No other work of early modern Polish literature can be compared with Anna Stanislawska’s poetic account of her life. What is more — no woman in Polish literature published such a sincere and artistically valuable confession until the twentieth century. Barry Keane has an exceptional talent to render all the beauty of old poetry into English, and has successfully captured the metrical and rhyming features of the poem, and its rhetorical and performative qualities, in a translation that is both faithful and readable. Piotr Wilczek Professor, Faculty of “Artes Liberales,” University of Warsaw Barry Keane has given us a striking addition to the early modern European canon in English translation. Anna Stanislawska’s poetic account of her atrocious experience as the unwilling bride of a mad young nobleman, and of her escape, is shapely, detailed and lifelike. Her writing matches her character: tough, angry, satirical; her verve and freshness carry the reader along through the twists of a lively, detailed narrative, illuminating the forces that could destroy even aristocratic women’s lives, in a time of huge political and military disrup- tion in Poland. Aided by its excellent scholarly framework, we enter Stanislawska’s distant place and time, and encounter a memorable woman who can make us feel her troubles and her determination as if they were close by. Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin Professor (emeritus) School of English, Trinity College Dublin Barry Keane, lecturer in Translation and Comparative Studies in the Institute of English Studies at the University of Warsaw, is the author of books on the Renaissance poet, Jan Kochanowski, the modernist Skamander Poets, and several volumes of poetry. His forth- coming book, to be published with Intellect, is entitled Irish Drama in Poland: Staging and Reception, 1900 –2000. The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series, 45 SERIES EDITORS Margaret L. King and Albert Rabil, Jr. SERIES EDITOR, ENGLISH TEXTS Elizabeth H. Hageman ISBN Placeholder FPO DO NOT PRINT! ITER ACMRS Iter Academic Press www.itergateway.org Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies acmrs.org The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series, 45 ANNA STANISLAWSKA Orphan Girl Anna Stanislawska Orphan Girl A VERSE TRANSLATION WITH INTRODUCTION AND COMMENTARY BY Barry Keane