„All Souls’ Night” Inspired by „Forefather’s Eve, Part II” by Adam Mickiewicz (Forefather’s Eve, Part II by Adam Mickiewicz)
This is a description of a project / workshop for a mixed group of students of: production, acting, directing and cinematography of Lodz Film School and Film University Babelsberg for Green Education in Media Erasmus Plus programme.
This is a loose and shortened translation of Adam Mickiewicz’s drama “Forefathers’ Eve, Part II” with additional modern poems.
According to George Sand and George Brandes “Forefathers’ Eve” was the greatest realization of the Romantic drama theory, among such works as “Faust” by Johann Wolfgang Goethe and “Manfred” by George Gordon Byron.
The original is written in the elegant thirteen syllables rhyme used by Polish romanticists.
https://hubs.mozilla.com/BBVhRhT
We didn’t attempt imitating it, the translation reflects only on the content.
This is also experiment, next step……..
Tapestry – The process of working on the adaptation of Adam Mickiewicz’s „Lilies to an immersion medium – Wojciech Olchowski, Pamela Płachtij – AUTOMATIC TRANSLATION! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Nj_xQxUj6Gg3NiR5hbWvjj_2OKVVrkaBUFEjg8_Pl-M/edit?usp=sharing
Similarly, we do not use the play writing manner of marking who speaks before each sentence. We transformed it into prose instead.
“Forefathers’ Eve”, “Dziady” (Jaddy) in Polish, is a feast performed on the eve of All Saints’. Its equivalent in the Western world is Halloween that is stripped of its original spiritual dimension. Since Poland has always been a multireligious country some pagan traditions were never suppressed, merging with Christianity instead. Forefathers’ Eve was especially popular in the eastern parts of the Polish-Lithuania Commonwealth. Today this region is in Belarus, where the tradition is still alive. The people who perform the rites in Mickiewicz’s rendition are Greek-Catholics.
Parts I, II, and IV were influenced by Byron, and are perhaps the most similar to the Gothic style in English literature within the Polish romantic writing.
At the end I added annotations mixed with elements of Mickiewicz’s biography, his views, some people from his acquaintance, and his feminist attitude.
| ALL CAST Szaaaa…Ciszaaa… Szaaaa…Głuszaaa… |
| SHAMAN Ciemno wszędzie,głucho wszędzie. Co to będzie,co to będzie? Darkness around.Passiveness around. What will be now?What will be now? What will be now?What will be next? |
| HELPERS Darkness around.Dullness around. What will be now?What will be next? |
| SHAMAN The soulson any side of the world! Whether you areburning in fire, or freezingin a mountain lake! Each of you,hurry up to join our gathering! Let the ceremony start!It’s All Souls’ Night! |
| HELPERS Let the ceremony start.It’s All Souls’ Night! |
| SHAMAN Now, you…the heaviest souls. Chained to this Earthtogether with a dead body. If such a horrible punishmentcan be eased a bit. Come!We are calling you! |
| HELPERS Tell us what you miss.Tell us what you want. Tell us what you need.Tell us what you regret. |
| HUMANS Oh, you beasts,Wild animals! Your sharpteeth and claws! Let me goto the holy land! |
| SHAMAN What a monster!Can you see? Skin as whiteas an old bone. Eyes shining redlike coals in ashes. Tell us what you miss.Tell us what you want. |
| HELPERS Tell us what you need.Tell us what you regret. |
| HUMANS Do you not recognize me?Look closely! It was my land.I used to live here. Now I suffer a terriblyeternal hunger. Hungry animalsare tearing my body apart. There is no endto my tortures! |
| SHAMAN What you need,to save you? What you need to getto Heaven’s gates? We have food and drink to feed you,We have words to pray in your name. |
| HUMANS No! There isno Heaven for me. I just want my soulto leave my body. Hell is better,than continuous wandering and watching the remainsof life that once was. Please, give mejust a drop of clean water. Please, give mejust few grains of food. |
| BEES AND A WOLVES Your cries and beggingis hopeless |
| BEES Here we are,starved to death by you. Now we will eat food,now we will drink water. |
| WOLVES Even if it isin your mouth. We will use our clawsto rip it away from you. |
| BEES AND A WOLVES You knew no mercy,Now we know no mercy. |
| BEES Do you remember how one AprilI came into your garden? I was flying among the flowersWhen suddenly I smelled that awful spray. Those vicious pesticidesMeant to kill the fruit worms. Murdered them, and all my sistersAll bees at once. But you did not careYou wanted to keep a profit. You knewno mercy! |
| BEES AND A WOLVES You knewno mercy! |
| WOLVES Do you rememberhow during the winter, we were looking for some foodto have milk for our children? You called your peopleTo hunt and shoot all wolves. I called out in tears,have mercy on us. We died from bullet woundsFor simply wanting to eat. You knewno mercy! |
| BEES AND A WOLVES You knewno mercy! |
| HUMANS There is no help for me,You offer help for nothing. Not for me the All Souls’ Night.I have to suffer forever. One who knew no mercycannot be saved. One who knew no mercycannot be saved. |
| SHAMAN Since there is nothingwe can do for you, go away,you pathetic creature. You do not take food or drink.Leave us in peace. Go away!Go away! |
| HELPERS Go away!Go away! |
| SHAMAN / ALL? Darkness around.Dullness around. What will be now?What will be now? Ciemno wszędzie,głucho wszędzie, Co to będzie,co to będzie? |
Wojciech Olchowski 