Poland has not yet perished,
So long as we still live.
What the foreign force has taken from us,
We shall with sabre retrieve.
March, march, Dąbrowski,
From Italy to Poland.
Under your command
We shall rejoin the nation.
We’ll cross the Vistula, we’ll cross the Warta,
We shall be Polish.
Bonaparte has given us the example
Of how we should prevail.
Like Czarniecki to Poznań
After the Swedish annexation,
To save our homeland,
We shall return across the sea.
A father, in tears,
Says to his Basia
Listen, our boys are said
To be beating the tarabans.
March, march, Dąbrowski,
From Italy to Poland.
Under your command
We shall rejoin the nation.
GustavoistSoldier on
Napoleon is mentioned in the Polish national anthem
KtosKto on
This map is endlessly reposted and always the nuance is lost due to using modern-day borders for historical states:
* France being mentioned is a stretch. Napoleon is mentioned specifically. You could say France is mentioned by association, but it’s not the same as others. When it was written Napoleon was actually not yet in control of France.
* Unified Italy didn’t yet exist at the time. So the “Italian land” doesn’t really correspond to Italy as a country, but to the overall region where the Polish Legions operated.
* Similarly, unified Germany also didn’t exist, the third „foreign power” besides Austria and Russia was Prussia.
* Original text mentions Russia and Prussia (or German-speaking lands more broadly) directly, in the line „German, Muscovite will not prevail, when we reach for our sabres”, but that stanza is not included in the current official text of the anthem.
* To be totally pedantic Poland itself also didn’t exist when the lyrics were written. The restored country that Wybicki imagined was definitely the pre-Partitions Commonwealth, so a very different concept of Poland.
heyitsmemaya on
As a non Polish person, I’m guessing the lyrics go something like,
“Hail, O Poland! Don’t be gay like Sweden.
Or a loser like those to our east, west and southwest!
Instead be noble like Napoleonic peoples
And drink wine like those down in Italy.
Always hail, O Poland, hail!”
Ganconer on
I’ve always found it amusing that the Polish anthem glorifies Napoleon and cites him as an example of victory, even though he ended the war in utter defeat and disgrace.
EmperorThorX on
by the way why the official variant removes stanzas referencing Germany and Russia?
GlassSpider21 on
Based on this, to me Poland’s anthem sounds like a diss track
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The english translation for those curious:
Poland has not yet perished,
So long as we still live.
What the foreign force has taken from us,
We shall with sabre retrieve.
March, march, Dąbrowski,
From Italy to Poland.
Under your command
We shall rejoin the nation.
We’ll cross the Vistula, we’ll cross the Warta,
We shall be Polish.
Bonaparte has given us the example
Of how we should prevail.
Like Czarniecki to Poznań
After the Swedish annexation,
To save our homeland,
We shall return across the sea.
A father, in tears,
Says to his Basia
Listen, our boys are said
To be beating the tarabans.
March, march, Dąbrowski,
From Italy to Poland.
Under your command
We shall rejoin the nation.
Napoleon is mentioned in the Polish national anthem
This map is endlessly reposted and always the nuance is lost due to using modern-day borders for historical states:
* France being mentioned is a stretch. Napoleon is mentioned specifically. You could say France is mentioned by association, but it’s not the same as others. When it was written Napoleon was actually not yet in control of France.
* Unified Italy didn’t yet exist at the time. So the “Italian land” doesn’t really correspond to Italy as a country, but to the overall region where the Polish Legions operated.
* Similarly, unified Germany also didn’t exist, the third „foreign power” besides Austria and Russia was Prussia.
* Original text mentions Russia and Prussia (or German-speaking lands more broadly) directly, in the line „German, Muscovite will not prevail, when we reach for our sabres”, but that stanza is not included in the current official text of the anthem.
* To be totally pedantic Poland itself also didn’t exist when the lyrics were written. The restored country that Wybicki imagined was definitely the pre-Partitions Commonwealth, so a very different concept of Poland.
As a non Polish person, I’m guessing the lyrics go something like,
“Hail, O Poland! Don’t be gay like Sweden.
Or a loser like those to our east, west and southwest!
Instead be noble like Napoleonic peoples
And drink wine like those down in Italy.
Always hail, O Poland, hail!”
I’ve always found it amusing that the Polish anthem glorifies Napoleon and cites him as an example of victory, even though he ended the war in utter defeat and disgrace.
by the way why the official variant removes stanzas referencing Germany and Russia?
Based on this, to me Poland’s anthem sounds like a diss track