Dzisiaj wielka jest rocznica:
Jedensty listopada!
Tym, co zmarli za ojczyzjne,
Hold wdiecznosci Polska sklada.
Today is a great Polish holiday. On November 11, 1918, at the end of World War I, Poland was finally free after 123 years of occupation from Russia, Austria and Germany. For over a century there was no Poland on the maps of Europe and the world, but our forefathers persevered through the hardness and although Russia and Germany tried to turn the Poles into their own people by killing or imprisoning anyone who spoke or taught or prayed in their own language, they stayed true to themselves and their culture.
That jumble of letters and words above that must seem like a mess of randomness is really the beginning of a Polish poem, roughly translated to:
Today is a great holiday:
November 11th!
For those, who died for our country,
(then this line, I'm not sure exactly, but it is saying that Poland is thankful and grateful for their freedom)
Another poem about this event, I'm not going to translate it:
Tam od Gniezna i od Warty
Bija glosy w swiat otwarty
Bija glosy, ziemia jeczy
Prusak polskie dzieci meczy!
Za ten pacierz w wlasnej mowie
Co ja zdali nam ojcowie
Co go nas uczyly matki
Prusak meczy Polskie dziadki!
Wstal na gniezdzie Orzel Bialy
Piora mu sie w blask rozwialy...
Gdzies do Boga z skarga leci...
Prusak meczy polskie dzieci.
I didn't write these poems, I'm not sure who did, but they are now part of our tradition and so beautiful I have to share even if you can't understand them. Mimi will be able to though.
Right now my Polish flag is flying proudly in the wind, hung on my balcony in the front of my house.
I am Polish, and proud of it.
