"Poland Is Not Yet Lost", known in Polish as "Mazurek Dąbrowskiego" (; ) and formerly the "Song of the Polish Legions in Italy", is the national anthem of Poland. The original lyrics were written by Józef Wybicki in Reggio Emilia, in Northern Italy, between 16 and 19 July 1797, two years after the Third Partition of Poland marked the end of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Its initial purpose was to raise the morale of Jan Henryk Dąbrowski's Polish Legions that served with Napoleon Bonaparte in the Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars. The song expressed the idea that the nation of Poland, despite lacking an independent state of their own, had not disappeared as long as the Polish people endured and fought in its name.
Following the declaration of independence of the Second Polish Republic in 1918, the song became its de facto national anthem, and was officially adopted in 1927. It also inspired similar songs by other peoples struggling for independence during the 19th century, such as the Ukrainian anthem "Ukraine Is Not Yet Perished", the Israeli anthem "Hatikvah (Our hope is not yet lost)", the Croatian reveille "Croatia has not yet fallen" and the Yugoslav and Slovak anthem "Hey, Slavs".
Etymology
It is also known by its original title, "" ('Song of the Polish Legions in Italy'). As there are no official translations of the name into English, various translations of its Polish incipit "" include 'Poland has not yet perished', 'Poland has not perished yet', 'Poland is not lost', 'Poland is not lost yet', 'Poland is not yet lost', and 'Poland has not yet succumbed'.
Lyrics
The original lyrics, authored by Wybicki, are a poem consisting of six quatrains and a refrain quatrain repeated after all but the last stanza, all following an ABAB rhyme scheme. The official lyrics, based on a variant from 1806, "Poland has not yet died", suggesting a more violent cause of the nation's possible death. Wybicki's original manuscript was in the hands of his descendants until February 1944, when it was lost in Wybicki's great-great-grandson, Johann von Roznowski's home in Charlottenburg during the Allied bombing of Berlin. The manuscript is known today only from facsimile copies, twenty-four of which were made in 1886 by Edward Rożnowski, Wybicki's grandson, who donated them to Polish libraries.
The main theme of the poem is the idea that was novel in the times of early nationalisms based on centralized nation-statesthat the lack of political sovereignty does not preclude the existence of a nation. As Adam Mickiewicz explained in 1842 to students of Slavic Literature in Paris, the song "The famous song of the Polish legions begins with lines that express the new history: Poland has not perished yet as long as we live. These words mean that people who have in them what constitutes the essence of a nation can prolong the existence of their country regardless of its political circumstances and may even strive to make it real again..." The song also includes a call to arms and expresses the hope that, under General Dąbrowski's command, the legionaries would rejoin their nation and retrieve "what the foreign force has seized" through armed struggle.
The chorus and subsequent stanzas include heart-lifting examples of military heroes, set as role models for Polish soldiers: Jan Henryk Dąbrowski, Napoleon, Stefan Czarniecki, and Tadeusz Kościuszko.
Dąbrowski, for whom the anthem is named, was a commander in the failed 1794 Kościuszko Uprising against Russia. After the Third Partition in 1795, he came to Paris to seek French aid in re-establishing Polish independence and in 1796, he started the formation of the Polish Legions, a Polish unit of the French Revolutionary Army.
Bonaparte was, at the time when the song was written, a commander of the Italian campaign of French Revolutionary Wars and Dąbrowski's superior. Having already proven his skills as a military leader, he is described in the lyrics as the one "who has shown us ways to victory." Bonaparte is the only non-Polish person mentioned by name in the Polish anthem.
Stefan Czarniecki was a 17th-century hetman, famous for his role in driving the Swedish Army out of Poland after an occupation that had left the country in ruins and is remembered by Poles as the Deluge. With the outbreak of a Dano-Swedish War, he continued his fight against Sweden in Denmark, from where he "returned across the sea" to fight the invaders alongside the king, who was then at the Royal Castle in Poznań. In the same castle, Józef Wybicki started his career as a lawyer in 1765.
Kościuszko, mentioned in a stanza now missing from the anthem, became a hero of the American Revolutionary War before coming back to Poland to defend his native country from Russia in the war of 1792 and a national uprising he led in 1794. One of his major victories during the uprising was the Battle of Racławice, where the result was partly due to Polish peasants armed with scythes. Alongside the scythes, the song mentioned other types of weaponry, traditionally used by the Polish szlachta, or nobility: the sabre, known in Polish as szabla, and the backsword.
Basia (a feminine diminutive of Barbara) and her father are fictional characters. They are used to represent the women and elderly men who waited for the Polish soldiers to return home and liberate their fatherland. The route that Dąbrowski and his legions hoped to follow upon leaving Italy is hinted at by the words "we'll cross the Vistula, we'll cross the Warta", two major rivers flowing through the parts of Poland that were in Austrian and Prussian hands at the time.
Current official lyrics
Polish original IPA transcription English translationPolish Flag / Polish Eagle / Polish AnthemI Poland has not yet succumbed. As long as we remain, What the foe by force has seized, Sword in hand we'll gain.
Chorus: 𝄆 March! March, Dabrowski! March from Italy to Poland! Under your command We shall reach our land. 𝄇
II Cross the Vistula and Warta And Poles we shall be; We've been shown by Bonaparte Ways to victory.
III As Czarniecki Poznan town regains, Fighting with the Swede, To free our fatherland from chains. We shall return by sea.
IV And the father to Basia, Then says and crying: "Listen to that, it's our boys playing the drums!"
Original text by Józef Wybicki Polish original(original spelling) English translationI Poland has not yet succumbed. As long as we remain, What the foe by force has seized, Sword in hand we'll gain.
𝄆 March! March, Dabrowski! March from Italy to Poland! Under your command We shall reach our land. 𝄇
II Cross the Vistula and Warta And Poles we shall be; We've been shown by Bonaparte Ways to victory.
III As Czarniecki Poznan town regains, Fighting with the Swede, To free our fatherland from chains. We shall return by sea.
IV The German nor the Muscovite will settle When, with a backsword in hand, "Concord" be everyone's watchword And so be our fatherland.
V And the father to Basia, Then says and crying: "Listen to that, it's our boys playing the drums!"
VI All exclaim in unison, "Enough of this captivity!" We've got the scythes of Racławice, Kościuszko, if God wills.
Music
The melody of the Polish anthem is a lively and rhythmical mazurka. Mazurka as a musical form derives from the stylization of traditional melodies for the folk dances of Mazuria, an historical region in northeast Poland. It is characterized by a triple meter and strong accents placed irregularly on the second or third beat. Considered one of Poland's national dances in pre-partition times, it owes its popularity in 19th-century Western European ballrooms to the mazurkas of Frédéric Chopin.
The composer of "" is not known, though most contemporary performances of it utilize a modern arrangement by composer Kazimierz Sikorski. The melody is most probably Wybicki's adaptation of a folk tune that had already been popular during the second half of the 18th century. The composition used to be erroneously attributed to Michał Kleofas Ogiński, who was known to have written a march for Dąbrowski's legions. Several historians confused Ogiński's "" ('March for the Polish Legions') with Wybicki's mazurka, possibly due to the mazurka's chorus "March, march, Dąbrowski", until Ogiński's sheet music for the march was discovered in 1938 and proven to be a different piece of music than Poland's national anthem.
The first composer to use the anthem for an artistic music piece is always stated to be Karol Kurpiński. In 1821, he composed his piano/organ Fugue on "Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła" (it was published in 1821 in Warsaw; the first modern edition by Rostislaw Wygranienko was printed only in 2009). However, Karol Lipiński used it in an overture for his opera Kłótnia przez zakład composed and staged in Lviv .
was the next who arranged "" for the piano. The arrangement, accompanied by the lyrics in Polish and French, was published 1829 in Paris. German composers who were moved by the suffering of the November Uprising wove the mazurek into their works. Examples include Richard Wagner's Polonia Overture and Albert Lortzing's Der Pole und sein Kind.
The current official musical score of the national anthem was arranged by Kazimierz Sikorski and published by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Sikorski's harmonization allows for each vocal version to be performed either a cappella or together with any of the instrumental versions. Some orchestra parts, marked in the score as ad libitum, may be left out or replaced by other instruments of equivalent musical scale.
In 1908, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, later to become the first Prime Minister of independent Poland, quoted the anthem in a disguised way in his Symphony in B minor "Polonia". He scored it in duple meter rather than its standard triple meter.
The anthem was quoted by Edward Elgar in his symphonic prelude Polonia, composed in 1915.
Regulations The national anthem is, along with the national coat of arms and the national colors, one of three national symbols defined by the Polish constitution.. For English translation see: Constitution of the Republic of Poland As such, it is protected by law which declares that treating the national symbols "with reverence and respect" is the "right and obligation" of every Polish citizen and all state organs, institutions and organizations. The anthem should be performed or reproduced especially at celebrations of national holidays and anniversaries. Civilians should pay respect to the anthem by standing in a dignified manner; additionally, men should uncover their heads. Members of uniformed services should stand at attention; if their uniform includes headgear and they are not standing in an organized group, they should also perform the two-finger salute. The song is required to be played in the key of F major if played for a public purpose. Color guards pay respect to the anthem by dipping their banners.
History Origin
In 1795, after a prolonged decline and despite last-minute attempts at constitutional reforms and armed resistance, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was ultimately partitioned by its three neighbors: Russia, Prussia and Austria. A once-vast and powerful empire was effectively erased from the map while monarchs of the partitioning powers pledged never to use the name "Poland" in their official titles. For many, including even leading representatives of the Polish Enlightenment, this new political situation meant the end of the Polish nation. In the words of Hugo Kołłątaj, a notable Polish political thinker of the time, "Poland no longer belonged to currently extant nations," while historian Tadeusz Czacki declared that Poland "was now effaced from the number of nations."