Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Poetry Museum


Poetry and Music are interconnected in a relationship of delighting, crushing, and seething bewilderment    Feliks Kornaski, the Polish Writer, Songwriter and Cabaret Performer, wrote the song Red Poppies on Monte Cassino.  The song is a psalm to the savage violence of World War II.
  
Red poppies on Monte Cassino, | Czerwone maki na Monte Cassino
Instead of dew, drank Polish blood. | Zamiast rosy piły polską krew...
As the soldier crushed them in falling,| Po tych makach szedł żołnierz i ginął,
For the anger was more potent than death.| Lecz od śmierci silniejszy był gniew!
Years will pass and ages will roll, | Przejdą lata i wieki przeminą,
But traces of bygone days will stay, | Pozostaną ślady dawnych dni!..
And the poppies on Monte Cassino | I tylko maki na Monte Cassino
Will be redder having quaffed Polish blood. |Czerwieńsze będą, bo z polskiej wzrosną krwi.

Krysia Jopek, the author of   Maps and Shadows,  introduced me to the beauty of Feliks Kornask

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