Plaque in Polish - Help with polish language

I have a language question...

My wife's family lost their father/husband about 15 years ago. They have never honoured or done anything to remember him mostly because they can't afford it. They want to and I want it for them. He was taken suddenly. I have been left some money from a death in my family. I will use some to honour their father and husband and to do something positive with The money that was left for me to help honour both.

I'm planning on making a donation to my city for a memorial plaque at the base of a tree. The passed father and survived wife are from Poland and came to Canada in The 80's. Their children were born here (one being my wife). They live a polish culture life style and well as Canadian but mostly speak polish to each other. I am not polish nor do I speak the language.

I want to surprise them with this which is why I can't ask them for help.

I want to have English and polish on the plaque. I will obvious take care of the English wording but I need help with the polish.

What would be a nice statement/saying/line to place on this plaque in polish? They are Roman Catholic but the saying doesn't have to be religious.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you.

W GLUCHEJ ZALOBIE CZCIMY ______________ MAMY NADZIEJE, ZE PAN BOG DA POCIESZENIE W TYCH MROCZNYCH CZASZACH.

(Minus the required diacritical accent marks, this is about the best I could manage! Although you mentioned that a religious statement is not necessary, always better to err on the side of caution, don't your agree?)

This sounds a bit ... weird? Well, at least it sounds rather old-fashioned. If the OP suggested some text in English, it would be easier to find something suitable in Polish perhaps.

In deaf mourning? ??? Czaszach ????

Lyzko, for goodness sake ... It's going to be on a plaque. If it's full of mistakes, it will leave nothing but bitterness.

@JASON1981
What would you like to put on the plaque?

Życie przemija, pamięć pozostanie. Life passes, memory will remain.

Spoczywaj w pokoju. Rest in peace.

Śpieszmy się kochać ludzi
tak szybko odchodzą.

Let us hurry to love people
they depart do quickly. (A famous quote by Jan Twardowski, a Polish priest and poet)

Pamięci ukochanego męża i ojca. In memory of beloved husband and father.

That one is gramatically correct. One can say "w głuchej ciszy", so why not say "w głuchej żałobie" - in mourning so deep that you can't hear anything else beside your deep mourning?


In this one he probably meant "w mrocznych czasach", but since we are talking about the mourning, the deaths, the graves, you cannot guarantee that it is not some old epitaph where you can find the word 'czasze' nicely coinciding with the word 'czaszki' (skulls).


This is a cliché that has really become too banal in Poland these days (IMHO).

@Ziemowit
Głucha cisza is a fixed phrase. So is głęboka żałoba. Głucha żałoba is not. It sounds weird. It sounded weird to you (as you wrote in your previous post) and me. It would sound weird to his Polish family, too.

Czaszach is misspelled. It's not plural from czasza like in czaszka - Lord will give you comfort in these dark skulls???? It should be czasach. You cannot allow misspellings on a plaque.

As for Twardowski's quote, I doubt many Canadian Poles know it. Popular or not, it's true. Still that was just a suggestion.

Czacha not czasza (skull). Czasza is something else of course.

@kaprys, originally I thought of "W niemniej zalobie..", even "W cichej zalobie", but none of them sounded quite right, as though they'd been translated:-)

@Ziemowit, old-fashioned though they may be, I was thinking formal, rather than cas.

By the way, I meant of course "czasach", just a typo.

Niemej not niemniej (the latter is a totally different word)... but again it sounds odd. What would you say if someone came up with deaf mourning or mute mourning in English? Wouldn't you say it sounds weird?

In fact, cicha żałoba sounds least strange.

The latter is what I wanted to write, thanks:-) Ought to have gone with my instincts this timeLOL