Poland Is Not Yet Lost

, illustrating the lyrics of "" It is also known by its original title, "" ('Song of the Polish Legions in Italy'). 'Poland has not perished yet', 'Poland is not lost yet', 'Poland is not yet lost', and 'Poland has not yet succumbed'. == Lyrics ==

manuscript of the "Song of the Polish Legions in Italy" The original lyrics, authored by Wybicki, are a poem consisting of six quatrains and a refrain quatrain repeated after all but the last stanza, all following an ABAB rhyme scheme. The official lyrics, based on a variant from 1806, "Poland has not yet died", suggesting a more violent cause of the nation's possible death. Wybicki's original manuscript was in the hands of his descendants until February 1944, when it was lost in Wybicki's great-great-grandson, Johann von Roznowski's home in Charlottenburg during the Allied bombing of Berlin. The manuscript is known today only from facsimile copies, twenty-four of which were made in 1886 by Edward Rożnowski, Wybicki's grandson, who donated them to Polish libraries. The main theme of the poem is the idea that was novel in the times of early nationalisms based on centralized nation-statesthat the lack of political sovereignty does not preclude the existence of a nation. As Adam Mickiewicz explained in 1842 to students of Slavic Literature in Paris, the song "The famous song of the Polish legions begins with lines that express the new history: Poland has not perished yet as long as we live. These words mean that people who have in them what constitutes the essence of a nation can prolong the existence of their country regardless of its political circumstances and may even strive to make it real again..." The song also includes a call to arms and expresses the hope that, under General Dąbrowski's command, the legionaries would rejoin their nation and retrieve "what the alien force has seized" through armed struggle. has shown us ways to victory'' The chorus and subsequent stanzas include heart-lifting examples of military heroes, set as role models for Polish soldiers: Jan Henryk Dąbrowski, Napoleon, Stefan Czarniecki, and Tadeusz Kościuszko. Dąbrowski, for whom the anthem is named, was a commander in the failed 1794 Kościuszko Uprising against Russia. After the Third Partition in 1795, he came to Paris to seek French aid in re-establishing Polish independence and in 1796, he started the formation of the Polish Legions, a Polish unit of the French Revolutionary Army. Bonaparte was, at the time when the song was written, a commander of the Italian campaign of French Revolutionary Wars and Dąbrowski's superior. Having already proven his skills as a military leader, he is described in the lyrics as the one "who has shown us ways to victory." Bonaparte is the only non-Polish person mentioned by name in the Polish anthem. to Poznań...'' Stefan Czarniecki was a 17th-century hetman, famous for his role in driving the Swedish Army out of Poland after an occupation that had left the country in ruins and is remembered by Poles as the Deluge. With the outbreak of a Dano-Swedish War, he continued his fight against Sweden in Denmark, from where he "returned across the sea" to fight the invaders alongside the king, who was then at the Royal Castle in Poznań. In the same castle, Józef Wybicki started his career as a lawyer in 1765. Kościuszko, mentioned in a stanza now missing from the anthem, became a hero of the American Revolutionary War before coming back to Poland to defend his native country from Russia in the war of 1792 and a national uprising he led in 1794. One of his major victories during the uprising was the Battle of Racławice, where the result was partly due to Polish peasants armed with scythes. Alongside the scythes, the song mentioned other types of weaponry, traditionally used by the Polish szlachta, or nobility: the sabre, known in Polish as szabla, and the backsword. Basia (a feminine diminutive of Barbara) and her father are fictional characters. They are used to represent the women and elderly men who waited for the Polish soldiers to return home and liberate their fatherland. The route that Dąbrowski and his legions hoped to follow upon leaving Italy is hinted at by the words "we'll cross the Vistula, we'll cross the Warta", two major rivers flowing through the parts of Poland that were in Austrian and Prussian hands at the time. Current official lyrics Original text by Józef Wybicki == Music ==

The melody of the Polish anthem is a lively and rhythmical mazurka. Mazurka as a musical form derives from the stylization of traditional melodies for the folk dances of Mazuria, an historical region in northeast Poland. It is characterized by a triple meter and strong accents placed irregularly on the second or third beat. Considered one of Poland's national dances in pre-partition times, it owes its popularity in 19th-century Western European ballrooms to the mazurkas of Frédéric Chopin. The composer of "" is not known, though most contemporary performances of it utilize a modern arrangement by composer Kazimierz Sikorski. The melody is most probably Wybicki's adaptation of a folk tune that had already been popular during the second half of the 18th century. The composition used to be erroneously attributed to Michał Kleofas Ogiński, who was known to have written a march for Dąbrowski's legions. Several historians confused Ogiński's "" ('March for the Polish Legions') with Wybicki's mazurka, possibly due to the mazurka's chorus "March, march, Dąbrowski", until Ogiński's sheet music for the march was discovered in 1938 and proven to be a different piece of music than Poland's national anthem.{{cite book|location=Lublin, Poland|publisher=Polihymnia|year=2009|language=pl|editor-last=Wygranienko|editor-first=Rostislaw was the next who arranged "" for the piano. The arrangement, accompanied by the lyrics in Polish and French, was published 1829 in Paris. German composers who were moved by the suffering of the November Uprising wove the mazurek into their works. Examples include Richard Wagner's Polonia Overture and Albert Lortzing's Der Pole und sein Kind. The current official musical score of the national anthem was arranged by Kazimierz Sikorski and published by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Sikorski's harmonization allows for each vocal version to be performed either a cappella or together with any of the instrumental versions. Some orchestra parts, marked in the score as ad libitum, may be left out or replaced by other instruments of equivalent musical scale. In 1908, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, later to become the first Prime Minister of independent Poland, quoted the anthem in a disguised way in his Symphony in B minor "Polonia". He scored it in duple meter rather than its standard triple meter. The anthem was quoted by Edward Elgar in his symphonic prelude Polonia, composed in 1915. == Regulations ==

The national anthem is, along with the national coat of arms and the national colors, one of three national symbols defined by the Polish constitution. As such, it is protected by law which declares that treating the national symbols "with reverence and respect" is the "right and obligation" of every Polish citizen and all state organs, institutions and organizations. Color guards pay respect to the anthem by dipping their banners. == History ==

Origin (1755–1818) In 1795, after a prolonged decline and despite last-minute attempts at constitutional reforms and armed resistance, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was ultimately partitioned by its three neighbors: Russia, Prussia and Austria. A once-vast and powerful empire was effectively erased from the map while monarchs of the partitioning powers pledged never to use the name "Poland" in their official titles. For many, including even leading representatives of the Polish Enlightenment, this new political situation meant the end of the Polish nation. In the words of Hugo Kołłątaj, a notable Polish political thinker of the time, "Poland no longer belonged to currently extant nations," while historian Tadeusz Czacki declared that Poland "was now effaced from the number of nations." (1747–1822) Meanwhile, Polish patriots and revolutionaries turned for help to France, Poland's traditional ally, which was at war with Austria (member of the First Coalition) at the time. Józef Wybicki was among the leading moderate émigré politicians seeking French aid in re-establishing Polish independence. In 1796, he came up with the idea of creating Polish Legions within the French Revolutionary Army. To this end, he convinced General Jan Henryk Dąbrowski, a hero of the Greater Poland campaign of the 1794 Kościuszko Uprising, to come to Paris and present the plan to the French Directory. Dąbrowski was sent by the Directory to Napoleon, who was then spreading the French Revolution in northern Italy. In January 1797, the newly created French-controlled Cisalpine Republic accepted Dąbrowski's offer and a Polish legion was formed. Dąbrowski and his soldiers hoped to fight against Austria under Napoleon and, subsequently, march across the Austrian territory, "from Italy to Poland", where they would ignite a national uprising. The Polish pianist Artur Rubinstein, who was to perform the opening concert at the inauguration, began the concert by stating his deep disappointment that the conference did not have a delegation from Poland. Rubinstein later described becoming overwhelmed by a blind fury and angrily pointing out to the public the absence of the Polish flag. He then sat down to the piano and played "Poland Is Not Yet Lost" loudly and slowly, repeating the final part in a great thunderous forte. When he had finished, the public rose to their feet and gave him a great ovation. Over 60 years later, on 22 September 2005, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, President of Poland, said: == Influence ==

During the European Revolutions of 1848, "Poland Is Not Yet Lost" won favor throughout Europe as a revolutionary anthem. This led the Slovak poet Samo Tomášik to write the ethnic anthem, "Hej, Sloveni", based on the slowed melody of the Polish national anthem. It was later adopted by the Prague Slavic Congress as the Pan-Slavic Anthem. During the Second World War, a translation of this anthem became the national anthem of Yugoslavia, and later, Serbia and Montenegro. The similarity of the anthems sometimes confused these countries' football or volleyball matches. However, after the 2006 split between the two, neither Serbia nor Montenegro kept the song as its national anthem, instead choosing "Bože pravde" and "Oj, svijetla majska zoro" respectively. The Polish national anthem is also notable for influencing the lyrics of the national anthem of Ukraine. The anthem is played on First Programme of Polish Radio every day at midnight. The line Poland is not yet lost has become proverbial in some languages. For example, in German, noch ist Polen nicht verloren is a common saying meaning all is not lost'. In Swedish, the similar phrase än är inte Polen förlorat is also used in the same context. Additionally, the Italian anthem "" contains a reference to the Partitions of Poland by Prussia, Austria and Russia, due to the two countries' close relations. ==See also==