Srovnání Vznešenosti přirozenosti a Vznešenosti přírody M. Z. Poláka
A Comparsion of M. Z. Polák´s Vznešenost přirozenosti and Vznešenost přírody

Summary/Abstract: There are a great number of differences between Milota Zdirad Polák’s (1788–1856) Vznešenost přirozenosti (The sublimity of nature) published in the first volume of Hromádka’s Prvotiny pěkných umění (First fruits in literature) in 1813 and Vznešenost přírody (employing the newer Czech word for ‘nature’) published as a book in 1819. A comparison of the two texts demonstrates not only how many poems were taken from Vznešenost přirozenosti for Vznešenost přírody and how in that respect the individual canti differ from one another, but also shows the substantial ideational difference in the two works. Analysis confirms that the systematic substitution (or deletions) of expressions denoting or connoting God/the Creator with the word ‘Nature’ is clear not only in the subtitle of the two compositions (V slávozpěvích na tvorce [In hymns to the Creator] versus Lyrická báseň v šesti zpěvích [A lyric poem in six canti]), but also throughout Vznešenost přírody. This has to do with an intentional toning down of the religiousness of the poem. Since Josef Jungmann (1773–1847) took a similar approach when translating Chateaubriand’s Atala (1801; Czech trans. 1805), one may well ask to what extent he was an influence on the final version of Vznešenost přírody.

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