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.]] ''Pan Tadeusz'', the full title in by the Polish poet, writer and philosopher Adam Mickiewicz . ''Pan Tadeusz'' translates into English as "Sir Thaddeus." The book was first published in June 1834 in Paris , and is considered by many to be the last great Epic Poem in European Literature . ''Pan Tadeusz'' is recognized as the National Epic of Poland . It is a compulsory reading in Polish schools, and it is the most read book in the country. Pan Tadeusz (film) based on the poem was made in 1999 by Andrzej Wajda . CONTENT The story takes place over the course of five days in 1811 and one day in 1812 at a point in Polish history, when Poland-Lithuania had already been divided between Russia , Prussia , and Austria (see Partitions Of Poland ) and disappeared from the political map of Europe, although Napoleon had established the Duchy Of Warsaw in the Prussian partition in 1807 . The place is situated within the Russian partition, in the Lithuania n village of Soplicowo . ''Pan Tadeusz'' recounts the story of two feuding noble families, and the love between Tadeusz Soplica (the title character) of one family, and Zosia of the other. Another subplot involves a spontaneous revolt of the local inhabitants against the occupying Russian garrison. Since Mickiewicz published his poem as an exile in Paris, he was free of the Russian censors still occupying his homeland in his time. FAME Numerous quotations from ''Pan Tadeusz'' are known by heart by nearly every Pole, above all its opening lines:
:O Lithuania, my country, thou :Art like good health; I never knew till now :How precious, till I lost thee. ::(translation by Kenneth R. Mackenzie ) :Lithuania, my country! You are as good health: :How much one should prize you, he only can tell :Who has lost you. ::(translation by Marcel Weyland ) The fact, that the Polish national poem begins with words "O Lithuania", is an interesting paradox. The controversy largely stems from the fact that the 19th Century concept of Nationality had not yet been developed in his time and the term " Lithuania " - as used by Mickiewicz - had a much broader geographic extent. Mickiewicz had been brought up in the culture of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth , a multicultural state that had encompassed most of what today are the separate countries of Poland , Lithuania , Belarus and Ukraine . He is often regarded by Lithuanians to be of Lithuanian origin. Belarusians proclaim Mickiewicz to be one of them. As a matter of fact Mickiewicz was born on the territory of contemporary Belarus.
FILM ADAPTATIONS The first film version of the poem was produced in 1928. Andrzej Wajda film version made in 1999 was a great success in Poland. By the time the film was released on video and DVD , one third of the Polish audience had seen it in cinemas. OTHER TRANSLATIONS Maude Ashurst Biggs published "Master Thaddeus" in 1885 in London, Watson Kirkconnell "Sir Thaddeus" in 1962. George Rapall Noyes published the poem in 1917 in prose. At least ''Book Four'' was published in 2000 by Christopher Adam Zakrzewski. A full version translation by Marcel Weyland, in the original metre, was published in Sydney in 2004, London and New York in 2005. BELARUS The word ''Lithuania'' is used in the poem to mean the Grand Duchy Of Lithuania , not contemporary Lithuania . Soplicowo is situated in ethnic Belarus, where the Szlachta spoke the local dialect of Polish and peasants spoke Belorussian . Settlers from Poland are identified in ''Pan Tadeusz'' as foreigners and called ''Mazur''. The peasants don't speak in the poem, except in the roadside inn scene in ''Book 4''. The image of ''Lithuania'' in ''Pan Tadeusz'' might have been influenced by Mickiewicz's trip in 1831 to the rich Grand Duchy Of Poznań , where the poet visited local nobles. TRIVIA
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