The Song Of The Young Fascists

by Leon Pasternak

when there's a gun by your leg
and you're armed up to teeth
play the march on pavements
and order to beat the drums

'cause rest is nonsense
hip hip hurray

when there's a time, strike
but straight between the eyes
let the steel crush the bones
until your foe bleeds

when there's time to break the statues
it's eager to break them
'cause order came from
the fuhrer or the duce

but when the nonsense is revealed
beat the blacks or the jews

hey, mates, forward march
there's only starch in potatoes
a bloody, greasy borscht
we eat today for lunch
grab one's throat, like that
put his mug by the wall
bend him with the knee
you're the master now
and when the blood runs out
for the disciplined hearts
drink the blood from others
and woe to the infidels
when you will bite the dust
there would be time to dream
meanwhile shut your mouth
and whatch your own shadow

every corner is covered
there's the enemy, the enemy, enemy

tr. Mateusz Nowicki

War

by Lucjan Szenwald

A fatherland without a soldier is like beheader without a sword
So they take the flower of youth for many years now
And when the workers’ blood squirts under heavy tanks
In banks and stocks hallways joyful voices sing:

War! War!
Music sets the march
War! War!
Money flows in streams
Kill the enemy in the name of God
Give your young life for someone’s pocket

In his office a manager eats a tasty dinner
Merry he is, as brave army he owns
And when the poor worker will rot in the trenches
The manager earns his money and gets obese

On Pilsudski Square the buglers blow the trumpets
The Polish Chief of State is inspecting his army
And when someone leaves a silly flower on your grave
You, oh unknown dead man shall sign along the song

War! War!...

They’ll bury you in a cosy, collective grave
Oh, what a jolly fellowship of different corpses
And when the passionate wave will push you in a frenzy love
You shall spent a night with nurse’s remains

War! War!...

tr. Mateusz Nowicki

An Armed Pole

by Ziemowit Szczerek

Strong will the Polish be
If there would be no war
Armed up up his cap
If only Hitler won’t invade us

Plenty of colonies we’ll have
If only we don’t get hit by Stalin
Tropical fertile soil
Eagle on a hats of cork

There will be URs, there will be planes
TP-98 tanks
Everyone will dread our power
If we don’t get hit by Stalin!

There will be a colonial legion
And ebony-skinned cavalry
Everything will be just lovely
If the Hitler won’t invade us

Great Intermarum awaits
Polish eagle upon Europe
From Bulgaria to Nordkapp
If the Hitler won’t attack

We don’t need to be liked by no one
They will tremble like a milksop
They only need to dread our power
If we don’ get hit by Stalin!

tr. Mateusz Nowicki

Rights

by Andrzej Zagajewski

Fear in entire town
someone runs, scream echoes
they order new coup
they will fight each other
come on, look!

riots and demonstrations
i have a right, i got all the rights

there's rumble on the streets
there's marching crowd in sight
it's the jews from the Bund
encouraging for revolt
they plan new plot

here's a scream in the distance
'I have no money to eat nor to drink'
the police is gathering, it's time to stop,
it's time to run
rubber batons are swinging,
an army enters - shots are fired
the crowd screams, lower your heads,
put your hands up, stay by the wall
come on, look!

tr. Mateusz Nowicki

Pay, Yokel!

by Lucjan Szenwald

On paths between arable fields
In villages where hunger dwells
There bailiff walked with police
And knocked on the peasants' doors
The winter grabs a snow from a sheet
And sows it on the meadows
And the voice in the blizzard calls:
pay, yokel, pay!

Pay for the lot
suited just for your grave
clog your starved face
and make money out of your blood
for swine not fed
for plow, for vat
for doorstep, for chimney smoke
- pay, yokel, pay!

The landowner holds his grounds
He ships whole woods to sell
The burden of the taxes
Bows down our poor necks
Nothing to wrap our feet
Will we sleep on a snow?
The state ruins us, and floods

pay, scoundrel, pay!

The bailiff haunts the hamlets
The gray, blamished face
strangles us. There's a blue force
For the disobedient ones
The winter walks on plains
And weaves a shirt from snow
The voice in blizzard cries:
Pay, yokel, pay!

They told us: the land is yours again
they told us socage time is over
They know not how much effort one can take
They know not how much effort is in golden spikes
They know not what can peasant's scythe can do

tr. Mateusz Nowicki

A+B

by Mateusz Nowicki

Do you prefer hammer or a sickle?
Are you from here or from outside?
Is it shovel or a rifle in your hand?
You want to sow or to kill?

Diversity is a natural thing
Solidarity – is important
Because you live under one roof
With both smart and the scum!

tr. Mateusz Nowicki

Beat The Jew

by Julian Tuwim

They will beat – the Poles and the Russians
They will beat – sunny Slavs
They will beat – peasants and burghers
Quietly, men, in turns!
In turns! In turns! Queitly, people, in turns!

They will beat – lieutenants
They will beat – their adherents
They will beat – peasants and burghers
Quietly, men, in turns!
In turns! In turns! Queitly, people, in turns!

They will beat, they need to beat!
Beat the Jew!

Until one takes his pitchfork
Shouting – my time has come!
Onward, thieves, scumbags and bandits
Run or I’ll pierce the holes in you!

tr. Mateusz Nowicki

In Bereza

If you wish to know
How in Bereza it was
No sitting, no lying – forward march!
Wake up whistle at 4 o'clock
They took us up from our pallets
Second whistle – rally – forward march!

No jokes here, no fun
The commanders are dabsters
In torturing, in tormenting
– forward march!
Sticks are swang during exercise
everyone counts silently in mind:

Twenty
Thirty
Fourty
Fifty
Sixty
Seventy
Eighty

Truncheon hits!

Forward march!

tr. Mateusz Nowicki

To Eat And To Drink

by Władysław Broniewski

I have no money to eat nor to drink
One ought to work to exist
If there is a decent job
I’ll join the masons’ labour
To eat and to drink

ke the trowel in hand, brother
You’ll work earnestly
Walls and roofs shall emerge
The great prison will be built

They will give me food and drink
In this prison I will rot!

I don’t want no bolts and bars
I will stray far, far away
I shall take the iron hammer
And join blacksmiths
No bolts and bars

Hit the hammer with us, brother
There’s a work on a chain
Tempered in fire it will be
Your shackles shall be made of it

Executioner waits for my chain
I will carry it for many years

What shall I do, where should I go?
Shall I eat from hunger a stone
It is destined for me to be
Unemployment, famine and cell
Oh, brother, where should I go?

tr. Mateusz Nowicki

Empty Planes

by Jerzy Jurandot

War? Bring it on. We’ll be delighted.
It does scare anyone no more
A tank will fight with another tank
A cannon with cannon
All without maning

But progress, but man's genius?
Even today an empty plane could fly
One can operate ship remotely today
and in ten years?

Empty planes will fight each other
Empty ship will ravage on torpedo ship
But man? what does a man do?
everyone's poisoned anyway

tr. Mateusz Nowicki

Fresh And Shiny

by Julian Tuwim

Just as a golden sunbeam Hits my windows I get up, fresh and shiny Shouting anti-state slogan

I immerse, up to my eyes In joyful moral filth And so I sincerely disparage to God, to fatherland and humanity

I communize, for an hour I spill the spirit, and then Slander a little bit Or blasphem, if it’s holiday

I get back to my home, content Light as a little birdy In my quiet apartment Printing machine awaits

I print and print Lovely green dollars Commies leaflets Pornographic booklets

tr. Mateusz Nowicki