Poetry

September 18 – That Angel by Juliusz Słowacki

That Angel burning at my left side
Harps on an old string.
And I am with you
Among the plains where white seagulls ride,
Locked in a coffin in the Siberian snow.
Hyenas howl out of the wind. Reindeer
Graze on the graves, under your sure care.

The roots of lilies probe my corpse. It shines,
A white goblet wonderfully transformed,
A lantern corpse that fills the night with signs,
– And the music of the soul makes silence alarmed.
You dim the lamp and ask the music to
Keep silent that my spirit may sleep through.

Alone, you say your prayers. You go on speaking
Into the holy sapphire. And from your hair,
Like diamonds, a chain of stars is streaking
Into the heavens – and each star is a prayer.

Translated by Jerzy Peterkiewicz and Burns Singer

Anioł ognisty – mój anioł lewy
Poruszył dawną miłości strunę.
Z tobą! o! z tobą – gdzie białe mewy,
Z tobą – w pod śnieżną sybirską trunę,
Gdzie wiatry wyją tak jak hyjeny,
Tam gdzie ty pasasz na grobach reny.

Z grobowca mego rosną lilije,
Grób jako biała czara prześliczna –
Światło po nocy spod wieka bije
I dzwoni cicha dusza – muzyczna.
Ty każesz światłom onym zagasnąć,
Muzykom ustać – duchowi zasnąć…

Ty sama jedna na szafir święty
Modlisz się głośno – a z twego włosa,
Jedna za drugą, jak dyjamenty,
Gwiazdy modlitwy – lecą w niebiosa.

Poetry

September 17 – Sparrows by Antoni Górecki

Old sparrows grouping on a tree,
Very learnedly conversed,
Finding fault with ev’ry bird, whate’er it be.
Hoopoo’s tuft-head provoked their gossip first.
The jay, thinking he is pretty, is so vain.
The golden oriole, like the thrush, is plain.
The dove pretends modesty, but when she flies
Her aspiring flight her gentle mien belies.
The cuckoo, most selfish all the birds among,
Slips slyly in other nests her helpless young.
The bullfinch alights upon the highest tree,
Goldfinch thinks his song the finest melody.
And a crazy-head, the wagtail he flies,
As soon as the morning’s light begins to rise,
Out to each nook and corner —” everywhere,
With turned-up tail and eager, prying air.
But as these birds themselves were only sparrows,
They at others shot their arrows.
    But idlers they through summer sweet,
    Who but consumed the farmer’s wheat.

Translation from Poets and Poetry of Poland A Collection of Polish Verse, Including a Short Account of the History of Polish Poetry, with Sixty Biographical Sketches of Poland’s Poets and Specimens of Their Composition by Paul Soboleski

Tree_of_sparrows

Wmieszał się stary wróbel pomiędzy kurczęta,
Między młode indyczęta,
Zajadał u nich obiady, śniadania:
I dawał za to lekcje im latania.
Raz im rozprawiał, jak latają pawie,
To znowu o tem, jak lecą żurawie,
Jak bekas leci, a czajka inaczej.
Co to wszystko znaczy?
Z kąd, i dla czego ta różność pochodzi?
Dziwili się ucznie młodzi,
I wielkiej u nich już używał chwały;
Kiedy młode jaskółki z gniazda wyleciały.
Raz tedy ucznie jego widząc jaskółeczkę,
Jak ona ledwo podniesie się z ziemi,
Pod niebem buja już skrzydły lekkiemi.
Wzięli wołać: że chcą tak polatać troszeczkę.
" Ah! fuknął wróbel, co wara zważać na to,
" Ze ktoś leci; wy lekcji mej słuchajcie dalej.
" Pierwiej w teorji bądźmy doskonali,
" A na praktykę ruszym w przyszłe lato. »

LifeStream

Daily Digest for September 17th

twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: Daily Digest for September 14th http://bit.ly/e8hZ1 [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: September 9 – A Quiet Moment Comes After a Storm by Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski http://bit.ly/yv0Pp [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: September 10 – Leaves are falling by Wincenty Pol http://bit.ly/3mGsLS [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: September 13 – Let Brotherly Love Continue by Zhou Gong http://bit.ly/MMuLS [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: September 12 – A Sonnet on the Wonders of Love by Jan Andrzej Morsztyn http://bit.ly/1qcKfs [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: Oh yeah, and about that… http://bit.ly/NMO4V [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: The world, Europe, Chrstianity, and the creation of greatness http://bit.ly/p6Nfi [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: On St. Casimir’s near Rochester, NY http://bit.ly/dMp4q [deacon_jim]
lastfm (feed #3)
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: Adam Mickiewicz, The Life of a Romantic http://bit.ly/2lHPcm [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: A tour of Polish Greenpoint and pre-war Warsaw http://bit.ly/wpxF6 [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: Arts-2-gether: Call for Master Level and Field Teaching Artists http://bit.ly/1esksX [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: September 14 – The Exaltation of the Cross by Adam of St. Victor http://bit.ly/2HGV9k [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: Daily Digest for September 15th http://bit.ly/4brxar [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: The Youth of the PNCC explain it all http://bit.ly/dBRum [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: Spaghetti dinner at Holy Cross Parish in Wilkes-Barre, PA http://bit.ly/10Awmi [deacon_jim]
lastfm (feed #3)
Listened to 2 songs.
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: Daily Digest for September 16th http://bit.ly/m48ao [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: September 15 – Untitled by Tadeusz Borowski http://bit.ly/1WN07t [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: September 16 – Farewell to Maria by Tadeusz Borowski http://bit.ly/LPzIW [deacon_jim]
Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , ,

From the East…

From John Guzlowski’s Lightning and Ashes: The Men From the East Were Terrible

Today is the 70th Anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland. It came 2 weeks after the Nazis invaded.

70 years ago today the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east and divided up the country with the Nazis. In some places in Poland, they light candles and put them in the windows to remember the dead and the suffering of the living during that time.

My mother was living west of Lvov in eastern Poland when the Russians invaded…

Tonight in Danville, Virginia, where I live, I will light a candle.

Poetry

September 16 – Farewell to Maria by Tadeusz Borowski

If you are living, remember
I’m alive. But don’t come to me.
In this black, swollen night
snowflakes cling to the windows

And the wind whistles. And naked shapes
of trees slap the window. And above me like
smoke from charred cities and battle fronts
drifts the deaf, measureless silence.

This appalling silence! Why have I
lived so long? Now, only bitterness.
Don’t come back to me. My love
burned away in the flames of the crematorium.

There, you were mine. Your body
covered in scabies and boils, rose up
like a cloud. There you were mine,
from heaven, from fire. Now it’s over.

You won’t come back to me. Nor will
that wind return, drunk with fog.
The dead will not rise from common graves
and brittle ash won’t come back to life.

I don’t want it, don’t come back. It was all
playacting, a fiction, hollow theatrics.
Your love circles above me
like human smoke above the wind.

Translation unattributed

Jeżeli żyjesz — to pamiętaj,
że jestem. Ale do mnie nie idz.
W tej nocy czarnej, opuchniętej
snieg się do szyb płatami klei.

I gwiżdże wiatr. I nagi kontur
drzew bije w okno. I nade mna
jak dym zagasłych miast i frontów
płynie niezmierna, głucha ciemnosć.

Jak strasznie cicho! Po cóż było
aż dotad żyć? Już tylko gorycz.
Nie wracaj do mnie. Moja miłosć
jest zżarta ogniem krematorium.

Stamtad cię miałem. Twoje ciało
w swierzbie, w flegmonie tak się pięło
jak obłok wzwyż. Stamtad cię miałem,
z niebiosów, z ognia. Przeminęło.

Nie wrócisz do mnie. Razem z toba
nie wróci wiatr, co mgła się opił.
Nie wstana ludzie z wspólnych grobów
i nie ożyje kruchy popiół.

Nie chcę, nie wracaj. Wszystko było
gra nasza, złuda, czczym teatrem.
Kraży nade mna twoja miłosć
jak dym człowieka ponad wiatrem.

LifeStream

Daily Digest for September 16th

twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: Daily Digest for September 14th http://bit.ly/e8hZ1 [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: September 9 – A Quiet Moment Comes After a Storm by Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski http://bit.ly/yv0Pp [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: September 10 – Leaves are falling by Wincenty Pol http://bit.ly/3mGsLS [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: September 13 – Let Brotherly Love Continue by Zhou Gong http://bit.ly/MMuLS [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: September 12 – A Sonnet on the Wonders of Love by Jan Andrzej Morsztyn http://bit.ly/1qcKfs [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: Oh yeah, and about that… http://bit.ly/NMO4V [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: The world, Europe, Chrstianity, and the creation of greatness http://bit.ly/p6Nfi [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: On St. Casimir’s near Rochester, NY http://bit.ly/dMp4q [deacon_jim]
lastfm (feed #3)
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: Adam Mickiewicz, The Life of a Romantic http://bit.ly/2lHPcm [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: A tour of Polish Greenpoint and pre-war Warsaw http://bit.ly/wpxF6 [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: Arts-2-gether: Call for Master Level and Field Teaching Artists http://bit.ly/1esksX [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: September 14 – The Exaltation of the Cross by Adam of St. Victor http://bit.ly/2HGV9k [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: Daily Digest for September 15th http://bit.ly/4brxar [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: The Youth of the PNCC explain it all http://bit.ly/dBRum [deacon_jim]
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: Spaghetti dinner at Holy Cross Parish in Wilkes-Barre, PA http://bit.ly/10Awmi [deacon_jim]
lastfm (feed #3)
Listened to 2 songs.
PNCC, , ,

Spaghetti dinner at Holy Cross Parish in Wilkes-Barre, PA

From the Times Leader: Holy Cross Polish National Catholic Church plans spaghetti dinner

A spaghetti dinner will be served from 4-7 p.m. Saturday, September 19th in the hall at Holy Cross Polish National Catholic Church, 23 Sheridan St., Wilkes-Barre. Takeouts will be sold. Tickets will be available at the door and proceeds benefit the church. Chances for a variety of baskets that will be raffled off can be purchased in advance from any committee member or at the dinner.

Some committee members from left, seated, are: Joseph Compton, chairman; and the Very Rev. Thaddeus Dymkowski, pastor. Standing: Cathy Morgan; Debbie Zlotnicki; Jodie Januszko; Sandy Jackson; Dolores Wodarczyk; Marion Ritsick; Arline Rosenko; Joseph Ritsick; and Martha Karweta.
Some committee members from left, seated, are: Joseph Compton, chairman; and the Very Rev. Thaddeus Dymkowski, pastor. Standing: Cathy Morgan; Debbie Zlotnicki; Jodie Januszko; Sandy Jackson; Dolores Wodarczyk; Marion Ritsick; Arline Rosenko; Joseph Ritsick; and Martha Karweta.
Poetry

September 15 – Untitled by Tadeusz Borowski

I think of you. Your eyes,
your voice, your smile, are there
in the sky. A cloud
slides down the slope of the sky
and you turn your face a little.
There, a tree tangled in the wind
bends its head like you bend yours.
Here, a bird balances in the air
like your hand raised to your forehead
in thought. The scattered
beauty of things, the fleeting sparks
of earthly grace converge in you
and take on a lasting shape …

Translation unattributed

Myslę o tobie. Twoje oczy,
twój głos, twój usmiech przypominam,
patrzac na niebo. Zboczem nieba
zsuwa się obłok, jakbys lekko
profil zwróciła w lewo. í“wdzie
drzewo wplatane w wiatr przechyla
koronę twoim przechyleniem,
a tam w powietrzu ptak się waży –
i wiem, że tak do twarzy wznosisz
dłoń w zamysleniu. Rozproszona
uroda rzeczy, błysk przelotny
piękna na ziemi wiem, że w tobie
uwiazł i zastygł w kształt…