Karolina Proniewska

Karolina Proniewska or Karolina Praniauskaitė (1828–1859) was a romantic Polish -Lithuanian poet and translator. Born in Samogitia, a historical region of Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire, she is sometimes referred to as a Samogitian Bard. She is also considered the first Lithuanian female poet.

She wrote her original works exclusively in Polish and her poetry published in a single tome Piosneczki (Songs, 1858) initially gained much popularity. However, she also translated numerous works by Polish authors into the Lithuanian language, both in prose and in verse. She was born 18 January 1828 in Padubysys Telšiai in a small manor where Polish culture predominated. Her father, Teofil Proniewski was an assessor at the local court, while her mother was Eleonora née Dobszewicz. Proniewska started to write poems at the age of seven. As a girl she suffered from tuberculosis, and her eldest brother forbade her to read any books or write poetry, which he supposed would harm her already poor health. She disobeyed. Soon she moved to Telšiai, where she started working as a teacher. Another of her brothers, Otton Proniewski, the personal secretary to the Bishop of Samogitia Motiejus Valančius, Although her published original works were written in the Polish language, with time she also made several translations of Polish-language classics into Lithuanian. Among the most notable of these translations is Matka węży by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski. The translation is said to have had an unprecedented impact on Lithuanian culture as a fundamental work of Lithuanian high art, and to have been much of a much higher quality than her own dilettantish Polish verses.

In 1855, through her sister Tekla, she met Antanas Baranauskas, a young poet then working as a clerk at the nearby farm in Seda. Proniewska instilled into Baranauskas a love for the Lithuanian language and culture, and wrote what has been described as one of the greatest works in Lithuanian literature, Anykščių šilelis (The Forest of Anykščiai). He also went on to become a Roman Catholic bishop.

It is commonly accepted that Proniewska had been his friend and patron. However, prior to her death, she requested that all of their letters and her diaries be burned, and little documentation of their relationship has survived. She died at the age of 31, on 26 May 1859, and was buried at a cemetery in Utena, where she spent the last months of her life. No pictures of her have survived. as does the Telšiai Public Library.