The latest lifestyle, fashion and travel trends
The latest lifestyle, fashion and travel trends
Today’s Google Doodle is inspired not by a person but a poem – marking 185 years since the publication of Pan Tadeusz.
The poem, which was first published in 1834, is written by the Polish Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz and is often thought to be one of the last epic poems in European literature.
Google says the 12-part saga “captures the spirit of Poland at a time when much of its territory was partitioned between Russia, Prussia and Austria.”
Here’s everything you need to know about Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz:
What is Pan Tadeusz about?
Pan Tadeusz’s full title translates in English to read: Sir Thaddeus, or the Last Lithuanian Foray: A Nobleman’s Tale from the Years of 1811 and 1812 Pan Twelve Books of Verse.
If you thought that was a mouthful, just wait until you read the poem’s swirling narrative. Set during the years 1811 and 1812 in a Lithuanian town, the tale centres on a feud between two prominent families, the Soplicas and the Horeszkos. and the love between Tadeusz Soplica of one family and Zosia of the other.
Google went on to describe the plot in further detail: “A revolt against the local Russian garrison brings the families together, inspired by a shared passion to restore Poland to its former glory: ‘When talk was to raise Poland again from this rubble.’”
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An amalgamation of all the different Google Doodle gifs marking 100 years since the completion of the Trans-Siberian railway
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The background for the doodle game celebrating Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary
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The doodle celebrating Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary
20/20
The doodle marking 155 years of the Pony Express – when horseback riders would deliver letters between California and Missouri
1/20
The doodle marking the 155th anniversary of the London Underground
2/20
The doodle celebrating the 255th anniversary of the British Museum
3/20
The doodle marking India’s Republic Day in 2013
4/20
The doodle marking the 160th anniversary of the first Indian passenger train
5/20
The doodle marking Earth Day 2018 with Jane Goodall
6/20
The doodle marking when the NASA Juno probe reached Jupiter
7/20
The doodle marking when the NASA Juno probe reached Jupiter
8/20
The doodle marking Hannah Glasse’s 310th birthday, the creator of the Yorkshire Pudding
9/20
The doodle celebrating Inuit artist Kenojuak Ashevak, who died in 2013
10/20
One of Matt Cruickshank’s doodles, marking the 93rd birthday of Saul Bass, the American graphic designer and Oscar-winning film maker
11/20
The doodle marking Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka’s 120th birthday
12/20
The doodle marking Shakespeare’s 400th birthday, which also takes place on the same day as St George’s Day
13/20
The doodle celebrating the Japanese poet, Kobayashi Issa
14/20
The doodle marking marine biologist and conservationist Rachel Louise Carson on her 107th birthday
15/20
The doodle marking Columbian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s 91st birthday,
16/20
The doodle marking Swedish director Ingmar Bergman’s 95th anniversary
17/20
An amalgamation of all the different Google Doodle gifs marking 100 years since the completion of the Trans-Siberian railway
18/20
The background for the doodle game celebrating Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary
19/20
The doodle celebrating Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary
20/20
The doodle marking 155 years of the Pony Express – when horseback riders would deliver letters between California and Missouri
Who was Adam Mickiewicz?
Born in 1798 during the reign of the Russian Empire, Mickiewicz became a political activist and lifelong apostle of Polish national freedom, themes he expresses in aspects of his work.
Whilst still at university, Mickiewicz joined the Philomats’ Society and was later arrested by the czar’s secret police and charged with unlawful political activities.
Later works, such as Konrad Wallenrod (1828), would explore themes of Polish identity and cement his central position in Polish literature.
Why is his poem being celebrated with a Google Doodle?
Since its publication, Pan Tadeusz has been translated into numerous languages and has been adapted for TV and film, most recently in 1999 by Polish director Andrzej Wajda. It also remains required reading in many Polish schools.
As well as being an important work of literature, it also acts as a historical account of the environment in which it was birthed.
