Dear Gabor , the answers are as follows 1.It is still a proverb in Poland , but not commonly used , as now only a few poeple know who was Bakfark . You may hear it rather from the poeple involved with literature , poetry, culture etc. 2.It has been a proverb since the Kochanowski put it into his epigram . His fame was so great to his contemporary as well as to next generations , that a lot of his sentences , thoughts and opinions came into common language. Obviously Bakfark was also well known as a great master at Kochanowski's time , so everyone could easy understand the sentence then.
I'm afraid , not everyone using this sentence nowadays knows exactly , to what situation it was intended originally , but the meaning (it's not easy to equal to Master ) remains the same. Greetings -Tadeusz ----- Original Message ----- From: "DOMJAN,Gabor" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Tadeusz Czechak" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2004 7:48 AM Subject: Re: Bakfark > Dear Tadeusz, > > Ever since this topic occured a few weeks ago on Lutenet, I tried to find a > native Polish speaker to approve or disapprove my memory: > The wife of a friend of mine was Polish (unfurtunately she died 20 years > ago) who - as I remember - told me it was a proverbial phrase in Polish even > today referring to the vanity of doing something someone has already > accomplished at the highest possible level. Anyway, she quoted it by heart > that's for certain. > > 1. Now is it really a proverb presently? (The one Polish speaker I could > find didn't know about it.) > 2. Or was it a proverb at that time and Jan Kochanowski was only using it > for a special purpose? > 3. It never was a proverb, only my friend's wife was well versed in old > Polish poetry and I misunderstood her. > > Thanks for the answer and best regards, > > Gabor Domjan > > --- > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Tadeusz Czechak" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2004 9:30 AM > Subject: Re: Bakfark > > > > This is a methaphore , commonly used in apparent , but mistaken meaning
