Relying heavily on "the vertiginous word-formation potential of Polish," Leśmian's style is especially notable for its numerous neologisms, many of which are still in use in everyday Polish language (as opposed to, say, Cyprian Norwid's similar experiments). For Leśmian, the only ones who can do this - the only ones able to live with both Culture and Nature simultaneously - are poets, the last examples of "the primitive mankind." The protagonists of his works are usually "handicapped humans", struggling between Culture and Nature, unable to accept their in-between positions. In his poems, in a fantastical, mythical and fabulous environment - often inhabited with creatures taken from the Polish folklore and traditions - Leśmian expounds his life philosophy, revolving around his equally deep and personal fascinations with God and death. To Polish readers, Leśmian's style is unique and easily recognizable, intuitively accessible despite its idiosyncrasy.
Leśmian was also nephew of the famous poet and writer of the Young Poland movement, Antoni Lange, and the cousin of another notable poet of the epoch, Jan Brzechwa. Actress and singer Gillian Hills - famous for her brief appearances in Antonioni's Blowup and Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange in two similar scenes - was born of this marriage in 1944. Leśmian and Chylińska had two daughters, one of who, Wanda "Dunia" Leśmianówna, would later marry British adventurer and traveller Denis Hills. He is buried in Powązki Cemetery, in the Alley of the Meritorious, among other notable Polish writers, politicians and military men. In 1935, he moved back to Warsaw, where he died two years later. In 1933, he was accepted as a permanent member of the Polish Academy of Literature. At the same time he published the best known of his books: Łąka ( The Meadow, 1920) and Napój cienisty ( Shadowy Drink, 1936). He returned in 1914.įrom 1918 until 1934, he worked as a notary of large landed estates in Hrubieszów and then as a lawyer in Zamość. The first booklet issued in Warsaw in 1912 ( Sad Rozstajny) did not bring him much publicity either, and in 1912 Leśmian moved back to France. According to various conflicting sources, the author of the pen-name which eventually became his official surname was either the known poet and poet's uncle Antoni Lange, or a renowned bon-vivant of Warsaw, Franc Fiszer. To sound "more Polish", Leśmian adopted a slightly modified version of his surname which included typically Polish sounds (previously it had been Lesman).
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There he also met one of his closest friends, Zenon Przesmycki, with whom he became involved in the publication of Chimera, an art newspaper.Īlthough he made his debut in 1895 (a series of poems published in Wędrowiec magazine), his works initially went unnoticed. Heavily influenced by French modernists, Leśmian returned to Warsaw, where he became one of the founders of an experimental Artistic Theatre.
From there, he set off on a journey to various European cities, including Munich and Paris, where he married a painter, Zofia Chylińska. He spent his childhood and youth in Kyiv, where he graduated from the law faculty of Saint Vladimir University. Bolesław Leśmian was born Januin Warsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire to a family of Polonized Jewish intelligentsia.
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