Abstrakt

A heroic poem The Capture of Kiev (1818) by Mickiewicz’s contemporary, Tymon Zaborowski, the graduate of the Volhynian Gimnasium (based on Boleslaw the Valiant’s Kiev expedition) appears to be an interesting record of literary imagination as well as aesthetic and cultural awareness of the author of the transitional period. This reflection primarily refers to these fragments of the poem which concern the Ruthenian sorcerer Jamedyk Blud − the teacher of Vladimir the Great’s sons and an ally of Yaroslav in the battle with Polish people, as well as his extraordinary island-garden. Jamedyk Blud’s island presented in The Capture of Kiev is not only an idyllic depiction of a paradise on earth, another mythological vision of the Fortunate Isles, or a Volhynian Arcadia −poetically realized according to the principles of the contemporary art of gardening. Blud’s extraordinary island created by Zaborowski has another nature since it is also the “garden of experiments”, the “garden of technical tests”. This kind of vision results from technical, mechanical and physical fascinations held by Zaborowski and his friends from Kremenets. From today’s perspective, it is this technical aspect of Jamedyk Blud’s residence that appears to be a particularly interesting record of Zaborowski’s wide-ranging fascinations as for the author of the transitional period.