Jan Kochanowski

Jan Kochanowski (; 1530 – 22 August 1584) was a Polish Renaissance poet, translator and playwright. He is generally regarded as one of the greatest poets in Polish literature.

 Biography 
Jan Kochanowski was born into a noble family in the village of Sycyna, Poland. His parents were
Piotr Kochanowski, a lawyer and judge, and Anna Białaczowska. Among their 11 children, two of Jan's brothers were also writers.Czesław Miłosz, The History of Polish Literature (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), pp. 60–75 He studied at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow.Jan Kochanowski at Enciclopaedia Britannica. Then he attended the University of Königsberg (Królewiec), in Ducal Prussia, and Padua University in Italy. He returned to Poland in 1559. In 1563 he became a secretary at the royal court of Sigismund II Augustus. He married Dorota Podlodowska around 1575 and settled at the family estate at Czarnolas ("Blackwood"). Kochanowski is sometimes called "Jan z Czarnolasu" ("John of Blackwood"). He died of a heart attack in 1584 in the town of Lublin.

 Works 
Jan Kochanowski wrote in Polish and Latin. He wrote Fraszki, a cycle of epigrams, Pieśni (Cantos) and Treny (Laments). The last work was written by the poet after death of his daughter Ursula. He lost another daughter, named Hanna, too. Kochanowski wrote also Pieśń świętojańska o Sobótce (Midsummer Night's Song) and Odprawa połów greckich (The Dismissal of the Grecian Envoys). Many of his poems are free translations from Horace. Kochanowski translated The Book of Psalms and Chess by Marco Girolamo Vida. Kochanowski established rules of Polish versification and introduced sonnet to Polish poetry. Many poems by Kochanowski were translated into English.

The translator Piotr Kochanowski was Jan Kochanowski's nephew.

 References 

Other websites
 Jan Kochanowski's Biography and Poems at Virtual Library of Polish Literature.

Category:Polish writers
Category:Polish translators