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Karolina Proniewska (Template:Lang-lt, 1828 - 1859) was a Lithuanian romantic poet and translator. Sometimes referred to as a Samogitian Bard. She is best known as the person to convince Antanas Baranauskas, a great Lithuanian poet and one of the classics of that language, to write in the Lithuanian language.

Biography

Karolina Anna Proniewska, a Samogitian noblewoman, was born January 18, 1828 in Padurbinys, a small manor near Telšiai. Her father, Teofil Proniewski of Korwin, was an assessor at the local court, while her mother was Eleonora née Dobszewicz. Proniewska started to write poems at the age of seven. Her father died when she was seven and her mother had difficulties supporting both the manor and the family. The girl suffered from tuberculosis, and her eldest brother forbade her to read any books or write poetry, which he supposed to would harm her already poor health. She however disobeyed. Soon she moved to Telšiai, where she started working as a teacher. Another of her brothers, Otton Proniewski, the personal secretary to the Bishop of Samogitia Motiejus Valančius, financed the publication of a book of her poems, which made her famous in the lands of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, partly due to publications in the Warsaw Gazette, one of the most respected Polish-language newspapers at that time.

Although her published original works were written in the Polish language and not in Lithuanian, with time she also made several translations of Polish-language classics into Lithuanian. Among the most notable of these translations is Matka węży by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski. In 1855, through her sister Tekla, she met Antanas Baranauskas, a young poet then working as a clerk at the nearby farm in Seda. The couple started to exchange letters and, with time, poems. Proniewska convinced Baranauskas to start writing his poems in the Lithuanian language as well. Her brother Otton helped her friend to pass the exams to the Catholic school in Varniai, the only way a poor peasant could gain an education in 19th century Russia. Baranauskas went on to become a scholar of the Lithuanian language, and wrote what has been described as one of the greatest works in Lithuanian literature, Anykyšciu šilelis (The Forest of Anykšciai). He also went on to become a Roman Catholic bishop.

It is commonly accepted that Proniewska had been his friend, good spirit and patron. However, soon before Proniewska's death, she ordered all their letters and her memoirs burnt, and little documentation of their relationship has survived.. She died at the age of 31, on May 26, 1859, and was buried at a local cemetery in Utena, where she spent the last months of her life. Not pictures of her have survived.

Notes and references

1. Mukienė, Danutė (2003-05-15). "Žemaitijos rašytojai" (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 2007-04-18. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
2. ^ Template:Pl icon Krystyna Syrnicka (2002). "Karolina Proniewska - zapomniana poetka ze Żmudzi". Nasz Czas (in Polish). 20 (559): 25. ISSN 1641-7933 OCLC 69526313. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
3. ^ Egidijus Aleksandravičius (2003). Giesmininko kelias (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Versus Aureus. pp. p.82. ISBN 9955-601-00-0. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
4. Antanas Baranauskas. UNESCO, Lithuanian Classic Literature Anthology.
5. Antanas Baranuskas. Encyclopedia Brittanica
6. Template:Lt icon R. Mikšytë, Antano Baranausko kuryba, Vilnius 1964

• 1828 births
• 1859 deaths
• Polish poets
• Polish translators
• Lithuanian translators