Patriotyczne - Marsz Triumfalny Jana III Sobieskiego

Triumphal March of John III Sobieski

Bow, bow down for the hetman,
Today - our merciful lord
May a lot of such Viennas*
be laid as a carpet at his feet

the Frenchman**, the Englishman, the German rat
Knows what Sobieski is famous for
We, along with Jan,
Heal every Fatherland's wound

You don't have any like this Polish nation,
It has taken Tatars and boyars,
The Cossack and the Turk**
with mighty hand by their heads!
And Austrian, the mean viper(*3),
without the Pole** would be a loser

May the wind describe
- the companion of Hussar brotherhood,
How the Turkish reptile
Fell from the Polacks' sabres!

Bow, bow down for the hetman,
Today - our merciful lord
He walks the carpet of glory,
walks surely so, for years

When our Jan the Third [is] between the ranks,
Karabelas(*4) tremble in scabbards
A bright star shines over him
And leads the days of [his] reign

Shine, oh star, shine, be generous(*5) with your brightness for the Polish land
Announce the Victoria(*6) - by yourself, by the very existence of your rays
They have chosen us today for the Common Wealth(*7)

Bow, bow down for the hetman,
Today - our merciful lord
May a lot of such Viennas*
be laid as a carpet at his feet

You don't have any like this Polish nation,
It has taken Tatars and boyars,
The Cossack and the Turk
with mighty hand by their heads!
And Austrian, the mean viper,
without the Pole would be a loser

May the Sarmatian sword, Sarmatian sword
praise the Common, saint Wealth(*7)!

Afterword:
The song refers to one of the greatest victories of Polish-Lithuanian Republic, which the Winged Hussars are famous for - the battle of Vienna, when the coalition force led by Polish army under Jan III Sobieski then the Great Hetman of the Crown (the commander of the Polish army), later elected for the Polish-Lithuanian throne. The battle has broken Turkish offensive against Hapsburgs and most part of Europe. The main part of the victory was the famous charge of the Winged Hussars, Polish-Lithuanian heavy cavalry (despite the light-armored Balkan cavalry the name derives from).

* The city name stands for the battle, so that the subject wishes John III Sobieski many more such glorious victories

** Expre ssion typically encountered in Old Polish, referring to aa whole nation by a singular name for a member of it

*3 Austrians quite ingratefully tried to mute out the role Poles had in the invasion, while acknowledging their presence, usually place them as some minor part of the coalition, while Sobieski in fact led the force and it was the Hussar charge that broke the main force, while for example putting up monuments for Cossacks, who were in turn internal and vassal, though retaining their own structure of command, part of the Polish force

*4 Karabela - a sabre then typical for Polish nobility - szlachta, which constituted the main part of the Commonwealth army

*5 a Polish idiom I couldn't find a proper substitute for - "nie żałować czegoś" - literally "not to regret sth" - be very generous with it, to give it away without any heed for the loss

*6 because of the latinism used (a word "Victoria" does not really exist in Polish in principle, but latinisms were frequent then, as a sign of higher education of the speaker) I decided not to translate it directly to "victory"

*7 the name of the country, while internationally referred to as "Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth" internally is "Rzeczpospolita obojga narodów" - "Rzecz" - a thing, a matter, a wealth, "pospolita" - belonging to everyone, so basically the double word is a translation of latin "Res Publica" - commonwealth, republic. "Obojga Narodów" means "of Both Nations" - Poles and Lithuanian. Frequently referred to as just a "Rzeczpospolita". Now the term is in Polish narrowed to just the Polish-Lithuanian union and later, after the breakdown of the Union, just Poland, but in the past it was used to refer to all the countries with democracy-like system