Published: 2025-10-30

Lucjan Siemieński’s tale "Szczęście z biedą w parze idą" ["Happiness and poverty go hand in hand"] compared to Hans Christian Andersen’s a "Kalosze szczęścia" ["The Galoshes of Fortune"]

Grzegorz Igliński
Papers in Literature
Section: Interpretations
https://doi.org/10.31648/pl.10539

Abstract

This article seeks to assess – through comparative analysis – the extent to which Lucjan Siemieński’s tale Szczęście z biedą w parze idą [Happiness and Poverty Go Hand in Hand] is dependent on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale Kalosze szczęścia [The Galoshes of Fortune]. The comparison indicates that Siemieński does not alter the general message of the original. Modifications occur primarily in the storytelling rather than in the ideological dimension. In this regard, the text appears as a specific hybrid. Certain passages may undoubtedly be classified as translation, corresponding sentence by sentence to the source text. In other sections, however, the tale presents paraphrases of Andersen’s original. Siemieński adopts Andersen’s core ideas (such as character types or the nature of the dream), but alters the course of events, offering, in effect, his own version of the story. At times, he introduces entirely new episodes with no equivalent in the original; at others, he omits episodes present in Andersen’s tale. He also removes all four poems included in Andersen’s narrative, thereby avoiding the device of “a literary work within a literary work.”

Siemieński attempts to make the text more appealing and accessible to a broader Polish readership. This is evident in the Polonisation of the text: the represented world is given a distinctly Polish character, and humorous elements are added to certain parts of the narrative. In conclusion, Siemieński’s work constitutes a variation on The Galoshes of Fortune.

 

Keywords:

Lucjan Siemieński, Hans Christian Andersen, fairy tale, translation, comparative analysis

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Citation rules

Igliński, G. (2025). Lucjan Siemieński’s tale "Szczęście z biedą w parze idą" ["Happiness and poverty go hand in hand"] compared to Hans Christian Andersen’s a "Kalosze szczęścia" ["The Galoshes of Fortune"]. Papers in Literature, (13), 239–267. https://doi.org/10.31648/pl.10539

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