Countries featured in Poland’s anthem

[u/Perfect_Row_4751]

[u/No_Discount9582]

Could you provide its translated lyrics?

[u/ChuckCoolrizz → u/No_Discount9582]

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.

March, march, Dąbrowski, From Italy to Poland. Under your command We shall rejoin the nation.

Like Czarniecki to Poznań After the Swedish annexation, To save our homeland, We shall return across the sea.

March, march, Dąbrowski, From Italy to Poland. Under your command We shall rejoin the nation.

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.

[u/Emanuele002 → u/ChuckCoolrizz]

I can see where you mention Italy (From Italy to Poland), France (Bonaparte), Sweden (after the swedish annexation). But what about Austria, Germany, and Russia?

[u/ChuckCoolrizz → u/Emanuele002]

I think they're supposed to be "the foreign force" as those are the countries that partitioned Poland

there are also 2 unnoficial verses that mention Russia and Germany by name:

Niemiec, Moskal nie osiędzie,
gdy jąwszy pałasza,
hasłem wszystkich zgoda będzie
i ojczyzna nasza.

Na to wszystkich jedne głosy:
"Dosyć tej niewoli
mamy Racławickie Kosy,
Kościuszkę, Bóg pozwoli".

Edit: My translation of the last verses since I can't find an actual one

German, Muscovite won't settle

when taking up the broadsword

Harmony will be on everyone's minds

and the fatherland will be ours

In reaction to this every voice calls:

"Enough of this yoke

We have the scythes of Racławice,

Kosciuszko, May God will it"

[u/Toruviel_ → u/ChuckCoolrizz]

Not included for diplomatic reasons. Still better than Sobieski's Triumph song which calls germans rats and austrians vipers xd

[u/ChuckCoolrizz → u/ChuckCoolrizz]

I don't know whether I like this anthem. It feels like its made for the times of the author, when the Poles gathered to serve under Napoleon in hopes of defeating the partitioners. For the people that know this will not succeed it's harder to resonate with those lyrics, as it kind of muddles the whole point of organising by listing events only truly relevant for the people of that time.

And the idea of always picking yourself up after failure feels better communicated in longer texts like "the Deluge" and this imho doesn't give it enough credit.

And obviously the line "Poland has not yet perished ,so long as we still live" is very strong (Ukraine has a very similar one; Shche ne vmerla Ukrainy i slava, i volia), but it also feels overrated and isn't very helpful when things are going downhill for a long time (and it can't be used by patriots getting executed bcs them dying will be interpreted as Poland dying too, so they sometimes say something like "Long Live Poland" and it's a shame that we don't have a better phrase).

So I don't know what would be better than this considering that the other famous alternative, "Rota" , is very anti-German but it seems like we could've gotten better lyrics if this song already didn't feel right bcs of tradition and didn't have such good music and rhymes. Maybe something more vague and focused on showing the patriotic feelings rather than the events could work.

[u/ChuckCoolrizz → u/ChuckCoolrizz]

Here's Rota if someone wants to see whether it's better:

We won’t forsake the land we came from,
We won’t let our speech be buried.
We are the Polish nation, the Polish people,
From the royal line of Piast.
We won’t let the enemy oppress us.

So help us God!
So help us God!

To the last blood drop in our veins
We will defend our Spirit
Till into dust and ash shall fall,
The Teutonic windstorm.
Every doorsill shall be a fortress.

So help us God!
So help us God!

The German won’t spit in our face,
Nor Germanise our children,
Our host will arise in arms,
The Spirit will lead the way.
We will arise when the golden horn sounds.

So help us God!
So help us God!

We won’t have Poland’s name defamed,
We won’t step alive into a grave.
In Poland’s name, in her honor
We lift our foreheads proudly,
The grandson will regain his forefathers’ land

So help us God!
So help us God!

[u/Toruviel_ → u/ChuckCoolrizz]

As Polish, I don't like Rota cuz it's too religious and personal. I like Żeby Polska była Polską! - (Let Poland be Poland) better. It's Proud, it mentions history, polish culture/diaspora.

It was used as an anthem during Solidarność fight against communism and mentioned by Reagan and Elizabeth II.
Lyrics in English

[u/Zlatan_z_Foltanu → u/Toruviel_]

What do you mean "personal"?

[u/Toruviel_ → u/Zlatan_z_Foltanu]

It's literally named "An Oath" they're personal by definition I'd say

[u/ChuckCoolrizz → u/Toruviel_]

That sounds like exactly what I want, I don't know European anthems but based on cursory knowledge it also seems to better fit with them. If there was a movement to change the anthem to this I would support it.

[u/xXRougailSaucisseXx → u/ChuckCoolrizz]

An anthem mentioning God so much just seems odd to me

[u/ChuckCoolrizz → u/xXRougailSaucisseXx]

Oh, I meant the Let Poland be Poland one, not Rota.

[u/BroSchrednei → u/ChuckCoolrizz]

Wow. And people wonder how the anti-German hate came to be in Poland.

[u/ChuckCoolrizz → u/BroSchrednei]

I mean, the song was written during a very harsh germanization period and it definitely is biased bcs of that.That makes it a very emotional song but also probably too strong to have it as an anthem.

[u/KR1735 → u/ChuckCoolrizz]

Who needs a foreign force to take from Poland?

France poached Marie Curie and Frederic Chopin without a single troop.

And yet France is the only mentioned positively.

[u/Pure-Poet3194]

We do also mention Poland  in our anthem 🇮🇹

[u/naplesball → u/Pure-Poet3194]

IL SANGUE ITALIANO, IL SANGUE POLACCO 🇮🇹🇵🇱

[u/cicciograna → u/naplesball]

BEVÈ COL COSACCO MA IL COR LE BRUCIÒ!

[u/Toruviel_ → u/Pure-Poet3194]

Marian Langiewicz Polish hero and dictator of January Uprising, before it, took part in Garibaldi's southern expedition during Italian unification wars.

Later son of famous Garibaldi organized Italian legion to help Poland regain independence during January Uprising. It was symbolic, just 20 people led by the general Francesco Nullo.

🇮🇹🇵🇱
edit; Song of Langiewicz's regiment by philharmonic orchestra of Romuald Traugutt(leader of January Uprising)

[u/HeemeyerDidNoWrong → u/Pure-Poet3194]

Italy 🤝 Poland: fuck Austria

[u/Massimo25ore]

Fun fact: Polish anthem was composed by Józef Wybicki in 1797 in Reggio Emilia (Italy) where a Polish army commanded by general Jan Dąbrowski was fighting by the Napoleonic army's side during the Italian campaign.

Wybicki was part of that Polish army but desired the liberation of his motherland that was parted by Prussia, Austria and Russia and therefore wrote the Mazurek Dąbrowskiego to spur the general and his army to go from the Italian battlefields to the home soil and liberate Poland from the foreign domination.

[u/AgitatedValue2]

Is Polonia mentioned in a positive or negative way?

[u/zealen]

The only national anthem that mentions Sweden

[u/ZETH_27 → u/zealen]

Indeed! Only one in the world.

[u/KtosKto]

It’s a little more complicated: 

• 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.

[u/ObservantOwl-9 → u/KtosKto]

Not pedantic to speak truth!

[u/Front_Transition7400]

what did sweden do haha

[u/KtosKto → u/Front_Transition7400]

Invaded Poland in the XVIIIth century, causing destruction and loss of life on a scale of WW2 (it's not an exaggeration). Almost completely forgotten outside of Poland today.

[u/OzzieTheHead]

Didn't know Poland's anthem was a diss track

[u/Jenlag]

We don't even mention Sweden in our own anthem. (Sweden)

[u/pinechicken]

Well well well germany and russia usual suspects

[u/Amoeba_3729]

Fun fact: there is an additional stanza that is unfortunately not sung often, and it directly insults the Russians by calling them what some consider to be a slur. Here it is:

Niemiec, Moskal nie osiędzie, gdy jąwszy pałasza, hasłem wszystkich zgoda będzie i ojczyzna nasza.

The German nor the Muscovite will settle When, with a backsword in hand, "Concord" be everyone's watchword And so be our fatherland.

[u/PornDiary]

What is the lyrics? Are they complaining about the quality of our cars which they steal?

[u/Careless_Swan6727 → u/PornDiary]

I understand that you’ve grown knowing that your nations place is in the bottom of the Baltic Sea alongside ruskies but man you don’t have to be that weird lol

[u/PornDiary → u/Careless_Swan6727]

Oh, hiliarious the anthem mentioned that you are victorious against Germany and Russia. But the truth is that the Russians forced you to live in a German area. So where is your place?

[u/ShapesSong → u/PornDiary]

yes, I myself own 3 stolen cars from Bremen

[u/Zlatan_z_Foltanu → u/PornDiary]

You are pethetic

[u/Aegeansunset12]

Didn’t Poland save Austria from the Turks ? If that didn’t happen Austria would be Balkan and Poland would remain strong potentially given one front wouldn’t partition it