Antoni Grabowski was a Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 chemical engineer

Chemical engineer

In the field of engineering, a chemical engineer is the profession in which one works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products, and deals with the design and operation of plants and equipment to perform such work...

, and an activist of the early Esperanto movement. His translations had an influential impact on the development of Esperanto

Esperanto

is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...

 into a language of literature.

Education and career

Soon after his birth, Grabowski's family moved from Nowe Dobra to Thorn, Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

 (now Toruń

Torun

Toruń is an ancient city in northern Poland, on the Vistula River. Its population is more than 205,934 as of June 2009. Toruń is one of the oldest cities in Poland. The medieval old town of Toruń is the birthplace of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus....

, Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

). Due to his parents' poverty, Grabowski had to start working soon after leaving junior school. Nevertheless he prepared himself, driven by a great desire to learn, to take the entrance exam for grammar school (Gymnasium

Gymnasium (school)

A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...

), which he passed with flying colours. At the Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer and the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe....

 School in Thorn, after demonstrating a knowledge far exceeding others of his age, he twice skipped a grade. In 1879, the family's financial situation improved and, after his Abitur

Abitur

Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...

 exam, Grabowski studied philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 and natural science

Natural science

The natural sciences are branches of science that seek to elucidate the rules that govern the natural world by using empirical and scientific methods...

 at the University of Breslau

Wroclaw University

The University of Wrocław is one of nine universities in Wrocław, Poland. Former, German university was founded in 1702 as Leopoldina, and re-founded in 1811 as Schlesische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Breslau...

 in Breslau (now Wrocław).

After graduation he worked as a practical chemical engineer

Chemical engineering

Chemical engineering is the branch of engineering that deals with physical science , and life sciences with mathematics and economics, to the process of converting raw materials or chemicals into more useful or valuable forms...

 in Zawiercie

Zawiercie

Zawiercie is a city in the Silesian Voivodeship of southern Poland with 55,800 inhabitants . It is situated in the Kraków-Częstochowa highland near the source of the Warta River...

 and in a few locations which now are part of the Czech Republic

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

, and finally as manager of a textile factory in Ivanovo-Voznesensk, 250 km north-east of Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

.

Meanwhile he continued his in-depth studies into chemical problems. He was known among experts in the field throughout Europe for a multitude of inventions and technological innovations. Grabowski published many articles, including some describing his inventions, in the journals Chemik Polski ("Polish Chemist") and Przegląd Techniczny ("Technical Survey"). During this time he translated a standard chemistry textbook by Ira Remsen

Ira Remsen

Ira Remsen was a chemist who, along with Constantin Fahlberg, discovered the artificial sweetener saccharin. He was the second president of Johns Hopkins University.-Biography:...

 from English to Polish

Polish language

Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

. Later Grabowski was appointed to a commission tasked with drawing up Polish technical terminology

Terminology

Terminology is the study of terms and their use. Terms are words and compound words that in specific contexts are given specific meanings, meanings that may deviate from the meaning the same words have in other contexts and in everyday language. The discipline Terminology studies among other...

. A few years later (1906) he published his Słownik chemiczny, the first Polish chemical

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

 dictionary

Dictionary

A dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...

.

Disappointment with Volapük

Even at the university, Grabowski had developed a far-reaching literary

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

 interest, joining the Slavic Literary Society (Towarzystwo Literacko-Słowianskie). His endeavour was in no way limited to Polish language and literature; gradually he learnt a considerable number of languages and became a true polyglot

Polyglot (person)

A polyglot is someone with a high degree of proficiency in several languages. A bilingual person can speak two languages fluently, whereas a trilingual three; above that the term multilingual may be used.-Hyperpolyglot:...

. Apart from his mother tongue, he was eventually able to speak nine additional languages and passively to use at least another 15. With his linguistic background, Grabowski also became interested in the idea of an international language. Having learned Volapük, he decided to visit Johann Schleyer

Johann Martin Schleyer

Martin Schleyer was a German Catholic priest who invented the constructed language Volapük. His official name was "Martin Schleyer"; he added the name "Johann" unofficially....

, the author of this language project. Seeing that even Schleyer himself was unable to speak Volapük fluently and that Grabowski and Schleyer had been forced to converse in German instead, Grabowski formed the conclusion that Volapük was unsuitable for everyday use. After this disappointment, Grabowski gave up his work on Volapük but maintained an active interest in the idea of an international planned language

Constructed language

A planned or constructed language—known colloquially as a conlang—is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary has been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally...

.

Esperanto and literature

In 1887 he studied the booklet Dr. Esperanto's International Language: Introduction & Complete Grammar, published in the same year by Ludwik L. Zamenhof, which lined out Zamenhof's ambitious language project which was soon to become known by the name "Esperanto

Esperanto

is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...

". Impressed by the transparent structure of Esperanto and by its capacity for expression which, he thought, could be picked up astonishingly quickly, Grabowski traveled to Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

 to visit Zamenhof, where the two held the first oral conversation in Esperanto.

Like Zamenhof, Grabowski understood the important influence of literature on the development of languages, and especially for Esperanto, which by then was on the way to changing from a language project into a language which would be fully functional in all areas of life. Grabowski was already working on this: in 1888 he published his translation of The Snowstorm by Aleksandr Pushkin

Aleksandr Pushkin

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was a Russian author of the Romantic era who is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature....

, followed in 1889 by his translation of Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...

's Die Geschwister, to name just the first publications.

During the early 1890s, Grabowski became unsatisfied by the slow spread of Esperanto. Believing that "imperfections" in the language were responsible for the slow pace, he pleaded for reform. In a vote among Esperantist

Esperantist

An Esperantist is a person who speaks or uses Esperanto. Etymologically, an Esperantist is someone who hopes...

s that took place in 1894, however, he voted against changes to the language and, from then on, adhered to the basic principles of the language as originally espoused by Zamenhof, the so-called Fundamento de Esperanto

Fundamento de Esperanto

The Fundamento de Esperanto is a book by L. L. Zamenhof, published in the spring of 1905. On August 9, 1905 it was made the official source for the language by the fourth article of the Declaration of Boulogne at the first World Congress of Esperanto in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France:It is considered...

.

Grabowski was a longstanding president of the Warsaw Esperanto Society, founded in 1904, and of the Polish Esperanto Society, founded in 1908. In the same year he became director of the Grammar section of the Esperanto Academy

Akademio de Esperanto

The Akademio de Esperanto is an independent body intended to control the evolution of the language Esperanto by keeping it consistent with the fundamental principles thereof. Modelled somewhat after the Académie française, it was proposed by L. L...

. He published articles and gave lectures on Esperanto and organized Esperanto language courses.

In the years 1908–1914 Grabowski was in charge of the first Esperanto courses for a few schools in Warsaw. In an article in 1908 he described what he saw as the exceptional suitability of Esperanto as an introduction to language learning

Language acquisition

Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive, produce and use words to understand and communicate. This capacity involves the picking up of diverse capacities including syntax, phonetics, and an extensive vocabulary. This language might be vocal as with...

 (see Propedeutic value of Esperanto), demonstrating with concrete examples the extent to which learning Esperanto as one's first foreign language would improve the learning of French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 and Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

, a claim which seemed inconceivable to the public of that time.

The anthology El Parnaso de Popoloj ("From The Parnassus Of The Peoples"), published in 1913, contained 116 poems representing 30 languages and cultures. Six of the poems were originally composed in Esperanto. The remaining 110 were translated into Esperanto from other languages.

World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 separated Grabowski from his family who had fled to Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. Ill and isolated, he remained behind in Warsaw, where he busied himself in translating the Polish National epic

National epic

A national epic is an epic poem or a literary work of epic scope which seeks or is believed to capture and express the essence or spirit of a particular nation; not necessarily a nation-state, but at least an ethnic or linguistic group with aspirations to independence or autonomy...

 Pan Tadeusz

Pan Tadeusz

Pan Tadeusz, the full title in English: Sir Thaddeus, or the Last Lithuanian Foray: A Nobleman's Tale from the Years of 1811 and 1812 in Twelve Books of Verse is an epic poem by the Polish poet, writer and philosopher Adam Mickiewicz...

by Adam Mickiewicz

Adam Mickiewicz

Adam Bernard Mickiewicz ) was a Polish poet, publisher and political writer of the Romantic period. One of the primary representatives of the Polish Romanticism era, a national poet of Poland, he is seen as one of Poland's Three Bards and the greatest poet in all of Polish literature...

. While working on his translation, which was precisely faithful to the original form, he put the latent potential of the planned language to the test, thereby giving significant impetus to the further development of Esperanto poetry

Esperanto literature

Esperanto literature began before the official publication of the constructed language Esperanto; the language's creator, L. L. Zamenhof, translated poetry and prose into the language as he was developing it as a test of its completeness and expressiveness, and published several translations and a...

.

He suffered from a chronic heart condition but could not afford the necessary medical treatment. He lived at that time in oppressive poverty, and when his family returned after the end of the war, his body had become almost emaciated. Nevertheless, he continued his work on Esperanto until his death from a heart attack in 1921.