Tuesday, September 22, 2009

kormorany, in english

A commenter asked for a translation of the song in the previous post. I was going to do this in the comment section, but then I realized that it's Tuesday, for God's sake, Tuesday, my awfully long day, a day that is so consumed by work that I cannot write anything here at all because everything has to do with work and, well, I don't write about work.

You could have had here a post about rain. Because there was plenty of it. But that's too simple. Let me add a layer of emotion by providing (some of) the lyrics from yesterday's song. Interspersed with photos from today (hello, autumn!). A very very wet day. So wet, that no one's shoes were adequate. Sit back and just look at this (very wet) landscape as if you were Polish. Take off your socks. They're wet. I peeled off mine. And I let myself lean back into my chair, immersing myself in the words before me:

Kormorany. The cormorants.

Dzień gaśnie w szarej mgle
The day disappears into a gray mist

Wiatr strąca krople z drzew
The wind shakes off raindrops from trees

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Sznur kormoranów w locie splątał się
A string of cormorants, tangled in flight

Pożegnał ciepły dzień
Said good bye to a warm day

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Ostatni dzień w mazurskich stronach
The last day in the Mazury region [the lake region of Poland, where so many set sail during vacation]

Zmierzch z jezior żagle zdjął
Dusk took the sails off the waters


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Mgieł porozpinał splot
That's a toughie: it's about dusk taking apart the tangle of misty air

Szmer tataraku jeszcze dobiegł nas
The whisper of sweet flag reaches us

Już wracać czas
It's time to return home...


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Even pop music could not shake the poetic impulse. Songs of the sixties in Poland, even the late sixties, were so full of metaphors and poetry that the heart just swelled.

2 comments:

  1. lovely lyrics! and especially paired with the photos :)

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  2. I can't help but comment that "take apart" is not the right translation for "rozpinać" in this context. The Polish verb in question has not only negative meaning (e.g. to unbutton), but also a positive one (e.g. to spread).

    I also believe your blog could be a little bit more accessible if you regulated the width of the photos more rigorously.

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