Polish poem "Ze złości" - Władysław Broniewski

It’s me again! I have a very bittersweet poem for you today. Broniewski is a popular poet in my country, although the poem itself isn’t very well-known. I’m aware that it sounds a lot better in Polish, I’m not going to pretend that my translation is very good. I’m not a real, professional translator, so I focused on the literal meaning – not making the lines rhyme too. I wonder if it’s good enough :) Feel free to point out my mistakes (grammar?), I will surely appreciate it.

Once again, my goal was to share with you a little bit of my favourite parts of Polish culture, and maybe show you how nice and interesting our language can be. I assumed some of you might find the pronunciation useful, so Iza recorded it for you. But now we faced a little problem – we have no idea is it possible to add a sound file here, we’re still very new in this blogging world ;) So I’ll just call a defeat for now and show you what I’ve got so far. If someone out there happens to be interested in the pronunciation, I’ll do my best to add it later.

Broniewski Władysław

Ze złości                                                           Out of the anger

Kochałbym cię (psiakrew, cholera!),            I would love you (shit, dammit!),

 gdyby nie ta niepewność,                            if there wasn’t this uncertainty,

 gdyby nie to, że serce zżera                         if not the fact that my heart is being eaten

 złość, tęsknota i rzewność.                           by anger, longing and soppiness.

Byłbym wierny jak ten pies Burek,               I would be faithful like the dog Lassie,

 chętnie sypiałbym na słomiance,                  I’d gladly sleep on the mat,

 ale ty masz taką naturę,                              but you have such personality

 że nie życzę żadnej kochance.                     that I wouldn’t wish any lover.

Kochałbym cię (sto tysięcy diabłów!),        I would love you (bloody hell!),

 kochałbym (niech nagła krew zaleje!),        I’d love (goddammit!),

 ale na mnie coś takiego spadło,                  but something has crushed me,

 że już nie wiem, co się ze mną dzieje:         and I don’t know what’s happening to me:

z fotografią, jak kto głupi, się witam,            I greet a photograph - like a fool,

 z fotografią (psiakrew!) się liczę,                with a photograph (shit!) I reckon with,

 pójdę spać i nie zasnę przed świtem,          I go to sleep and don’t doze off

 póki z grzechów się jej nie wyliczę,            until I confess it my sins,

a te grzechy (psiakrew!) malutkie,               and (shit!) those sins are really small,

 więc (cholera!) złości się grzesznik:             so the sinner is annoyed (dammit!):

 że na przykład, wczoraj piłem wódkę         that I, for instance, was drinking yesterday

 lub że pani Iks - niekoniecznie.                   or that Miss X – not necessarily.

Cóż mi z tego (psiakrew!), żem wierny,       So what (dammit!) that I’m faithful,

 taki, co to "ślady po stopach"?                  one that loves even your footmarks?

 Moja miła - minął październik,                   My dear - October has passed,

 moja miła (psiakrew!), mija listopad.         My dear (shit!), November is passing.

Moja miła, całe życie mija...                        My dear, whole life is passing…

 Miła! Miła! - powtarzam ze szlochem.        Dear! Dear! – I repeat while sobbing.

 To mi życie daje, to zabija,                         What gives me live, and what kills me,

 że ja ciągle (psiakrew!) ciebie kocham.       is that I (dammit!) still love you.

Let me know what you think, should we do this more often? Is there anyone interested in Polish poems/ quotes/ songs? :)

Magdalena