The Polish Emile Verhaeren (Towards the History of Belgian-Polish-Ukrainian Literary Relations)

Abstract

The article deals with the history of reception and translation of the poetry and dramaturgy of the Belgian francophone writer Emile Verhaeren (1855-1916) by Polish littérateurs and translators of the late 19th – first half of the 20th cc. The paper aims at the panoramic coverage of major episodes in the critical reading and interpretation of the literary heritage of the classic of Belgian literature via focusing on the more important underlying issues in his works. Research methodology. The article applies a systematic approach with the use of literary-historical, genetic, and comparative methods. Based on these methods, the paper clarifies the history of some examples of poetry and dramaturgy by Emile Verhaeren entering Polish belles-lettres, and specifies the reasons having prompted the interest in particular literary-artistic texts. Results. The study presents the history of the reading in Polish of particular works from Emile Verhaeren’s poetic and dramaturgic heritage (1896 till the 1930s). Mention is also made about covering the Belgian poet’s works in the pages of Polish periodicals dating to that period, especially its reading by the Ukrainian writers I. Franko, V. Stefanyk, B.-I. Antonych. Scientific novelty. The article is the pioneering, in Ukrainian literary studies, research on the history of the Polish reading into Emile Verhaeren’s poetic and dramaturgy heritage; some elements of this problem having been covered in the monograph study on the Belgian poet’s poetic heritage reverberating in the works by I. Franko, V. Stefanyk, B.-I. Antonych. It is important to emphasize the role played by the Polish periodicals of that time for the Ukrainian writers in Galicia getting to know E. Verhaeren’s writings. Practical value. The article can be a basis for a deeper reading into the heritage of the outstanding Francophone Belgian poet, cognition of his poetics in theoretical and translation studies aspects.