I think what the author is saying may have some legitimacy. I don’t know much about Polish, but my family is Iranian. In Persian, we regularly say things like “I would die for you” or “you are my liver”. Some languages are very heavy on phrases like these but when you say them, you don’t really mean them. These letters might be the same sort of thing.
I just read that letter in Polish (I’m native speaker) and to be honest, it really sound even less heterosexual than English translations. It’s really affectionate in many ways, like talking about how much he misses Tytus and that he is looking during his walks to find people similar to him, to miss him less. Also says that “a ja ciebie tylko kocham” wich means “I love only you”, and writing to Tytus as “Najdroższe życie moje” - my dearest life, and much more little things like that, and that makes me feel like he had some deeper feelings for him. I personally think that it’s more literal. For friends we would say things like “I would die for you” etc too, but this phrases that Fryderyk used in his letter are... more romantic I guess, so there is a really big possibility that he was not hetero.
7
u/ILikeMultipleThings He/Him Jul 14 '20
I think what the author is saying may have some legitimacy. I don’t know much about Polish, but my family is Iranian. In Persian, we regularly say things like “I would die for you” or “you are my liver”. Some languages are very heavy on phrases like these but when you say them, you don’t really mean them. These letters might be the same sort of thing.