Tadeusz Kamil Marcjan Żeleński (better known by his pseudonym , Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński , 21 of December of 1874 - 4 of July of 1941 ) was a gynecologist , writer , poet , critic and translator Polish , mainly known for his translations of over a hundred Classical literary French to Polish .
Boy, a notable figure within the Young Poland movement , was the enfant terrible of the Polish literary scene during the first half of the 20th century.
Early years
Tadeusz Kamil Marcjan Żeleński was born on December 21, 1874, in Warsaw , son of Wanda Grabowska and Władysław Żeleński , a prominent composer and musician. The noted Polish poet Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer was Tadeusz’s cousin.
Since Warsaw was at that time under the domain Russian , and education in Polish was banned in 1892 Żeleński moved to Krakow in Austrian -ruled Galitzia (site that was under the domain Austrian ) which entered the Faculty of Medicine of the Jagiellonian University of Krakow.
In 1900 he finished his studies, and began his medical practice as a pediatrician. In 1906 he opened a practice as a gynecologist, which gave him economic freedom. That same year, he handled together the literary cabaret Zielony Balonik (“Green Globe”), which brought together notable personalities of Polish culture, including his brother Edward and Jan August Kisielewski , Stanisław Kuczborski , Witold Noskowski , Stanisław Sierosławski , Rudolf Starzewski , Edward Leszczyński , Teofil Trzcińki , Karol Frycz , Ludwik Puget , Kazimierz Sichulski , Jan Skotnicki , Feliks Jasieński and Zenon Pruszyński .
In the sketches, poems, satirical songs and short stories he wrote for the Zielony Balonik , Boy-Żeleński criticized and mocked not only the conservative authorities and the two-faced morality of citizens, but also the grandiloquent style of Młoda Polska And the bohemians of the city. This gave him the reputation of enfant terrible of Polish literature.
World War I
After the outbreak of World War I , Żeleński was conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian Army and served as a medical officer for ground troops.
After the war he returned to Poland and, in 1922, moved to Warsaw. He did not return to practice as a doctor, but devoted himself entirely to writing. He worked as a writer for various newspapers and magazines, and soon became one of the authorities of the intelligentsia liberal and democratic Poland. He criticized the double morality of the Church, promoted secularization of public life and culture, and was one of the strongest activists for gender equality. She was one of the first public figures in Poland to support abortion . In addition, Boy-Żeleński, through his essays, fought against the Polish romantic tradition, which he considered irrational and distorted the idea of his past that had the society of his nation.
In addition, Boy translated more than one hundred classics of French literature , which since then have been considered as some of the best translations of foreign literature into the Polish language. In 1933, the writer was admitted to the prestigious Polish Academy of Literature .
World War II
After the outbreak of World War II , Boy-Żeleński moved to the Soviet- occupied city of Lwów, where he lived with his wife’s brother-in-law. In Lviv, Boy entered the university as head of the department of French literature. Criticized by several of his students for his public and frequent collaboration with the Soviet occupation forces, he maintained contact with several prominent professors and artists who had to move to the same city after the invasion of Poland in 1939. He also collaborated in The creation of the Communist newspaper Czerwony Sztandar and became one of the most prominent members of the Society of Polish Writers.
After Nazi Germany broke the Non-Aggression Treaty between the Third Reich and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and attacked the Soviet Union and the Polish city of Kresy , also occupied by the Soviets, Boy remained in Lwów (now Lviv , Ukraine). The city was captured on the night of July 4, 1941, and the writer was arrested and taken to the Wulka Hills, where he was assassinated as a “Soviet spy” along with forty-five other Polish teachers, artists and intellectuals, In what would be called the massacre of Lviv teachers .