From Miłosz to Kochanowski: The uses of Polish poetry in Seamus Heaney’s work

Abstract

This article examines Seamus Heaney’s uses of contemporary Polish poetry in his work from the last two decades of the twentieth century. His interest in the poetry of Miłosz and Herbert reached its peak in the politicized 1980s, almost 20 years after their poetry was first published in English to great critical acclaim. The article argues that Heaney’s portrayal of Polish poets was an indirect way of articulating his own preoccupations and thoughts on the functions of the poet in modern times. The article looks also at Heaney’s co-translation of Jan Kochanowski’s Laments, as a necessary stage in the development of his concept of translation as cultural redress, leading towards the rearrangement of cultural, linguistic and political hierarchies.