Life / Famous / Iconic Polish Women [48]

sylwia

I am pasting here the English translation of the poem by Mickiewicz (translated as To a Polish mother). It was one of the most popular Romantic poems here,and quotations from it entered the Polish everyday language for well (not only 'Polish mother' but also 'długie nocne rodaków rozmowy', here translated as 'fellow patriots' whispered words by night'. I might translate this 'compatriots' conversations up to the small hours' ;) because it is often used without political meaning, indicating Polish passion for long discussion, hopefully not entirely lost...

Kwiatkowska, with her great stamina and sense of humour, as a lady who survived it all (I mean Polish history..) and succeded, is a very positive version of the Polish Mother for me...

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History / Question on Poland's szlachta clan admission [26]


I have learnt that from the late 16th century the Sejm had to confirm nobilitations (a visible proof that the king had less power here than the parliament, actually.) In some cases, kings nobilitated individuals, mostly foreigners, even after that time, but they had to use certain diplomatic tricks to perform the task.


I do think that the perceived analogy with old Gaelic societies of Ireland or Scotland (clans) has some limits, I have never heart about formal structures of Polish or Lithuanian 'clans'.

The analogy has some sense especially when we think about large groups of people bearing the same name and the same coat of arms, but in fact not related. But it does not work if you think about 'chieftains' as such, especially that Celtic chieftains often were descendant of local kings, all of them subjected to high kings. No trace of something like Brehon law in Poland. Also hereditary historians and physicians, etc. Celtic clan structures. I think it might be interesting to see a comparison, for example between Poland and old Ireland, made by a professional historian, though.

Maybe someone correct me, but I think that local sejmiki used to choose local administrative or legal representatives (/)

Life / Famous / Iconic Polish Women [48]

Sorry, I haven't been around for a while. The text was a print-screen from an old online pdf source, and seems my software cropped too much from it. I like this poem too.

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