Mikołaj Rej i jego epoka po japońsku. Rozważania na marginesie książki ミコワイ・レイ氏の鏡と 動物園 [Zwierciadło i Zwierzyniec pana Mikołaja Reja]

Abstract

MIKOLAJ REJ AND HIS EPOCH (POLISH RENAISSANCE) IN JAPANESE: SEVERAL THOUGHTS CONCERNING THE BOOK ミコワイ・レイ氏の鏡と動物園. ZWIERCIADŁO I ZWIERZYNIEC PANA MIKOŁAJA REJA The article opens with remarks on Mikołaj Rej as outlined in Czesław Miłosz’s The History of Polish Literature, along with some observations on Rej’s language that became the material basis for the first grammatical description of the Polish language by Piotr Statorius-Stojeński in 1568. The next part of the article includes an outline of Professor Sekiguchi Tokimasa’s academic profile. Professor Sekiguchi is one of Japan’s foremost authorities in Polish Studies, as well as prolific writer and translator whose output includes translations of Rej’s literary legacy enclosed in the volume in question. The text also gives a detailed analysis of the original Japanese work, including its presentation of Mikołaj Rej as an author, but also commented fragments of his works: Speculum, Bestiary, Figliki (Facetiae), and The Image of a Good Man’s Life. The concluding part comments on Rej’s epoch which is commonly labeled “The Golden Age of Polish Culture”.