| date: 22.12.2024 | current local time in Toruń: |  |
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 Chopin’s letters sent from Szafarnia to his parents between 1824-1825, under the title of ‘Kuryer Szafarski’ (modeled on the Warsaw periodical, the ‘Kuryer Warszawski’), beside the letters to his school friends, constitute a valuable source of information referring to his holiday experience. They enable deeper understanding of the family life on Polish manors and mansions and provide descriptions of typical reality and culture of the early 19th-century Polish countryside.The wit and naturalness of his correspondence earned Henryk Sienkiewicz’s admiration, who in 1882 described his letters as "real literary jewels". They provide a detailed and vivid descriptions of young Frederic in private, as a patient and vacationer, who arrived in Szafarnia mainly to rest after the burden of studies and regenerate his health. In a letter of 10 August 1824 he wrote: God keeps me in good health, while I am making the most of my time here. I do not read and I do not write, but […] take advantage of the great outdoors […]. I eat heartily and need nothing to satisfy my thin stomach, which has already started to grow fat […]. I take pills regularly and drink half the decanter of tisane without a break every day. I drink nothing with meals, except for a little wine, and eat the ripest fruits approved by Miss Ludwika. There is no doubt the 14-year-old editor modeled his paper on the ‘Warsaw Courier’. He forgot nothing – the title was capitalized, the news divided into the ‘home’ (local, from Szafarnia) and the ‘world’ news (from behind the boundary strip), and the role of a censor – as no newspaper was allowed to be published without the Russian censorship - was given to Miss Ludwika Dziewanowska. “Please, Mr Censor, don't tie up my tongue”, - he wrote following her refusal to let through a message which was too frivolous for her liking. The exact number of the Courier issues remains unknown, yet there are four surviving copies today. Its editor and reporter rolled into one described a relatively large number of ‘home’ and ‘world’ events in each subsequent issue. Thus we can learn that in Duchnik ‘a wolf ate a sheep for diner’, in Białkowo ‘a dog fought with a cat over a piece of meat’, and in Golub ‘a foreign pig was spotted’. From the ‘home news’ column we learn that ‘Mr. Pichon appeared at the musical assembly in Szafarnia, at which several persons were present, big and little.’ Obviously, ‘Mr Pichon’ was a nickname Chopin invented for himself, which included a pun: the letters in his name were rearranged to form a word that in Polish means ‘they write’ (piszą). Moreover, the very word pichon denotes "kiddie" in French. In the ‘world news’ column he reported that a musical event called "okrężne" (circular) took place in Obrowo. It was a sort of folk festival with a general feast and dance, following circling the fields to gather the crops. In a letter to his parents of 26 August 1825 he included a detailed description of the festivity: Sitting at dinner and finishing the last course, we heard distant voices of false debaters, i.e. those of old crones gaggling through their noses and those of young girls shrieking terribly with the bigger part of their mouths, followed by the sound of an alto violin with three strings after each stanza, coming from the back. [...] Forming a column in front of the very manor, they sung all stanzas, putting a black mark on everybody. […] Jumps, waltz and oberek (a lively Polish dance) ensued and I, to encourage the quiet farmhands prancing in the same place, started waltzing first with Miss Tekla [Borzewska], and finally with Miss Dziewanowska. Later, however, everybody became animated to the hilt, as several dancing couples collapsed [...]. The Courier included also of a number of folk songs from the repertoire of the female artists taking part in the festival: Before the manor ducks in the mud: Our lady in gold is clad. Before the manor there is a line: When our master is going to dive. Before the manor a hose is hung: Miss Maryanna will take the plunge. Before the manor there is a cap: When our maid is a dope. |
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