Rota ("The Oath") is an early 20th-century Polishpoem,[1] as well as a celebratory anthem, once proposed to be the Polish national anthem. Rota's lyrics were written in 1908 by activist for Polish independence, poet Maria Konopnicka as a protest against German Empire's policies of forced Germanization of Poles.[2] Konopnicka wrote Rota in 1908 while staying in Cieszyn. The poem was published for the first time in Gwiazdka Cieszyńska newspaper on 7 November. The music was composed two years later by composer, conductor and concert organist, Feliks Nowowiejski.
Konopnicka's poem came into being as a protest against the German Empire's oppression and suppression of Polish culture in German-occupied western Poland — lands that from the late 18th century after the Partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to 1918 were under Prussian — and later, German — rule.[1] During the Prussian and German rule, German political leaders like Otto von Bismarck, Eugen von Puttkammer and thinkers like Edwart Hartmann campaigned for policy of "ausrotten"(German for extermination) of Poles[3][4] and Rota was written as a reply to this campaign.[5] The word ausrotten was later used by Nazi Germany against Jews, and it meaning means extermination, as "ausrotten," when used in the context of living things means their complete destruction of those things through killing.[6]
Rota was first sung publicly during a patriotic demonstration in Kraków on July 15, 1910, held to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Polish-Lithuanian victory over the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Grunwald. The anthem quickly became popular across partitioned Poland.[1] Until 1918, Rota served as the anthem of the Polish Scouting movement.[citation needed] The post-1926 government led by Józef Piłsudski considered several different poems for a national anthem. The political right, which saw the proposed We Are the First Brigade of the Pilsudski legion as partisan and was lackluster on Poland Is Not Yet Lost, proposed "Rota", which was associated with anti-German struggles from the late 19th century, as a national anthem.[7]
Nie rzucim ziemi, skąd nasz ród.
Nie damy pogrześć mowy.
Polski my naród, polski lud,
Królewski szczep piastowy.
Nie damy, by nas gnębił wróg.
Tak nam dopomóż Bóg!
Tak nam dopomóż Bóg!
Do krwi ostatniej kropli z żył
Bronić będziemy Ducha,
Aż się rozpadnie w proch i w pył
Krzyżacka zawierucha.
Twierdzą nam będzie każdy próg.
Tak nam dopomóż Bóg!
Tak nam dopomóż Bóg!
Nie będzie Niemiec pluł nam w twarz
Ni dzieci nam germanił,
Orężny wstanie hufiec nasz,
Duch będzie nam hetmanił.
Pójdziem, gdy zabrzmi złoty róg.
Tak nam dopomóż Bóg!
Tak nam dopomóż Bóg!
Nie damy miana Polski zgnieść
Nie pójdziem żywo w trumnę.
Na Polski imię, na jej cześć
Podnosim czoła dumne,
Odzyska ziemię dziadów wnuk.
Tak nam dopomóż Bóg!
Tak nam dopomóż Bóg!
We won't forsake the land we came from,
We won't let our speech be buried.
We are the Polish nation, the Polish people,
From the royal line of Piast.
We won't let the enemy oppress us.
So help us God!
So help us God!
To the last blood drop in our veins
We will defend our Spirit
Till into dust and ash shall fall,
The Teutonic windstorm.
Every doorsill shall be a fortress.
So help us God!
So help us God!
The German won't spit in our face,
Nor Germanise our children,
Our host will arise in arms,
The Spirit will lead the way.
We will arise when the golden horn sounds.
So help us God!
So help us God!
We won't have Poland's name defamed,
We won't step alive into a coffin.
In Poland's name, in her honor
We lift our foreheads proudly,
The grandson will regain his forefathers' land
^Makowski, Tomasz; Sapała, Patryk, eds. (2024). The Palace of the Commonwealth. Three times opened. Treasures from the National Library of Poland at the Palace of the Commonwealth. Warsaw: National Library of Poland. p. 182.
