Category Archives: language

Polish Realia: Beneficial Insects

Owady Pozyteczne Beneficial Insects

Ciekawostka Trivia
Mrówki rudnice nazywane są sanitariuszami lasu. Zjadają bowiem owady będące szkodnikami lasu, ograniczając tym samym ich liczebność. Ponadto pełnia rolę czyściceli, usuwając chore osobniki i martwe szczątki zwierząt.
Red ants are called the sanitary workers of the forest. Because they eat other insects that are forest pests, thereby limiting their numbers. In addition, they fill a role as scavengers, removing diseased individuals and dead animal remains. 

Sanitariusze / Sanitary workers: Mrówka rudnica / red ants; żuk leśny / dung beetles

Drapieżcy / Predators: Przekrasek mróweczka / ant beetles; Biedronka siedmiokropka / lady bugs; Biegacz skórzasty / carabus beetles

Pasożytnicze / Parasites: Gąsienicznik czarny / ichneumon wasps; Bzyg prążkowany / marmalade hoverfly

Zapylacze / Pollinators: Pszczoła miodna / honey bees; Trzmiel ziemny / bumble bees

Próchnojady / Wood-eaters: Dyląż garbarz / root borers; Jelonek rogacz /stag beetles

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Polish Realia: Dead Trees in the Woods

Martwe Drewno w Lesie Dead Wood in the Forest

Martwe drewno jest naturalnym i niezbędnym wskładnikiem ekosystemów leśnych. Pozostające w lesie, obumierające i martwe drzewa a także ich fragmenty nie bezwartościowy materiał zaśmiecający las. Jest to nadzwyczaj istotny dla prawidłowego funkcjonowania ekosystemu leśnego zespół mikrośrodowisk życia i miejsc schronienia się lub gniazdowania ogromnej liczby gatunków organizmów żywych (zwierząt, roślin, grzybów).
Dead wood is a natural and essential component of forest ecosystems. Dying and dead trees remaining in the forest, as well as their fragments, are not worthless material littering the forest. It is an extremely important for the proper functioning of the forest ecosystem, a set of microenvironments of life and places of shelter or nesting of a huge number of species of living organisms (animals, plants, fungi).

Martwe drewno może mieć różną postać. Od obumarłych konarów na żywych drzewach poprzez obumierające drzewa, do martwych, leżących na ziemi lub stojących drzew różnej wielkości, leżących na ziemi drobnych gałęzi, wykrotów i złomów. Stopień zaawansowania rozkładu drewna również może być bardzo zróżnicowany. Od drewna jeszcze w pełni świeżego do silnie zbutwiałego przyjmującego postać murszu, przerośniętego grzybnią i korzeniami roślin oraz porośniętego poduchami mchów.
Dead wood can take many forms. From dead branches on living trees, through dying trees, to dead, fallen or standing trees of various sizes, small branches and debris lying on the ground. The degree of advancement of wood decomposition can also vary greatly. From wood still fully fresh to heavily rotten in the form of mulch, overgrown with mycelium and plant roots and overlaid with moss cushions.

Te różnorodne mikrośrodowiska są miejscem życia nadzwyczaj szerokiego spektrum organizmów. Grzyby rozpoczynają i cały czas uczestniczą w procesie rozkładu drewna aż do jego całkowitego rozpadu. Owady i inne bezkręgowce z wielu grup systematicznych żywią się martwym drewnem w różnych stadiach jego rozkładu lub zjadają zasiedlające je inne organizme. Natomiast zwierzęta wykorzystują martwe próchniejące drewno jako miejsce gniazdowania, schronienia, bądz zimowania.
These diverse microenvironments are home to an extremely wide range of organisms. Fungi begin and participate in the process of decomposition of wood until it completely decomposes. Insects and other invertebrates from many systematic groups feed on dead wood at various stages of its decomposition or eat other organisms that inhabit it. On the other hand, animals use dead rotting wood as a place to nest, shelter, or winter.

Martwe drzewa tak naprawdę nie są martwe, bowien żyją życiem ogromnej liczby zasiedlających je organizmów.
Dead trees are not truly dead, because they live the lives of a huge number of organisms that inhabit them.

Ciekawostka! Trivia!
Kloda świerkowa kłada się przecętnie przez 60-80 lat, rozkład starych pni dębowych trwa często nawet 100 lat. Proces rozkładu przebiega szybciej w miejscach wilgotnych i na drewnie leżącym na gruncie niż w miejscach suchych i na drzewie obumarłym jeszcze stojącym.
A spruce log lies for 60-80 years, the decomposition of old oak trunks often lasts up to 100 years. The decomposition process takes place faster in damp places and on wood lying on the ground than in dry places and on dead wood still standing.

Martwe i obumierające drzewa wykorzystywane są przez szereg gatunków ptaków – dziuplaków. Dzięcioły w takich właśnie drzewach wykuwają dziuple a inne dziuplaki zasiedlają je i wykorzystują jako miejsce gniazdowania i schronienia.
Dead and dying trees are used by a number of species of birds – hole-nesters. Woodpeckers carve hollows in such trees, and other hole-nesters inhabit them and use them as nesting and sheltering places.

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Animals pictured:
Rębacz pstry ‘ribbed pine borer, spotted sawfly’ Rhagium inquisitor
Gmachówka drzewotoczna ‘carpenter ant’ Campolotus ligniperda
Dyląż garbąrz ‘longhorn beetle’ Prionus sp.
Kruszczyca złotawka ‘golden buckthorn’ Cetonia aurata
Jelonek rogacz ‘stag beetle’ Lucanus cervus
Paśnik palączasty ‘bowhead beetle’ Plagionotus arcuatus

Ryjówka aksamitna ‘common shrew’ Sorex araneus
Jeż europejski ‘western hedgehog’ Erinaceus europaeus

Dzięciol duży ‘great spotted woodpecker’ Dendrocopos major
Dzięciol zielony ‘green woodpecker’ Picus viridis

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Polish Realia: Mushrooms

Jaki to Grzyb? What Mushroom Is This?

Goryczak żółciowy ‘yellow bitter, bile bitterness’ (edible), Tylopilus felleus

Pieprznik jadalny (kurka) ‘Chanterelle’ (edible), Cantharellus cibarius

Lisówka pomarańczowa ‘orange fox’ (inedible), Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca

Muchomor sromotnikowa ‘green fly agaric toadstool’ (poisonous), Amanita phalloides

Mleczaj rydz ‘milk thistle’ (edible), Lactarius deliciosus

Borowik szatański ‘red bolete’ (poisonous), Rubroboletus satanas

Koźlarz czerwony ‘red lectern’ (edible), Leccinum aurantiacum 

Krowiak podwinięty (olszówka) ‘curled cowhide’ (poisonous), Paxillus involutus

Borowik szlachetnyBoletus edulis’ (edible), Boletus edulis

Muchomor czerwony ‘red fly agaric toadstool’ (poisonous), Amanita muscaria

Podgrzybek brunatny ‘brown bay bolete’ (edible), Imleria badia

Maślak zwyczajny ‘common butternut squash’ (edible), Suillus luteus

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Making a Model Sports Town, 1960

From Rounding the Bases: The Story of Little League Baseball in Japan, by James J. Orr (U. Hawaii Press, 2026), Kindle p. 44:

In 1960, the Ministry of Education designated Tanashi a “model sports town” for excellence in “shakai taiiku,” a phrase perhaps best translated as public recreational athletics. The education authorities became involved because, as the Tanashi mayor noted years later, physical education was considered a component of the social studies curriculum (shakai kyōiku). Along the same lines, the local newspaper would later refer to Little League as a form of “extracurricular education” (kagai kyōiku). A nominal matching subsidy accompanied the “model town” designation wherein the town took on a mandate to form a special association to promote sports. Dr. Sasa was a logical choice for president of the Tanashi City Taiiku Kyōkai Physical Education Association, which became an umbrella organization akin to what in an American context would be called a city recreation commission. This quasi-official advisory group was closely affiliated with the Tanashi City Education Department but run by local business and community leaders. It oversaw the activities of pre-existing sporting groups and promoted new ones. As of 1961, this recreation commission oversaw sports groups in nanshiki [soft rubber] baseball, kendo, judo, swimming, archery, track and field, and tennis. The new Little League was formed in 1962 under the commission’s purview with Sasa as the inaugural president and the pre-existing nanshiki league’s directors kept as the new league’s board.

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Home Army Monument, Partizan Cemetery, Kielce, Poland

Pamięci Żołnierzy Armii Krajowej [AK]
In memory of the soldiers of the Home Army

Oddziału Partyzanckiego “Wybranieccy”
Branch of Partizans “The Chosen”

Walczącego od Marca 1943 do Lipca 1944 na terenie Gór Świętokrzyskich
Fighting from March 1943 to July 1944 in the area of the Holy Cross Mountains

1 Companii “Wybranieckiej”, 1 Batalionu, 4 Pułku Piechoty, Legionów AK
1st Company of the Chosen, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, Home Army Legions

Walczącej od Lipca 1944 do Stycznia 1945 w Akcji “Burza” na terenie Kielecczyzny
Fighting from July 1944 to January 1945 in Operation Storm in the Kielce region

Dowódcy “Wybranieckich” Mariana Sołtysiaka “Barabasza” 01.02.1918 – 18.12.1995
Commander of “The Chosen” Marian Sołtysiak aka Barabasz 1 Feb 1918 – 18 Dec 1995

Kawalera Orderu Virtuti Militari i Dwukrotnie Krzyża Walecznych
Knight of the Order of Military Virtue and Twice the Cross of Valor

“Nauczyłeś nas w walce tak kochać Polske aby jej oddać bez reszty wszystko – nawet siebie.”
“You taught us in the fight to love Poland so much that we would give her our all, even ourselves.”

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Forsaking Poland for Africa

From Ryszard Kapuscinski: A Life, by Artur Domoslawski (Verso, 2012) Kindle pp. 119-120:

The expedition to Congo is a crucial element in the formation of Kapuściński’s world outlook, his view of the Cold War conflict and of the dilemmas and dramas of the times from the perspective of the Third World countries attempting to gain their liberty.

In an entry in his Political Diaries dated 23 June 1961, Polityka’s editor-in-chief, Mieczysław Rakowski notes: ‘Rysiek has finished a series entitled ‘‘Congo Close Up’’. We published twelve reports. Rysiek is a fantastic reporter. This is no ordinary journalism. This is political literature produced by a devilishly talented writer. We collected 2,687,138 zloty for the Lumumba Fund.’

A year later, in a popularity contest for Polityka’s writers, Kapuściński comes first. His reports from Ghana and Congo play their role in gaining him fame and public recognition, but this is not the only way he displays his talents. In less than two years of working at Polityka, Kapuściński has created his own language, a new literary style, with a poetic rhythm to his sentences and an original way of depicting things – free of the wooden, propagandistic phraseology of his early years as a journalist at Sztandar Młodych. It is this new language and new tone that make the then cub reporter Małgorzata Szejnert (later co-founder of Gazeta Wyborcza and head of its reportage department for fifteen years) think on reading one of his reports: ‘He writes as he wants to.’

‘He flourished at Polityka,’ says Daniel Passent. ‘He wrote articles that showed what was really happening in Poland, warts and all.’

Between the African trips, Kapuściński travels to the Polish provinces, but he is not yet aware that his current visits will be his farewell – as a reporter – to Poland. A curious farewell, because he had just begun to shine as an incisive observer of the Poles during the ‘minor stabilization’ when he went off on a completely different path.

‘He deserted,’ some people would say.

Kapuściński refutes the charges: ‘Africa and the Third World were a continuation of the heroic period of reportage in Poland.’

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Polish Realia: Funerals

Wojewódski Szpital Zespolony w Kielcach
‘County General Hospital in Kielce’

Zakaz wjazdu na teren prosektorium za wyątkiem rodzin osób zmarłych oraz przedsiębiorstw pogrzebowych dowożących i wywożących osoby zmarłe.
‘No entry on the property of the morgue, except for families of the deceased and funeral homes delivering and removing the deceased.’

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Usługi Pogrzebowa ‘Funeral Services’
Telefony Całodobowe ‘Telephones Always Available’

Dom Pogrzebowy ‘Home Funerals’
Nowoczesne Chłodnie ‘Modern Cold Storage’
Przewoży Zmarłych z Domów i Szpitali ‘Moving bodies from homes and hospitals’
Oryginalne Karawany ‘Original Caravans’
Autokary ‘Coaches’

Kaplice Pożegnań ‘Chapel Farewells’
Producent Trumien ‘Making Coffins’
Kremacje, Urny ‘Cremation, Urns’
Katakumby, Nagrobki ‘Crypts, Tombstones’
Wieńce, Wiązanki ‘Wreaths, Bouquets’

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Zniczomat ‘Lanternmat’ (at the cemetery)
Automat z Wkładami do Zniczy ‘Automated Candle Dispenser for Lanterns’

Strefa Zniczo Dzielenia ‘Lantern Sharing Zone’
Znicze w Tórnego Obiegu ‘Lanterns in Circulation’
Nie wyrzucaj zniczy ‘Don’t discard lanterns’
Podziel się z innym ‘Share them with others’

1 Dopasuj wysokość wykładu ‘Measure the height of the product/candle’
2 Kup wykład ‘Buy the product/candle’ (Dotknij ekran ‘Touch screen’)
3 Odbierz wykład ‘Pick up the product/candle’

Pierwszy taki automat w Polsce! ‘The first such automat in Poland!’

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Polish Realia: Health Foods

Żywność Bezglutenowa ‘Gluten-free foods’
Kamienie i Kryształy ‘Stones and crystals’

Makarony ‘Pastas’
Mąki i Mieszanki ‘Flours and mixes’
Napoje Roślinne ‘Plant-based drinks’
Słodycze i Przekąski ‘Sweets and snacks’
Oleje i Oliwy ‘Vegetable and olive oils’
Superfoods Bio ‘Organic superfoods’
Produkty bezcukrowe ‘Sugarfree products’
Probiotyki ‘Probiotics’

Sklep Zielarsko Medyczny ‘Herbal and Medical Store’
Dary Ziół
‘Herbal offerings’
Eko Żywność Bezglutenowa ‘Eco gluten-free foods’
Przyprawy ‘Spices’
Kosmetyki Naturalne ‘Natural cosmetics’
Herbaty Świata ‘World teas’
Witaminy ‘Vitamins’
Oleje ‘Oils’
Produkty Certyfikowane ‘Certified products’

Wellness
Zdrowy styl Życia ‘Healthy Lifestyle’

Niezwykle możliwości ‘Extreme possibilities’
Super Roślin ‘Super plants’

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Pole Useless in China, 1956

From Travels with Herodotus, by Ryszard Kapuscinski (Vintage,  2009), Kindle pp. 61-62, 71-72:

With each passing day I thought of the Great Wall more and more as the Great Metaphor. I was surrounded by people with whom I could not communicate, encircled by a world I could not fathom. I was supposed to write—but about what? The press was exclusively in Chinese, so I understood nothing of it. At first I asked Comrade Li to translate for me, but every article, in his translation, began with the words: “As Chairman Mao teaches us,” or “Following the recommendations of Chairman Mao,” etc., etc. Is that what was actually written? My only link to the outside world was Comrade Li, and he was the most impenetrable barrier of all. To my every request for a meeting, a conversation, a trip, he responded, “I will convey this to the newspaper.” And I would hear nothing more on the matter. Nor could I go out alone, without Comrade Li. But where could I have gone anyway? To see whom? I did not know the city, I knew no one, I had no telephone (only Comrade Li had one).

Above all, I did not know the language. Yes, I did try studying it, right from the start. I attempted to tear my way through the thickets of hieroglyphs and ideograms only to come up against the dead end of each character’s maddening multiplicity of meanings. I had just read somewhere that there exist more than eighty English translations of the Tao Te Ching (the bible of Taoism), all of them competent and reliable—and all utterly different! My legs buckled beneath me. No, I thought to myself, I cannot cope with this, I cannot manage.

I returned to Warsaw. The reasons for my bizarre situation in China, my lack of real purpose, my senseless suspension in a vacuum, quickly became clear. The idea of sending me to China arose in the aftermath of two thaws: that of October 1956 in Poland, and in China, that of Chairman Mao’s One Hundred Flowers. Even before I arrived in China, an upheaval was under way in Warsaw and in Peking. The head of the Polish Communist Party, Władyslaw Gomułka, initiated a campaign against the liberals, and Mao Tse-tung was launching the draconian politics of the Great Leap Forward.

Practically speaking, I should have left Peking the day after I arrived. But my newspaper was mum—fearful and fighting for its survival, it had forgotten about me. Or perhaps the editors had my interests in mind—perhaps they reckoned that away in China I would somehow be safe? In any event, I now think that the editors of Chungkuo were being informed by the Chinese embassy in Warsaw that the correspondent of Sztandar Młodych is the envoy of a newspaper hanging by a thread and it is only a matter of time before it goes under the ax. I think, too, that it was traditional Chinese principles of hospitality, the importance the Chinese ascribe to saving face, as well as their highly cultivated politeness, that kept me from being summarily expelled. Instead, they created conditions which they assumed would lead me to guess that the models of cooperation that had been agreed to earlier no longer obtained. And that I would say of my own accord: I am leaving.

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Polish Animal Idioms

My latest compilation from Culture.pl includes an article by Marek Kępa titled The Peculiar World of Polish Animal Idioms. Here’s his intro:

Curious what it means to have a snake in one’s pocket or buy a cat in a bag? In this article, Culture.pl discusses popular Polish animal idioms – presenting their literal translations, explaining their figurative meanings and providing examples of their use in Polish texts. Be advised: some of the animal idioms found here might sound peculiar to English speakers!

And here’s the list, without his explanations and examples:

  • Pierwsze koty za płoty ‘First cat over the fence’
  • Kupić kota w worku ‘To buy a cat in a bag’
  • Siedzieć jak mysz pod miotłą ‘To sit like a mouse under a broom’
  • Nudzić się jak mops ‘To be bored like a pug’
  • Nie dla psa kiełbasa ‘The sausage isn’t for the dog’
  • Ciągnie wilka do lasu ‘A wolf is drawn to the woods’
  • I wilk jest syty, i owca cała ‘The wolf is full and the sheep’s unscathed’
  • Na bezrybiu i rak ryba ‘When there’s no fish, a crayfish is a fish’
  • Czuć się jak ryba w wodzie ‘To feel like a fish in water’
  • Mieć węża w kieszeni ‘To have a snake in one’s pocket’
  • Robota nie zając, nie ucieknie ‘Work is not a hare, it won’t run off’
  • Koń by się uśmiał ‘A horse would laugh at that’
  • Znać się jak łyse konie ‘To know each other like bald horses’
  • Gapić się jak cielę na malowane wrota ‘To stare like a calf at a painted gate’
  • Jedna jaskółka wiosny nie czyni ‘One swallow doesn’t make it spring’

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