A Polish Parody of “Our Father” from the Middle of the 17th Century and its Russian Translation: in Search of an Unknown Polish Source

Abstract

The purpose of this study is a textual analysis of a Russian translation of a Polish pamphlet, a parody of the prayer “Our Father”, which was found among documents from 1671–1673 in the archive of the Ambassadorial Chancery (Posol’skii prikaz). The actual source of the translation was not found, but since any study of a translated text must include an analysis of its connection with the original, it was first of all necessary to pay attention to the known copies of the Polish pamphlet “Ojcze nasz krolu polski Janie Kazimierzu” (“Pacierz dworski”), since one of its now most probably lost copies was translated into Russian. “Ojcze nasz krolu polski Janie Kazimierzu” is a Polish political parody from the middle of the 17th century (probably 1665), directed against King John II Casimir Vasa. The article investigates the history of its creation, describes its form, content, and genre, discusses its literary value, the Polish tradition of parodying religious texts, and analyzes the versions of the pamphlet. As a result, it was possible to reveal some new details about the anonymous author and the time when the work was written, the number and character of the preserved copies, the correlation between manuscript variants and their later editions. A comparative analysis of seven different textual variants of the Polish pamphlet made it possible to find a version which is textually — and perhaps even genetically — close to the Russian translation (a copy of the family saga “Sylva rerum Szyrmów”). Particular attention is paid to the interpretation of Polish translation parody in mid-17th century Russian culture, the possible reasons why this Polish political pamphlet caught the attention of the Russian translator (reader), and the functional transformation of the occasional political pamphlet into a parody with a political theme and a more explicit humoristic component. The appendix provides a parallel publication of the Polish pamphlet from the family saga “Sylva rerum Szyrmów” and the Russian translation from the archive of the Ambassadorial Chancery.