Władysław Syrokomla

Memorial of Władysław Syrokomla, in the Church of St. Johns, Vilnius, Lithuania

Ludwik Władysław Franciszek Kondratowicz (29 September 1823 – 15 September 1862), better known as Władysław Syrokomla , was a Polish–Lithuanian poet, writer and translator of the Romantic era.

His writings in the Polish language were mainly dedicated to the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Self-identifying as a Lithuanian, he himself was disappointed that he did not speak the Lithuanian language. He was often called the village lyrebird and was the author of ironic poems stylized as 18th-century pastoral idylls and folk songs.

Biography Syrokomla was born on 29 September 1823 in the village of , in the Minsk Governorate of the Russian Empire (now Minsk Region, Belarus), to an impoverished noble family.

In 1844, he published the first of his poems – Pocztylion – under the pen-name Władysław Syrokomla, coined after his family's coat of arms. Syrokomla is considered by some to have been one of the early influential writers in the modern Belarusian language, although many of his Belarusian poems are believed to be lost. The poet was interested in the Belarusian language, introduced it into his works and mentioned it to the readers of the Gazeta Warszawska''. He wrote about the Belarusian language and its meaning in the past: Another village near the manor is called . On Sunday, a slightly more upbeat life buzzed in it. The inn could hear the noise of revelers. Girls and children were running in the street, shouting in Lithuanian. Unfortunately, the Lithuanian language is incomprehensible to us, who write historical poems of Lithuania. The Lithuanian villager turns out to be more civilized than us. In addition to his native Lithuanian language, he understands Polish well and explains it well. His works were often translated into Lithuanian and Belarusian.