I’ve recently come across a book which is very appropriate for the current one hundred year anniversary of Poland’s return to the map of Europe .  The author is Malgorzata Strzalkowska and it’s entitled: “Dabrowski’s Mazurka, our national anthem”.  The book was published in 1989, and it represents a single, comprehensive source for everything we would need to know about our most important hymn, our national anthem.  The book comes with a CD with words,  and the hymn performed in various versions,  demonstrating that over the years not only the text changed, but the music did as well.

First performed in 1797 for the soldiers of the Polish Legions in Italy, Dabrowski’s Mazurka immediately achieved great popularity and fame throughout Europe.  The anthem rapidly made its way into Poland via secret channels,  its stirring text igniting the spirit, strengthening  the will,  awakening a longing for and hope of regaining  Polish nationhood.  The  author Josef Wybicki, was  a notable figure who spent most of his life in service to Poland.  He was devoted to Polish issues and starting from his youth through the years, participated in many historic events.  Born into a noble family from  Bedomin in 1747,  in the Kaszubian region of Poland, he received a good and proper education with additional training  in the law.  He occupied many important positions, and was committed to doing the right things for the good of the country.  He served as chamberlain for King Augustus Poniatowski,  and participated in  debates at the Polish parliament  (the  Sejm) and fought in the Kosciuszko uprising.  After that defeat, he was forced to emigrate.  He  took part in discussions between General Henryk Dabrowski and Napolean Bonaparte after leaving Poland,  and traveled widely in Europe on diplomatic and military missions as a colonel.  Along with all of this, he was a talented writer,  a playwright of two plays and two operas. 

Marlgorata Strzalkowska’s book is divided into two parts.  In the first part, she discusses the history of the national anthem.  A history of the anthem  was recently published in the previous issue of  “Forum“ , written  by Ola Hart Hirszowicz.  I will attempt, in this article, to acquaint our readers with the second part of Strzalkowska’s book which explains the text of the anthem and some of the obscure words and phrases which are worth their weight in gold. 

In the original version, that is the text written by Wybicki, there are six stanzas.  I found nine on the internet which apparently had been added over time as the musical accompaniment changed.

            „Poland has not yet perished

                        So long as we still live

                        What the alien force has taken from us

                        We shall retrieve with a sabre”

This fragment refers to the partition and annexation of Poland after the Koscziuszko uprising.  It inspires hope for regaining freedom through battle.

            „We shall cross the Vistula,  ( river) we’ll cross the Warta ( river)

                        Bonaparte has given us the example

                        Of how we should prevail”

At this time Napoleon Bonaparte was achieving great successes in his campaigns.  Poles fought valiantly alongside his forces in Prussia, in Haiti and in Spain.   The great general had correctly assessed the bravery of the Polish forces.  This stanza speaks of the invasion of forces from the south

            „Like Czarnecki to Poznan

                        After the Swedish occupation

                        To save our homeland

                        We shall return across the sea”

Stefan Czarniecki, a Polish nobleman fighting in the Polish- Swedish War 1650-1655  mostly on Polish soil, conquered the Swedes using his enemy’s methods of a kind of guerrilla warfare.    He crossed the straits to Denmark with his army and horses and fought there for an entire year.  The Scandinavian operation weakened the Swedes to the extent that it brought the war to an end.   Czarniecki then returned to Poland to fight the Russians in Ukraine where he was wounded.  He succumbed to his wounds at the age of 66.   Czarniecki  had many important titles,  was nominated to be Field Commander/ Commander  in Chief of Polish forces just six weeks before his death in 1665.         

                        „A father in tears

                                    Says to his Basia ( daughter )

                                    Listen, our boys are said

                                    To be beating the tarabans ”

There were questions about who this Basia mentioned in the refrain was, and it was determined that it likely referred to the daughter of general Ksawer Chlapowski who was named Basia ( Barbara).   General Dabrowski  showered this lady, Basia who was 26 years his junior with great affection, and  married her in 1807.   The  glorious sound of drums ( tarabans),  signaling the start of the long awaited battle is reflected in the following:

            „March, march Dabrowski

                        From the Italian land to Poland

                        Under your command

                        We shall rejoin the nation”

These words speak of the start of the Polish Legions in Italy returning to Poland under the leadership of Dabrowski at the side of Napoleon.  They refer to  the retaking of Poland and  the reunification with the Polish armed forces.

Who was this other Pole mentioned here along with Czarniecki  – this  Henryk Dabrowski?  He came from a family in which military service was a tradition; his father was an officer in the same  Saxon army  that a fifteen year old Henryk joined. After having served for 20 years,  Henryk moved to the Polish army.  During the Koscziuszko Uprising he distinguished himself in his defense of Warsaw and with his incursion into the Wielkopolska region of Poland.  He emigrated to France after the collapse of the Kosciuszko uprising, having achieved the rank of general in order to establish  (after consultation with Napolean) the Polish Legions in Italy.   In 1806 alongside the French army he entered Poland and fought against the Austrians and Prussians occupying  Poland.   After the death of Prince Jozef Poniatowski, he became  the Commander in Chief of the  armed forces of  the Kingdom of Poland formed in 1815.  He died 200 years ago at his property,  Winna Gora ( Old Wine Hill)  in Wielkie Kziestwo Poznanskie   ( the Grand Duchy of Poznan).  His heart is enshrined in the Church of St. Wojciech in Poznan, alongside other prominent and deserving Poles from the Wielkopolska region. 

The refrain after the fifth or sixth stanza indicates a change with the following text:

            „March, march Dabrowski from the  Italian Land to Poland

                        Freedom, our old watchword has not yet been extinguished”

The original text of the National Anthem in six stanzas, was placed in safekeeping at the Bank of Berlin, but unfortunately after the incursion of the Red Army             (Soviet forces)  in 1945, it disappeared without a trace.

Currently,  tradition requires the singing of four stanzas and repeating the refrains twice.   Trimming it down to one refrain would have been too deep a cut. 

There is now a museum with many interesting exhibits in the palace of the Wybicki family dedicated to the national hymn.

Strzalkowska’s book contains many illustrations . This publication not only serves to inform and educate, but to stir up emotions of love for and pride in our homeland.  It is a fascinating read for everyone.

Elzbieta Ulanowska