Category Archive 'Poland'
29 Jun 2024

A Sad Story

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Via FB:

Lest We Forget . . . . . .

This man lived in the alcove of the old Finlay’s tobacconist kiosk, in Camden Town Underground Station and although he had been living there since the early 1970’s, nobody knew anything about him. He didn’t beg, he refused to accept money, he never drank alcohol, he didn’t smoke and for me, he was as much a part of Camden Town as the tube station itself. He only spoke to me once and it was on the day that I took this photograph. He’d seen me walking around with my camera loads of times but on this particular occasion he stopped me and said, “photographs are important, because people soon forget”. I always knew that there was a lot more to him than the image he presented to the world but I was stunned, when I read his story in the Camden Journal, the week after he passed away in 1988. He was born in Poland and when the Germans invaded in 1939, he made his way to England. He fought in the battle of Britain, flying a Spitfire in one of the Polish squadrons, married an English girl and worked as a printer after the war. When his wife died in 1969, he was so devastated that after the funeral, he never went home and instead, he moved into the alcove of the tube station. It is to Churchill’s detriment that he and other Polish pilots were not allowed to participate in the victory celebrations, because it was felt that the presence of the Polish contingent might upset the Russians. This man really was, one of the forgotten few, who spent the last 20 years of his life, living in a kiosk, mourning his wife.

29 Feb 2024

Franciszek Fiszer, a Polish Flaneur

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My Polish correspondents were remembering an interesting character of an earlier time.

Does this character look familiar? Tight suit, long beard, glasses on…

On March 25, 1860, Franciszek Fiszer was born in the estate of Marcaawa near Ostrołęka. His father came from polonized German nobility, his mother was a Polish landlord. Francis was orphaned early on. He studied philosophy in Leipzig, but he didn’t finish his studies. He quickly lost his inherited property – his family flower garden Sawy was auctioned for debt in 1899. A year later, he lived permanently in Warsaw and quite quickly became the most famous figure of the Warsaw social cream, an ornament to countless balls and routs.

He always lived as an extension of his friends with all privileges and no responsibilities, and spent his life in the capital’s fashionable restaurants and cafes, at grand parties and exclusive dinners. Franciszek Fiszer was a friend of most of the most famous Polish writers, poets, artists and politicians of that time. Among Fisher’s closest friends were Bolesław Leśmian (it is believed that he created his artistic nickname), Władysław Reymont, Stefan Żeromski, Antoni Słonimski, Julian Tuwim, Jan Lechoń, Zenon Przesmycki or Artur Rubinstein. He was renowned for his existential monologues and anecdotes, his company was sought after, and the restaurant owners themselves often paid his bills, seeing him as live advertising for their places.

Franciszek Fiszer was described as exuberant, but lazy. He never published any book, though his goal was to solve the mysteries of existence and find the most perfect forms of understanding the world. He was the hero of countless anecdotes, and his character appears in almost every memory of Polish artists of the interwar period. He was a highly valued and liked man, not only for his wit and erudition, but also his benevolence – no one ever heard him speak ill of anyone. Everyone was his friend, especially young people, with whom he got along perfectly.

Franciszek Fiszer died on April 9, 1937 in Warsaw. It is believed that he was the prototype of Mr. Kleks’ character from the children’s novel Jan Brzechwa visualized by the excellent illustrator Jan Szancer.

25 Dec 2023

Wśród nocnej ciszy

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Warsaw Boys Choir.

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Wśród nocnej ciszy

Wśród nocnej ciszy głos się rozchodzi:
Wstańcie, pasterze, Bóg się wam rodzi!
Czym prędzej się wybierajcie,
Do Betlejem pospieszajcie
Przywitać Pana.

Poszli, znaleźli Dzieciątko w żłobie
Z wszystkimi znaki danymi sobie.
Jako Bogu cześć Mu dali,
A witając zawołali
Z wielkiej radości:

Ach, witaj Zbawco z dawna żądany,
Cztery tysiące lat wyglądany
Na Ciebie króle, prorocy
Czekali, a Tyś tej nocy
Nam się objawił.

————————–

Amidst the stillness of the night

Amidst the stillness of the night, a voice proclaims:
Arise ye shepherds – God is born to you!
Seize the moment,
Hasten to Bethlehem
To welcome the Lord.

They came, they found the child in the manger
With all the signs of honor
given by God ,
They shouted a greeting,
With great joy.

Welcome Savior, long desired!
Looked for for one thousand years
By kings and prophets
They waited, and you tonight
Revealed yourself to us.

31 Dec 2020

Wśród nocnej ciszy

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Warsaw Boys Choir.

25 Aug 2020

Polish Surrealism

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Jacek Yerka, Bible Dam.

25 Jul 2020

“Born for the Saber” / “Zrodzeni do Szabli” (2019)

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Born for the Saber / Zrodzeni do Szabli from Stow. Polska Sztuka Krzyżowa on Vimeo.

Former Polish Nobility Association [ZSP] Chairman Marcin Wiszowaty forwarded this video trailer today. Great stuff.

IMDB:

Set in Poland during the first half of XVII century, the epic documentary-drama “Born for the saber” tells the story of young knight Blazej Wronowski. Jan Jerlicz, a veteran of the Muscovite wars who returns to his fatherland upon Maciej Wronowski’s – his brother’s in arms request to begin training his son, Blazej. “Born for the saber” is a feature story about honor, courage and war, seen through the eyes of a young noble and knight growing up in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Documentary part of the movie is a cinematic journey through history and art of the mystique of high-end crafting of the polish saber, which to date is considered to be one of the best melee weapons on the globe. Word class experts demonstrate the art of saber fighting and forging this extraordinary weapon.

I doubt that an English-subtitled version is available yet. Yet.

25 Dec 2019

Wśród nocnej ciszy

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Warsaw Boys Choir.

—————————————

Wśród nocnej ciszy

Wśród nocnej ciszy głos się rozchodzi:
Wstańcie, pasterze, Bóg się wam rodzi!
Czym prędzej się wybierajcie,
Do Betlejem pospieszajcie
Przywitać Pana.

Poszli, znaleźli Dzieciątko w żłobie
Z wszystkimi znaki danymi sobie.
Jako Bogu cześć Mu dali,
A witając zawołali
Z wielkiej radości:

Ach, witaj Zbawco z dawna żądany,
Cztery tysiące lat wyglądany
Na Ciebie króle, prorocy
Czekali, a Tyś tej nocy
Nam się objawił.

————————–

Amidst the stillness of the night

Amidst the stillness of the night, a voice proclaims:
Arise ye shepherds – God is born to you!
Seize the moment,
Hasten to Bethlehem
To welcome the Lord.

They came, they found the child in the manger
With all the signs of honor
given by God ,
They shouted a greeting,
With great joy.

Welcome Savior, long desired!
Looked for for one thousand years
By kings and prophets
They waited, and you tonight
Revealed yourself to us.

21 Nov 2019

Vienna Rejects Monument to Polish King Who Broke the Turkish Siege

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The monument depicts Sobieski as the head of a column of hussars as he routed the Ottoman army at the Siege of Vienna in 1683, a battle that put a check on the Ottomans’ further advances into Europe.

The First News illustrates the spurned monument sitting on a trailer in Cracow.

[T]hirteen attempts have been made to erect a monument in Vienna in honour of the Polish king who relieved the siege of the city. This latest attempt looked set to be successful.

The foundation stone for the monument in Vienna was laid six years ago on the 330th anniversary of the battle. The unveiling of the monument was planned for 12 September 2018 on the 335th anniversary of the relief of Vienna.

However, last July, the new mayor of Vienna, Michael Ludwig, announced that he was withdrawing from the project.

Piotr Zapart, initiator of the project and chairman of the monument’s organising committee said in an interview with radio station RMF FM, “We had all the agreements in place; the cooperation with Vienna, as well as with Kraków was great; there was a signed agreement between the Mayor of the Kraków, Jacek Majchrowski, and the Mayor of Vienna, Michael Häupel.

“On 11 July, President Jacek Majchrowski and I were invited to meet the new mayor Michael Ludwig. And there we were told that a new committee had said that the monument did not meet the artistic standards, was archaic and therefore Vienna withdrew its consent.”

In its letter to the organising committee, the authorities in Vienna, fearing that the monument may be perceived as anti-Turkish, stated that it was not an appropriate time to erect military monuments.

In the place where the monument was to be erected, everything is ready. The pedestal is already there and the area around it has been cobblestoned. On both sides of the pedestal there was to be an inscription in Polish and German ‘King of Poland Jan III Sobieski’ with the date of the battle.

The monument’s placement on a platform trailer normally used to haul broken-down cars symbolises that it is still on the road to its final destination in the Austrian capital.

It will stand in Kraków for a maximum of two weeks according to local authorities in the city. Later, it will move on to Nowy Sącz, Brzeg and Nysa, places that are connected with the life of the king, and possibly to Warsaw, where it would stand in front of the Royal Castle.

RTWT

12 Sep 2019

Does Your Heart Good to See This, Doesn’t It?

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CFact:

The Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior attempted to block a ship carrying coal from unloading in the harbor of Gdansk.

Armed Polish border guards boarded the vessel, breaking a window to gain entry. They arrested the captain, offloaded all 18 passengers and crew and seized the vessel.

CFACT has reported extensively on the strong antipathy the Polish people feel towards anyone who threatens their energy security, particularly as they view this as driving them into dependence on Russia.

16 May 2019

America: Now a Polish Joke!

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Information Liberation:

The Swedish car company Volvo this week shared two similar looking ads on Facebook — one to their main page and one to their Polish page — which had one glaring difference.

In the post on their main page, the ad showed two [Interracial] homosexual men holding hands in front of a little girl driving a Volvo toy truck.

The ad copy reads: “Focus on your career, or your family? From now on you can do both at Volvo Cars, because we offer employees within the EMEA region six months of paid parental leave, regardless of gender. …

In the comments, Volvo posted a message saying they’re deleting all negative comments which violate their “social media house rules.”

The ad on Volvo’s Poland page featured a straight couple with a little boy in the Volvo toy truck.

The comment section was filled with Poles laughing about the difference between the two ads.

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I saw this originally on the Chateau Heartiste blog last night. A few minutes later, when I came back to that blog to capture the image of the ads, I found this:

If you have a blog on WordPress.com, I strongly recommend that you get yourself a new hosting service, one without political opinions and “Terms of Service.” WordPress.com, just like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, will punish you for WrongSpeak.

05 Jan 2019

“Pan Tadeusz”

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Someone shared with me today a nice review, published in the Spectator, by Boyd Tonkin of a new translation of the great work of Polish literature, Adam Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz.

In remote Soplicowo, its flower-filled meadows, ringed by deep woods where bears, auroch and bison — ‘the forest’s emperors’ — hold sway, family quarrels echo in miniature the convulsions of Europe. Young Master (‘Pan’) Tadeusz returns from his studies in Vilnius to the manor where his uncle, the Judge, runs the estate. The fate of Tadeusz’s absent father Jacek, a fabled hell-raiser, casts a long thread of suspense that Mickiewicz spins at the close into a deftly-managed coup.

As the callow heir falls first for the sophisticated Madame Telimena and then her teenage ward, the garden-loving Zosia, a Romeo-and-Juliet motif sounds. A match between the pair might ‘reunite two feuding houses’. For now, the Soplicas — Tadeusz’s lot — and their Horeszko neighbours, Zosia’s clan, remain at daggers (and cudgels, broadswords and muskets) drawn.

The rough-hewn gentry let off steam through hair-raising bouts of scrapping and drinking. In these parts, ‘lawsuits will always be superfluous’. Vodka-fuelled posses enforce court orders in ‘forays’. Think Henry Fielding’s rambunctious squire-archy, with a steeper body-count, and higher alcoholic proof.

05 Apr 2018

Augustus II Coronation Plate

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Soup plate from the Coronation Service of Augustus II “the Strong”, King of Poland 1697-1706, 1709-1733, bearing, quartered, the arms of Poland and Lithuania.

Hampel Fine Art Auctions, April 12, 2018, 10:00 AM CET, Munich, Germany, Lot 332: Estimated price: €3,000 – €5,000.

Augustus sheltered the alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger, after he escaped captivity at the hands of Frederick I of Prussia, but then imprisoned him himself in order to force him to produce gold.

Efforts at producing gold proving unsuccessful, Augustus put Böttger to work on discovering the secret of Chinese porcelain. The correct method of producing hard-paste porcelain was discovered in 1708, leading to the establishment of the famous factory in Meissen in 1710. Böttger died in 1719.

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