Lesmyan, Boleslav

Grandson of the publisher Bernard Lesman (1815–1878, Polish ), great-grandson of the writer Anthony Eisenbaum (1771–1852, Polish ). Since 1881 he lived in Kiev . In 1895, with the patronage of his older cousin, the poet Anthony Lange , he made his debut with the poem Sextina in the magazine Wędrowiec (Wanderer), then was published in minor magazines, since respectable publications rejected his works. In 1896, after graduating from high school, he entered the Faculty of Law of Kiev University of St. Vladimir . In 1897, the first publication appeared, signed by the pseudonym Lesgian proposed by Lange. In 1898 he was awarded at the sonnet competition of the prestigious Krakow magazine «ycie . He visited literary salons , traveled around Ukraine, participated in secret patriotic circles of Polish students; spent several weeks in prison for the recitation of freedom-loving verses.

In 1901, after graduation, he moved to Warsaw. He worked as an assistant legal adviser on the railway. Under the auspices of Lange entered the capital's literary circles.

In October 1903 he arrived in Paris. He lived from hand to mouth in cheap guest houses . Translated poems by P. Verlaine , E. Verharn , short stories by Edgar Allan Poe ; to make money anonymously published translations in magazines. In the summer of 1904 he met the artist Zofia Khylinskaya ( Polish ), a year later they got married; in September 1905, they had a daughter, Maria Ludwika. He met with Russian Symbolists - K. Balmont , D. Merezhkovsky , Z. Gippius , A. Bely , V. Khodasevich .

At the end of 1906 he returned to Poland. In 1906-1907, in the magazines Libra , Golden Fleece and Pass , cycles of his Russian poems appeared. In 1908, the second daughter was born in the family - Wanda. In 1909-1913 he published reviews of literary and theatrical novelties in Novaya Gazeta.

From the end of 1911 to the fall of 1914 He lived with his family in Italy and France. Upon his return to Poland with the outbreak of World War I, he temporarily transferred his daughters to raising friends and relatives. In 1916, at the invitation of Janusz Orlinsky, he moved to Lodz , where he worked as the literary director of the Polish Theater . In the spring of 1917 he returned to Warsaw.

On August 2, 1918, under the patronage of his wife’s relatives, he was appointed notary public in Hrubieszow . In 1922 he was transferred to the mortgage department of the magistrates' court in Zamosc as a senior county notary, in 1923 he was appointed senior notary.

In 1929, the audit uncovered a waste of 30,000 zlotys, which arose due to the oversight of Lesmyan due to the machinations of his clerk, who went on the run. Lesmyan was threatened with a prison; he was forced to sell his wife’s jewelry and the previously acquired land in Warsaw, to borrow, from which he did not get out until the end of his life.

In the fall of 1932, he suffered a severe heart attack . The poet Kazimierz Vezhynsky , thanks to connections in the government, managed to write off most of the embezzlement incriminated to Lesmyan.

In 1934 he was elected a member of the Polish Academy of Literature with a lifetime cash benefit. In 1935, of his own free will, resigned and moved with his family to Warsaw.

Cousin - writer Jan Bzhekhva . Uncle - Anthony Lange .

One of the most uncharacteristic and original authors of the early XX century . Literary critic Pyotr Lopushansky conditionally divided Lesmyan’s career into four periods ^[3] :

1. Symbolist - Impressionistic (1895-1901)
2. Parnassian (1901-1910)
3. discovery and crystallization of his own poetics: vitalism , the influence of Bergson's ideas (1910-1928)
4. existentialism (1929-1937)

In Lesmyan’s works, things, thoughts, phenomena begin to live their own lives, the real world gradually dissolves into the mythical. On the basis of Slavic myths he created his own, fantastic landscape.

The works of Lesmyan from Russian into Polish were translated by Jerzy Fitzowski .

Among the translators of Lesmyan are Anatoly Geleskul , Gennady Zeldovich , Boris Pasternak , Sergey Petrov , Maria Petrov , David Samoilov , Boris Slutsky , Oleg Khaslavsky , Alexey Tsvetkov , Sergey Shorgin .

• "Garden at the Crossroads" ( 1912 )
• The Meadow ( 1920 )
• "Cold Drinking" ( 1936 )
• "Forest Action" (published posthumously, 1938 )

• Poems. M .: Fiction, 1971.
• A deserted ballad, or Words for a song without words. M .: Ripol-Classic; Wahazar, 2006.
• Belated Recognition / Per. G. Zeldovich. M .: Aquarius, 2014.

• Trznadel J. Twórczość Leśmiana. Warszawa: PIW, 1964
• Studia about Leśmianie. Warszawa, 1971
• Nyczek T. Bolesław Leśmian. Kraków: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, 1976
• Rymkiewicz JM Leśmian: encyklopedia. Warszawa: Sic !, 2001
• Łopuszański P. Bolesław Leśmian: marzyciel nad przepaścią. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Książkowe “Twój Styl”, 2006

• Page in the Journal Hall