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Jan Wiktor Sienkiewicz "Quo vadis?" 85 years from the death of Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846-1916)
The anniversary in Poland has give the occasion to the "Sienkiewicz’s Year", that was celebrated in 1996, in the finality of the memory and of the approach to the figure and to the rich heritage of the writer lived by the author of the written masterpieces "so that the Polishes encourage each other". During this year the Poland will wait for the new polish film "Quo vadis?" (recorded for Jerzy Kawalerowicz). How it will be? We will see it at the end of the year. It will not certainly exaggerated to affirm that each inhabitant of the country on the river Vistola, included the ones of the younger generation, knows the name of Henryk Sienkiewicz and immediately associates him to the Polish and world prose, also author of historical romance included in the series "Trilogy" that gives a picturesque image of the life and of the historical events in XVII century Poland; of "Tectonic Cavaliers" in which is described the fight of the great Poland against the Ordine dei Cavalieri Teutonici; of "Janko Muzykant"("John the Musician") and of "Bartek Zwyciezca" ("Bartek the Winner") romance on the countrymen fate; "Rodzina Polanieckich" ("The Polaniecki") that presents the reality of a Polish aristocratic family, contemporary to the writer, and first of all of "Quo Vadis?", the romance set at the time of Nerone, a suggestive vision of the end of the Roman Empire. This romance has won in 1905 the first Nobel prize in the history of Polish literature. With this romance the Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz begun to be known, probably better than our contemporary, among the "older generations of Italian readers". "Quo vadis?" if I am not wrong, has been in the list of the compulsory books in Italian schools. Who was that Enrico Sienkiewicz, in the Italian way, that conquered the world-wide fame instead of writing historical romance about the Polish Nation, with a work that presents the reality of the early Christianity in the Ancient Rome? How was that writer from the North, coming from the "far lands" as the Italians would say, that in his "Quo Vadis?" was able to create a perfect historical picture, and the Christianity plenty of humility and faith; among the egoism and charity; among the provocative richness of the Palace of Caesar and the quietness of the Catacombs? Henryk Sienkiewicz was born in the land of Poland the 5th of May 1846, at the family court in the town called Wola Okrzejska, belonging to the grandfather from mother side. I use the expression of land of Poland to remind to the Italian reader that since the last (third in order) division of Poland done by Germany, Austria and Russia, in 1795 until the end of the first World War in 1918 Poland has not been existing on the World Map. For many other Polish and also for Sienkiewicz the born place was the place were used to know the real facts of their families and of their own Nation. Here, from the parents, grandparents, cousins he used to receive lessons about the perennial war of Poland against Germans, Tartars, Teutonic Cavaliers, Swedish, Russians or Prussians to preserve its own independence, freedom and national existence. The fight for independence had involved also the closer relatives of Sienkiewicz. In 1871 in France, near Orleans, fighting with Garibaldi died the older brother of Henryk, Kazimierz Sienkiewicz. The writer knew very well the prize many Polish families had to pay for the hope of conquering their freedom again. Since his younger age and when he used to work as personal teacher, in the noble families, in the year 1866, Henryk Sienkiewicz fed up with algebra and logarithms, took the State exam in the IV of the Warsaw Ginnasium and had to choose to continue in studying what his mother would say could assure him to live on. Firstly, in the Central School of Warsaw he enrolled in the Law department, then medicine, but at the end he graduated in literature his real dream. "The Letters - as he was used to say - is the discipline almost for me: the only things needed are memory and falseness, and I think to have both of them." The "profession" that Sienkiewicz started was not the one dreamt by his mother at the beginning. While he was student in Warsaw, Henrik Sienkiewicz begun to write in the popular magazines like "Przeglad Tygodniowy" ("Weekly News"), and "Tygodnik Ilustrowany" ("The weekly illustrated"), becoming shortly also a well known writer of articles of the "Gazeta Polska" and "Czas" ("The Time") using the pseudonym of "Litwos". After the publishing of his first romance "Na marne" ("In vane"), begun a series of episodes on the story of the main characters of his "Trilogy": "Potop", "Ogniem i mieczem", and "Pan Wołodyjowski". These became very soon a very popular reading in Poland to give hope of independence and liberation from the national slavery. When adult Henryk Sienkiewicz, wandered around the world looking for artistic inspiration. Lived and travelled a lot in Russia, Germany, France, Swiss, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, India, United States. The country where he travelled always with greatest pleasure, was Italy. He knew everything like in his home town: Milan, Venice, Rome, Naples, Genoa, and Nervi, as much as Warsaw or Cracow. The evident proof of this deep love for the land of Dante, Petrarca, and Michelangelo, is visible in the romance "Na jasnym brzegu", where the main character says:"How couldn't Italy be loved? (…) I think that everyone has two countries: one is its own one, the other is Italy". Italy was the inspiration for the writer for the "Quo Vadis?". In occasion of his several trips to Rome, Henryk Sienkiewicz loved to visit very carefully the Foro Romano. Just before to begin to write the "Quo Vadis?", in the Spring of the year 1893, was staying in the hotel in via Bocca di Leone. His guide was the famous Polish painter Henryk Siemiradzki, that was living in Rome, author of several historical paintings, such as those belonging to the times of Nerone. Siemiradzki, during a walk in Rome, took Henryk Sienkiewicz through the Via Appia Antica on the corner with Via Ardeatina where showed him a small chapel that on the wall had a stone of the old street with a footprint. According to the old historical tradition here Christ would have met Pietro escaping Rome, and was told him "Domine, Quo Vadis?". It was in that occasion - would say the writer years later - that "I had the idea of writing a romance set at that time, and to deepen the history and the atmosphere of the ancient Rome, I was walking around the city on the Tevere river reading Tacito". While watching to the American cinematography reduction of "Quo Vadis?" or reading one of the frequent Italian editions of the romance, few people would guess that the whole work is inspired to the Polish situation contemporary to Sienkiewicz. In the first years of the '900, when "Quo Vadis?" was having - also in France - a great record of popularity, Henryk Sienkiewicz explained to a French critic "Surely the persecutions inflicted to the Polish by the Prussians, and then by the Russians, have sensibly influenced me in writing this book". And to the Prof. Morawski, author of the dissertation "Petronius arbiter" wrote Sienkiewicz: "I have taken my Ligi because they live between the Oder and the Vistola. I liked the idea that Ligia was Polish". While projecting the happy ending of the love of Petronio and Ligia he added: "I will unify the converted , because it much more convenient for me, so that at least in the literature there will be more charity and happiness than in reality. In this way books can be the consolation of the life, like philosophy in the past". That romance that has recorded the highest number of translations, about 50 in total and a Persian version, a Japanese one and an Arabic, was finished in less than three years. The 18th February 1896, this time in Nice, Henryk Sienkiewicz wrote his last words of his "Quo Vadis?". After 9 years from the conclusion of the book, the 10th December 1905 , the Swedish Royal Academy of Stockholm gave to Henryk Sienkiewicz the Nobel prize for the literature. The writer took the prize together with Robert Koch, German bacteriologist, who discovered the TBC bacteria and with the baroness Bertha Von Suttner, who won the Nobel for the Peace. Carl David Af Wirson, Secretary of the Swedish Royal Academy of Stockholm opened his speech for Henryk Sienkiewicz, before giving him the prize with these words: "There are geniuses in every country who absorb the spirit of its Country. They represent the character of that Nation in front of the whole world. They cultivate the memories of the past of the Nation to inspire faith in the future. They are like oaks - their inspiration is deep-rooted in the history, while the leaves blow in the winds of today. This man, from the literature world and from the national spirit is the person that the Academy has decided to prize with the Nobel. He is here with us. He is Henryk Sienkiewicz". We must remember that at that time - in the Swedish Royal Academy of Stockholm - Henryk Sienkiewicz, that like few other people knew how to live for his Poland, while taking for "Quo Vadis?" the first Nobel prize for literature in the history of Polish literature, pronounced his speech like a citizen of a Country that didn't exist on the World Map, but it was still alive. The writer said: "(…) and this honour, precious itself, becomes much more precious for the son of Poland!…it was said death, but this is one of the thousand proves that it is alive!…it was told to be unable to think and to work, but this is a proof that it works!…it was said to be looser, but here it is the proof that she can win!…(…) So, for this record, non for my person - because the Polish land is fertile and we are not poor of very good writers, even better than me - but for the record of my job and the Polish creative forces, I, being Polish, sincerely thank You, Sirs members of the Academy, You, supreme expression of the thought and of the affections of your generous nation." Today, after 85 years from the death of Henryk Sienkiewicz, who would be interested in looking for his presence in Italy, in Rome itself, very easily would find a memorial plaque put in 1966 at the hotel in Via Bocca di Leone (in occasion of the 50° anniversary of Sienkiewicz death) with written as follows: "Henryk Sienkiewicz, Polish writer and patriot, epic narrator of the heroic achievements of his nation, king of the romance "Quo vadis?", Nobel prize for literature, stayed at this hotel in the year 1893, in the 50° anniversary of his death, Italians and Polish erected this plaque". The name of the writes has been given also to one of the famous squares of Villa Borghese. In the Capital there is also another square, taking the writer’s name - in Via Porta Pinciana. During the life of Henryk Sienkiewicz, and mostly today is known that for the writer the Latin phrase "Quo Vadis?" meant a question and an answer at the same time. He had always desired to go, to arrive, to be in "his own most divine nation" - the first of his two nations. He desired to arrive in his free Poland. In 1915, during the first world war, the Polish Nobel announced in Vevery in Swiss "the appeal to the civil countries" urging them to succour Poland for 110 years under foreigner domination. The author of "Quo Vadis?" guiding the Swiss General Committee of Assistance to the Victims of the War in Poland was shouting "Bread and roof for the Polish People, so that it could reach the Spring of Reborn". Henryk Sienkiewicz died the 15th November 1916 at the hotel Du Lac in the Swiss city of Vevery, pronouncing his last words: "I will never be able to see independent Poland again", Poland become free again only in 1918. The mortal remains of Henryk Sienkiewicz, after six years from his death, in the autumn of 1924 were taken via Vienna, Prague, Katowice e Czestochowa in Warsaw. The 27th October of the same year, the mortal remains of the most celebrated Polish writer were laid to rest in the underground of the Cathedral of Warsaw. In this way the Polish genius has reached his free nation, having at the end answer to his question "Quo Vadis?". Jan Wiktor Sienkiewicz |
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