Kazimierz Bein
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Kazimierz Bein (1872 – June 15, 1959), was an eye-doctor from Poland, the founder and for a time director of the Warsaw Ophthalmic Institute (Warszawski Instytut Oftalmiczny).
He was also for a period a prominent Esperanto author, translator and activist, until leaving the Esperanto movement suddenly in 1911. Bein became at least as well known for his involvement with the Esperanto movement as for his medical achievements, as much for the manner in which he left the movement as for what he had done within it. Within the movement he was also known as Kabe.
[edit] Life
As a young man, he was a part of the anti-Russian movement, for which he was exiled for several years, and thus was forced to finish his medical training in Kazan. He authored many technical books and articles and founded the Warsaw Institute of Eye-disease and the Polish Ophthalmological Society. He was also known as an amateur photographer.
[edit] Esperanto movement
Bein was one of the earliest adopters of the international language, Esperanto, and became an eminent pioneer of Esperanto prose, writing under the pseudonym, Kabe, a shortened form of his name. In 1904 he became famous for a translation of a Wacław Sieroszewski novel. In 1906 he became vice-president for the Academy of Esperanto. During this time he had a profound effect on the early development of the language. The highlight of his career was likely an Esperanto translation of Bolesław Prus's Faraon and one of the first Esperanto dictionaries, Vortaro de Esperanto.
However, he is probably best known for the fact that he suddenly disappeared from the Esperanto movement in 1911 without immediate comment. When interviewed by the Esperanto magazine Literaturo Monda in 1931, he spoke about the lack of progress Esperanto was making, and that he no longer regarded it as a solution for an international language.
Shortly after he left the movement, the word "kabei" was coined by members of the movement, meaning "to have a fervent and successful participation in Esperanto, then suddenly and silently leaving it completely." Kabei is still in common usage within the Esperanto movement today.
