Opisanie światowych spraw narodu wróblego na „polu ptaszym” w twórczości Mikołaja Reja
Description of World Matters of Bird Nation in “pole ptasze [Bird Field]” in Mikołaj Rej’s Creativity

Summary/Abstract: The article refers to the metaphorical meanings of little birds, especially the sparrow, in Mikołaj Rej’s creativity. The author pays her attention to the presence of encyclopaedic bestiary tradition in the works of old authors, to which Rej eagerly referred. The poet juxtaposes a full of traps human existence with an image of “bird field” where “an evil bird,” a jealous fortune, waits in ambush for everyone. Rej remarks that warnings and pieces of advice about a man’s everyday decisions are included into examples taken from the world of nature. Undoubtedly, instances of this kind served as a valuable material to a deeper philosophical speculation. Those instances were to act as a remedy to correct imperfect human condition. Rej willingly resorts to the presentations of birds to give the multiplicity of dangers that lurk waiting for a man, and figures of such tiny birds as sparrows, as they well suited this purpose. The birds express longing for what surpasses us and desire to free oneself from the burden of earthly limitations. In Rej’s output the symbolism of the sparrow jointly creates a full image of human soul, forming an allegorical figure of a redeemed and corrected nature of the world. Mikołaj Rej’s pieces remain within the circle of the then encyclopaedic knowledge, and skilfully combine the classical traditions with the Biblical ones. Vividly depicted images of nature, apart from allegorical meanings, gradually freed from their erudite context to gain autonomy and started living their own life.

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