Do prostego człowieka (English: To the Simple Man) is a poem by Julian Tuwim, first published in the October 27, 1929 edition of Robotnik daily.[1] The poem gained immediate popularity due to its strong pacifist anti-war message; its mockery of militarism, jingoistic fervour and hysteria; and its placement of blame upon those in power who profit by starting wars to be fought by commoners.[2][3]

The poem was commonly read as expressing the poet's disillusionment with Józef Pilsudski's regime and increasingly militant rhetoric.[4][5]

At the same time it was openly criticised by both left and right-wing journalists. The rightists went as far as to suggest Tuwim be hanged for allegedly promoting desertion among Polish soldiers.[5] Tuwim was defending himself by saying that his poem is against offensive wars, not defensive ones.[6] Despite criticism, the poem became immediately popular in Poland.

In recent years the poem was translated to English by Marcel Weyland.[7] It also gained new popularity due to numerous rock bands performing it on their concerts. One of the best-known such interpretations is by a Polish rock group Akurat.[8]

Notes and references

  1. ↑ "Polona". polona.pl. Retrieved 2021-09-01.
  2. ↑ "Do prostego człowieka - interpretacja, środki stylistyczne, analiza - Julian Tuwim". poezja.org (in Polish). Retrieved 2021-09-01.
  3. ↑ "Do prostego człowieka - interpretacja". Zinterpretuj.pl (in Polish). 2021-07-16. Retrieved 2021-09-01.
  4. ↑ "Do prostego człowieka - interpretacja - Julian Tuwim". lekcjapolskiego.pl. Retrieved 2021-09-01.
  5. 1 2 (in English) Marci Shore (2006). Caviar and ashes: a Warsaw generation's life and death in Marxism, 1918-1968. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. pp. 74–75. ISBN 978-0-300-11092-0. Retrieved 2009-10-19.
  6. ↑ List Juliana Tuwima, Robotnik, 1929-11-03, p. 2, retrieved 2018-09-24
  7. ↑ (in English and Polish) "To the simple man". Seria Poetycka; Polish Poetry. VIII (1836). ISSN 1176-7545. Weyland's translation contains one distorted passage as it is based on a faulty version of the text in common circulation in which a typo led to the substitution of the "lords" ("panami", instrumental grammatical case) by "maidens" ("pannami"), the result being rather ludicrous and far from intended by the poem's author.
  8. ↑ url = https://lyricstranslate.com/en/do-prostego-cz%C5%82owieka-simple-man.html
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