Cirrus@Austlit

English translation of the title: Triptych

English translation of first line: In spite of Rej you composed poems

Epigraph: Pamięci M. K. Sarbiewskiego [In Memory of M. K. Sarbiewski]

The poem is about Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski (or 'Matthias Casimirus Sarbievius'), a Polish poet who was Europe's most prominent Latin poet of the 17th century. Sarbiewski is contrasted with Polish Renaissance poet Mikołaj Rej, who argued that Poles should write in their own language rather than in the European lingua franca of the time, Latin. Rej was the first Polish writer to write exclusively in Polish, and hence a seminal figure in the history of Polish literature and culture. Sarbiewski is perhaps a congenial figure for Baterowicz, who himself writes in (and translates from and into) Romance languages, as well as Polish.

The poem is in three parts, numbered in Roman numerals.