ZORZE KOCHANOWSKIEGO – FRASZKI I INNE UTWORY LIRYCZNE
KOCHANOWSKI’S AURORAE: TRIFLES AND OTHER LYRICAL WORKS

Summary/Abstract: This article discusses the significance of the aurora motif in Jan Kochanowski’s Fraszki (Trifles): Dosnu (To Sleep, II 37), Modlitwa o deszcz (Prayer for Rain, III 72), Na matematyka (To the Mathematician,I 53), Do Jędrzeja (To Jędrzej, II 53), and Do Stanisława (To Stanisław, I 63), against the background of other references to this phenomenon in the poet’s works and in relation to ancient and Renaissancenatural science concepts and literary conventions. The motif couples the two most important manifes-tations of beauty of the cosmos in the author’s oeuvre: mathematical measure and luminosity. Theaurora orders space, as it determines the directions of the world, and time, since it regulates the orderof the day. It is also a luminous phenomenon, the beauty of which cannot be explained in rational terms.It adorns the macrocosm—the sky—and the microcosm—the human being (especially fair maidens)—and, as a stylistic ornament, the literary work microcosm. In accordance with Neoplatonic thought,through its beauty it refers to the supreme Beauty, surpassing human cognition.

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