HARVARD UKRAINIAN STUDIES - See also - Harvard University

POLACKI'S EARLY VERSE 73Morskie zwierzęta, Syreny rzeczone,Twarzą człowieczą od Boga uczczone,Zwykły żeglarzom podczas niewolności,Słodkiem śpiewaniem topić w głębokości,Psom na pożarcie, Scille nieprzebytejŚmierci okrętów morskich jadowitej.Rozkosz, Wszeteczność—to Syreny wtóre,Żeglarzom świata pieśń śpiewają które,Zda się ucieszna, lecz jadem piekielnymPełna, ku Scillom wabiącą śmiertelnym,Aby żywota wywróciwszy nawęDali człowieka Cerberowi strawę.Herkules baczny kazał się skrępowaćU maszta, gdy miał przez Scille żeglować,Aby od Syren nie był oszukany,Bestiom srogim na pokarm oddany.Nam krzyż Chrystusów maszt jest, do któregoUwiąże niech kożdy siebie samego,By od złych Syren nie był omawiony,W Scille piekielnej wiecznie pogrążony. 12A comparison of this text with those found in emblem books stronglysuggests that Połacki relied on Camerarius's emblem, "Mortem Dabit IpsaVoluptas," and on Alciati's "Sirènes." 13Camerarius's emblem is composed of a motto with a moralistic theme("Luxury itself causes death") and is illustrated with a plate in which Sirenssit upon a rocky outcrop and sing while ships founder on the distant sea.12Marine animals called Sirens,/endowed by God with human faces/were accustomed todrown in the deep/ sailors captivated by sweet singing/ as food for dogs, in impassableScylla/venomous death of marine vessels./Luxury and Venery—they are [a] second [type of]Sirens,/who sing sailors of this world a song,/ which seems pleasant, but with infernalpoison/ [is] filled, [which] lures [men] to the death-dealing Scyllas/in order that, having capsizedthe Ship of Life/they give Man as food to Cerberus/Prudent Hercules commanded himselfto be bound/to the mast, when he had to sail through Scylla/lest he be tempted/by theSirens and given to fierce beasts as food./For us the Cross of Christ is the mast/to which leteveryone bind himself/lest by the evil Sirens he be not persuaded/ [and] into the infernalScylla eternally plunged.13Henckel and Schöne, Emblemata, col. 1697; Joachim Camerarius, Symbolorum etEmblematum ex Aquatilibus et Reptilibus Desumptorum Centuria Quarta (Frankfurt, 1661),fol. 64 Γ ; Andreas Alciati, Emblemata cum Commentariis Amplissimis (Padua, 1621; reprinted,1976), pp. 487-89; Hippisley, "Emblem," p. 170, notes that Alciati's Emblemata was amongthe emblem books found in Polacki's later library; in "Simeon Polotsky's Library," p. 61,Hippisley lists it as "Alciatus, A. Emblemata (1648)."