Fig Sign

by Andrzej Zagajewski

For the thieves
For usurers
For the snithes
For criminals
For the gendarmes and policemen
For the coalition rulers

For democratic admirers
For those who are wrong
For the bunglers and for clergy
For those who are commanding

For the wealthy and for swindlers
For those without a taste
For adults and for the young
For civilians and for soldiers

And for the unlawful
Let it be a sign for you
Let’s raise up our fists
We have a fig sign for you

Fig sign!

I am now counting
All your faces
To move your conscience
To sharpen our ears

Though your mottos seem so lovely
Though you build entire cities
The effects are pathetic
We have a fig sign for you

tr. Mateusz Nowicki

Sugar Spurs

Sugar spurs, sugar spurs
And coal warms
I’m telling you, it will be better
Everything will cheapen

Cause under polish sky
Everything is made by BB
Lutsk-Putsk, Lutsk-Putsk
Everything is made by BB

Monopolies, monopolies
And new expenses
Troops in school, army in school
Listen up, kids
Long live national interest
And pacification
Lutsk-Putsk, Lutsk-Putsk
And pacification

War is coming, war is coming
Invasion’s inevitable
Hey, sanation, stay calm
The Germans are preparing
Long live armed Poland
Long live, East on fire
Lutsk-Putsk, Lutsk-Putsk
Long live imperialism!

tr. Mateusz Nowicki

Narutowicz

by Mateusz Nowicki

All the bells ring in sorrow
Every priest cries from his pulpit
Newspapers herald to people
President Narutowicz is dead!

Shame for your words
Let the conscience deliver you
Maybe God will forgive you
For derailing a history

His murderer was the hate
Bestowed by people upon him
One lunatic was the trigger
His blood is on your hands

Eligiusz Niewiadomski
You are traitor of the state
Look at dead president
His blood is on your hands

tr. Mateusz Nowicki

Judeo-Communism

by Jan Brzechwa

Botcher takes botcher arm in arm
The store will not let credit for vodka!
Judeo-Communism! Judeo-Communism!
Hey, folks, take the sticks and strike in the head

Prztycki stuffs dumplings into his belly
He burps with garlic in a tram, so
Judeo-Communism! Judeo-Communism!
Hey, folks, take the sticks and bang!

There were a march of Zytkis in Mitkuny
Somebody shouts ‘cooks!’, crowd starts to move
Judeo-Communism! Judeo-Communism!
Hey, folks, take the sticks and plank!

It’s raining in Tatras, what the heck?
Wind is blowing from mountains’ peaks
Judeo-Communism! Judeo-Communism!
Hey, folks, take the sticks and strike!

tr. Mateusz Nowicki

Nationalists

by Tadeusz Hollender

There are boys marching on the streets
Singing stunning songs
About getting rid of all those
Who are not polish

They march and march in rows
And write watchwords on the walls
Down with commies! Down with Jews!
Entire Poland is covered in those

Sound of patter tremble the pavements
Filling hearts with terror
One might get his windows broken
One might get the fist in the face

They are polish heroes
Politicians, greatest speakers
Flower of youth in a far-right party
Pretty boys, perky boys
Valiant boys, fascist boys

They fight the Jewish hydra
Nationalists boys arrays
If the Jew is fighting back
They will put out his vile eyes

Each and one is homeland defender
So it’s soothing just to watch them
Certainly if not those boys
There would be Poland no more

To defend us from commies
They stand watch in our country
They stand watchful for only
Agriculture and industry

They are polish heroes...

The catholic merchants
Are supported by those boys
They even defend the workers
From workers themselves!

Thanks to them the Poland grows
And fullfils its western mission
Even the wealthy Jews
Are helping them in fear

With God’s and German help
They will soon triumph everywhere
When you grow up my child
You will surely be as them!

They are polish heroes...

tr. Mateusz Nowicki

Frat Boy

by Lucjan Szenwald

Who’s this handsome young man?
His eyes are shiny, linnen hair
Is he eating wafer or matzo
Who is this gorgeus looking boy

What a wonderful speaker he is
What a strong and powerful voice
What detachment does he command
This fraternity leader of us

WWimp, daydreamer, lunkhead, duffer
Empty-headed reactionist
Goverment employment – top of the dreams
The path is clear – little shame

Landowner, factory owner, Banker and bishop
those who live out of sucking blood
Knights and squires et cetera
Sweet pricks from OWP

Who is nagging about
the anti-tuition rally?
Who would be willing to end the action?
Who encourages you to battue?

A cap, a crane and fourragère
Hard-headed brute, a frat boy!
Headless party, banterers of masses
Pull someone elses legs, not ours!

tr. Mateusz Nowicki

Budget

by Edward Szymanski

Paragraphs, points and resorts Pages, abbreviations and positions For schools, for juries and for passports For army and for the police

Thousands, millions of coins Thousands, millions of numbers For common men of poverty Unintelligible code

On slick cards, calmly With a number of zeros Rustles balance, expenditure and revenue Of rulers and counting spheres

Nowhere stands ‘coal’ Nowhere stands ‘shoes’ or a ‘bread’ The red book is grinding Living goes smooth as a silk

The thick, red book The tiny, black font The order, the rule and the power The currency, the eagle, God

tr. Mateusz Nowicki

Straigh In The Heart

by Mateusz Nowicki

You’ve promised them glass-made houses
and dreamlike life
Scoundrel you are because you concealed the truth

If you can’t keep your office no more
It’s better for you to shot yourself in a heart

It’s better for you to give up the office
Aim for your heart and pull the trigger

Move your bottom
from the capital seat
to the Tartarus’ fields

Rascal you are, and the stench of your words
shall be burried in a grave
Have a mercy on your miserable heart,
spear it with a bullet!

If you can’t...

Wash your dignity
Straight in the heart!
Break the chain of lies
Straight in the heart!
Clear your hands
Straight in the heart!
Shot a bullet
Straight in the heart!

tr. Mateusz Nowicki

Effigies

by Mateusz Nowicki & Andrzej Zagajewski

What are the banks built of?
What material is used to build an insurance office?
Why are the walls covered with gold
and the roofs covered with copper
When people's earnings are so miserable,
so crummy

Not of salt, not of grain – It's built of our pain!
Not of soil, not of water
– it's made of all our loss!

What are those great palaces built of?
Where do they have money from, did they steal it?
While poor people lose their houses, lose their jobs
And people's earnings are so miserable, so crummy

Not from salt, not from grain, it is made from our pain!
Not from soil and not from water
– it is made from our loss!

tr. Mateusz Nowicki

Beat The Bolshevik

Come on, folks!!!

Hey folks, grab your scythes
and set them blades up
Berefoot bolshevik animals have invaded Poland!
Hey folks, grab your axes
and hit their backs
Make them go back to wherever the hell they came from!

Hey folks, grab your guns,
shoot their heads and backs
Otherwise those pigs will groove
our fields and orchards!

What are you waiting for?
You have strong arms and you are brave
Fight the Russians!
Defend your fields and houses!

Don't be affraid, their sabres are long but blunt
Hit them once and those cowards will run away.
Run away for good!

tr. Bartosz Seweryn Wilk

Philosophers

by Franciszek Łeczycki

Philosophers dreamt it not, oi
What hapened in Lvov, oi
Saint George held congress, oi
In cathedral ancient cellars!

Bolsheviks have gathered, oi
Men adult and the young, oi
There was vodka and kielbasa, oi
Like in the times of saxon king

Ukapists and fedakists
Kum and Wola, spartakists
There was even Kemal Pasha
Oh, our poor homeland
Workers and engineers
Geometers and teachers
Comissars and editors
One Hutsul and two doctors

But God did not want our doom
He send two angels two help
Spiegel, Hercmann their names were
Country saved thanks to them
Those beloved sons of Poland
Though both circumsized
Saved the country from the undoing
Made the miracle at the Poltva
By those sons of Cain
For the Judas-pennies
St. George conference
Was surrendered to the police

Today de facto and de iure, oi
The party hit it bottom, oi
Nothing came out of great plans, oi
Down with the communism!

tr. Mateusz Nowicki

Telegram

One night, suddenly
I was woken up by telegram
Signature was dreadful:
Goering, The Third Reich
Wittig.Stop.Warsaw
Entire Berlin’s waiting
Send us.Stop.Immediately
Huge monument of Beck

Do it wonderful
Spend no expense
On the base write:
For Beck – his own nationals

What nation does he belong?
It is unclear
There surely be fight
like for Copernicus

tr. Mateusz Nowicki

Germans Are Coming

by Henryk Zbierzchowski

Germans are coming – put your ear to ground
In the night and hearken it soundly
The muffled rumble of all the forges bellows
All the factories began to move
And in the foundries the Bessemer converters
Cast the sparkly golden plumes

Germans are coming, in every cellar
Vast amount of ammo is hid
When signal is given to retaliate
Gargantuan army will rise up in one night
And it will clash like an iron wall
On our powerless western watchtowers

Germans are coming, in solitude shops
A thousand chemists prepare a gas
Which will be used to eradicate the world
When time is right for revenge
Let there be no angst during our slumber
Germans are coming – stand watchful, oh God!

tr. Mateusz Nowicki