Sending a message to the Thebans, Poles and Dutch. The first published translation of Sarbiewski in the Low Countries and its appropriation to a 17th-century Dutch context

This article discusses the first published Dutch translation, by the Dutchman Simon Ingels, of an ode by the Polish poet Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski, one of the most renowned Neo-Latin lyricists. It opens with a discussion of Sarbiewski’s links with the Low Countries, followed by an introduction of the translator and his works. A comparison between Sarbiewski’s original text and Ingels’ translation then shows how the translator cleverly adapted the work to his own, Dutch, context: where Sarbiewski called for unity amongst the Polish and Lithuanians knights, Ingels turned that into a similar message for the Dutch Republic.