the Judge that he Will not forbid the pricker even to Ride over wheat. I’ll wager that I shall Obtain this grace from him.”

or can that much-praised cypress, Long, thin, and lean? It does not seem the tree Of sadness, but of weariness. They say That it looks very sad upon a grave.

’Tis like a German lackey in court mourning, Who dares not lift his hands, or turn his head, Lest he should sin against court etiquette.

“Is not our honest birch-tree fairer far, Like peasant-woman weeping for her son, Or widow for her husband; wringing hands, While the long streams of her dishevelled hair Fall o’er her shoulders down unto the ground?

“

Is not our honest birch-tree fairer far, Like peasant-woman weeping for her son, Or widow for her husband

; wringing hands, While the long streams of her dishevelled hair Fall o’er her shoulders down unto the ground? Mute with her sorrow, yet how speakingly Her form seems sobbing.

they have mingled; now Masts spring up from their necks, and from their manes Broad sails.

The troop is changed into a ship, That proudly sails on, silently and slow, Across the plain of heaven’s blue expanse.

”

Are not wind And storm a hundred times more beautiful? With us it is enough to raise one’s head! How many sights, how many scenes and pictures, Even in the very changing of the clouds; For every cloud is different. For instance

The autumn cloud crawls like a lazy tortoise, Heavy with rain

, and from the sky to earth Lets down long streamers, like dishevelled hair. They are floods of rain. A hail-cloud with the wind, Flies swift like a balloon, round, darkly blue, Midmost it shineth yellow; a great murmur Is heard around.

Then to their ears Tormenting, loud the bell resounded, and The stilly wood at once was full of shouts And noise. The Count said in a solemn voice, Nodding his head, “

Thus fate is used to end All things on earth by ringing of a bell.

The calculations of great minds, and all Imagination’s plans, and innocent Pastimes, and friendship’s pleasures; the outpouring Of tender hearts. When far off roars the bronze, All is confused, and broken off, and troubled, And vanishes!”

are you aware, good sir? Why, the Litvanian nobles will to horse, And draw their sabres, at that very time When none are left to fight with; and Napoleon, Having defeated all his foes alone, Will say, ‘I’ll do without you, who are you?’

Thus it is not enough to expect a guest, Nor to invite him either; one must gather The household, and the tables must be laid.

But ere the festival the house must be Cleansed of its sweepings. I repeat it, children, Sweep, sweep the house clean.” Thereon followed silence; Then voices in the crowd, “How cleanse our house? We will do all things; we for all are ready.

ceaselessly He spurred the horse, and flogged it. Much this sight Troubled the Bernardine; so hastened he After the young man forth with rapid steps, Towards the great forest, which, as far as eye Could follow, blackened all the horizon’s verge.

Who the abysmal regions has explored Of the Litvanian forests, to the very Centre, the inner kernel of the woodlands?

The fisher coasting round the shore, scarce visits The deep seas; so the sportsman hovers round The bed of the Litvanian forests; yet He knows them scarcely on the outer side, Their form, their countenance;

’Tis said that thither in the capital, Among the beasts good customs are preserved, Because they rule themselves, yet uncorrupt By civilising influence of man. They know no laws of property, which vex Our world, nor duels know, or warlike arts.

And as the fathers dwelt in Paradise, So live to-day their children, wild and tame, In love and concord.

Never bites or gores The one the other. Should a man e’en enter, He might, although unarmed, in safety pass Among the beasts;

they would upon him gaze, With that same wonder, as upon the last And sixth day of creation their first fathers, Who dwelt within the garden, looked on Adam, Before they quarrelled with him.

Happily No man shall ever stray unto this place, For Difficulty, Care, and Death prevent him.

Sometimes alone have mastiffs, hot in chase, Entered unguardedly ’mid marshes, moss, Ravines, and, wounded by their inner horror, Fled back, loud whining, with distracted looks; And by their master’s hand though long caressed, Yet mad with fear still tremble at his feet.

And by their master’s hand though long caressed, Yet mad with fear still tremble at his feet. These central wastes, to mankind all unknown, The hunters in their tongue call Mateczniki.

Thou foolish bear! if thou hadst stayed at home, In the Matecznik, never would the Wojski Have heard of thee

; but whether the sweet smell Of beehives lured thee, or thou wert possessed By a desire unto the ripened barley, Thou camest forth unto the forest’s verge, Where thinner grows the wood, and there at once The forester did thine existence track;

and besides, he is Obliged to Telimena. Men, while young, Though changing in their thoughts, are in emotions Far steadier than their grandsires; they possess A conscience.

Simple is a young man’s heart, And maidenlike, and long it will retain For love’s first sweetness gratitude

, and will Both welcome joy, and bid farewell to it With pleasure, like a modest banquet shared With friends; the ancient debauchee alone, Whose entrails are already scorched, doth loathe That drink wherewith he drenched him to excess.

By day he sought for conversation; even By night he must be counting o’er his beads, Or telling fables. Therefore was he aye A deadly enemy unto the pipe, Invented by the Germans to convert us To foreigners; he always used to say,

“Make Poland dumb, ’tis making Poland German.”

The old man, having passed an age in noise, In noise desired to rest. And silence woke him From slumber. Millers thus are lulled to sleep By rattle of their mill-wheels;

Nor could his priests by power divine restore him, Nor by the power of Belzebub. I call Him a bold fellow, who will sprinkle. Buchman, Your speech, good sir, was very eloquent,

But eloquence is froth and hum.

To sprinkle, That’s the chief thing.” “Just so, just so,” hissed forth, Rubbing both hands together, Bartek, named Razor, from Matthew to the Baptist running, Like shuttle thrown from one side of a loom Across its length unto the further side.

Heaven forbid that it were truth! It is yourselves would summon him to law, But he seeks concord with you. Freely he Doth yield his own; he pays the mark beside. He has a suit against the Count—what then?

They both are rich; let lord contend with lord.

What’s that to us? The Judge a tyrant! He Did first forbid the peasant to bow down To earth before him, saying that was sin. Not seldom at his house a company Of peasants (I myself have seen) sit down With him at table.

Yet this Sophia, so fair, So sweet, his uncle had to him betrothed her; She should have been his wife, if Satan still, Entangling him from sin in fresher sin, In falsehood after falsehood, had at last Left him with laughter, chidden, scorned by all.

He had wasted all his future in two days!

Alas! this was the just reward of crime!

But gradually they began to sleep, And yawn; eye is extinguished after eye, And all the assembly nods; each where he sat Falls down; the one falls with a dish, the other Over a kettle, one by a beef quarter.

Thus sleep, death’s brother, has the victors vanquished.

Truly, nought Can kindle tenderness within the heart, As when heart parts from heart. Time is like wind, It but extinguishes a feeble light; A great fire flames but stronger from the wind.

My heart can love more strongly from afar.

Soplica, I have held thee for a rival, And this mistake of our sad variance, Which forced me to draw sword on you, one cause Has been.

If true it is thou art a cloistered priest,

Thy frock alone protects thee from the Penknife.

Farewell, no more I’ll tarry on your threshold. Let us be quits, and leave to Heaven the rest.”

Night now had fled, And through the milky heaven did course the first Bright, rosy sunbeams. Through the window-panes They fell like diamond arrows. On the couch They shone reflected from the sick man’s head, And dressed in gold his brow and countenance,

That like a saint he shone in fiery crown.

spring-time of beauty! O spring! I, who beheld thee blossoming With corn and grass, and gleaming all with men, Fruitful in doings, pregnant thou with hope, I see thee yet, fair phantom of a dream!— In slavery born, chained yet in infancy,

I had but one such spring-time in my life!

Right by the high-road Soplicowo lay, Whereby two leaders marched from Niemen’s side, Prince Joseph and Jerome, Westphalia’s King. They had already conquered part of Litva, From Grodno unto Slonim, when the King Commanded three days’ halt to breathe the troops.

Thence were so many Lithuanian suits With the Crusaders, till Jagellon won. Thence, to conclude, pendebat long before The acts, that famous lawsuit of the Rymszas With the Dominicans, whence rose the proverb, ‘The Lord is greater than Pan Rymsza.’ But

I’ll warrant, mead is better than the Penknife.

” This saying, he clinked his goblet with the Klucznik’s.

“True, true,” replied Gervasy, greatly moved; “Wondrous have been the fortunes of our Crown, And of our Litva! Truly, like two consorts,

Heaven did unite them, and the devil part.

To Heaven his own, and to the devil his. Ah! brother dear, Protasy, that our eyes Should see this! that these dwellers of the Crown Salute us! I served with them years ago, I well remember they were brave Confederates.

Hitherto he had worn The Polish costume, but now Telimena, His future wife, obliged him by a clause Of marriage-contract to renounce the kontusz. And so the Regent willy-nilly dressed Himself in French costume. Well might be seen

The frac had taken half his soul away.

He stepped as he a stick had swallowed, straight, Unmoving, like a crane; he dared not look To right or left; he came with stately mien, But from his mien one saw he suffered tortures.

“Ha!” Matthew said, “I see what here is doing. But, sir, two eagles may not nest together.

Lords’ favour, Hetman, rides on piebald horse.

The Emperor’s a great warrior, much is there To talk of. I remember the Pulawskis, My friends, were used to say about Dumourier,— For Poland there must be a Polish hero, No Frenchman, nor Italian, but a Piast;

eternally They gaze upon each other, and for aye Haste by the shortest way each other toward, But never can approach”—“Enough of this,” She interrupted; “I am not a planet!

For Heaven’s sake enough, Count! I am a woman.

I know the rest already. Cease to talk To me of things not here nor there.