Ignacy Krasicki - Hymn do miłości Ojczyzny (Hymn to the Love of the Country)
Święta miłości kochanej ojczyzny, (O sacred love of the beloved Country,) Czują cię tylko umysły poczciwe! (Only minds good and true can experience you!) Dla ciebie zjadłe smakują trucizny, (Consumed for thee, rank poisons be savory;) Dla ciebie więzy, pęta niezelżywe. (Worn for thee, chains and fetters be no abuse.) Kształcisz kalectwo przez chwalebne blizny, (Thou embellish cripples with scars of glory;) Gnieździsz w umyśle rozkoszy prawdziwe, (In the mind, thou dost nestle pleasures most true.) Byle cię można wspomóc, byle wspierać, (Might one, to thy succor, endeavor to fly,) Nie żal żyć w nędzy, nie żal i umierać. ('Twere nothing to live poor, 'twere nothing to die.)
—Translated by Christopher Kasparek
"O Sacred Love of the Beloved Country" (Polish: Święta miłości kochanej ojczyzny), also known as "Hymn to the Love of the Country" (Hymn do miłości ojczyzny), is a patriotic poem by the Polish Enlightenment author and poet, Ignacy Krasicki, published in 1774.
It became one of Poland's national anthems.
Ignacy Krasicki (1735–1801) was the leading literary representative of the Polish Enlightenment—a prose writer and poet highly esteemed by his contemporaries, who admired his works for their plots, wit, imagination and fluid style.
Krasicki read his poem, "O Sacred Love," at a Thursday Dinner hosted by King Stanisław August Poniatowski. The poet published it in 1774 in Zabawy Przyjemne i Pożyteczne (Pastimes Pleasant and Profitable). It subsequently became part of song 9 of his 1775 mock-heroic poem, "Myszeida" (The Mouseiad).
Popular during the Enlightenment, Krasicki's patriotic poem became the anthem of the Warsaw Corps of Cadets. It has gone through many translations, including three into French. (source: Wikipedia)
