Bóg się rodzi
Bóg się rodzi (German: Christ is born or God is finally born to us ) is a well-known Polish Christmas carol . It is an integral part of the Pasterka midnight mass and is considered the national Christmas anthem of Poland. Once it was briefly considered as a national anthem - for example by the poet Jan Lechoń . It has also been called the most popular Polish Christmas carol.
history
The lyrics of Bóg się rodzi were written by Franciszek Karpiński in 1792 . The composer is unknown. The solemn melody is a well-known coronation polonaise for Polish kings , which can be traced back to the reign of Polish king Stephan Báthory in the 16th century.
The Christmas carol was first published in 1792 in a collection of Karpiński's works entitled Pieśni nabożne (“Devotional Songs”). The book was printed by Basilian monks in Supraśl in north-eastern Poland. However, the hymn was probably performed publicly a few years earlier in the old basilica of Białystok , as Karpiński lived in Białystok's Branicki Palace between 1785 and 1818 .
Today a plaque on the church wall reminds of the first performance of the Christmas carol. It says here: “In this church, the devotional songs of Franciszek Karpiński were performed for the first time”. The original name of the Christmas carol is Pieśń o Narodzeniu Pańskim ("On God's Birth") or "Song of the Birth of Our Lord".
The anthem was recorded by several famous Polish artists - these include: Anna Maria Jopek , Violetta Villas , Michał Bajor , Ryszard Rynkowski , Krzysztof Krawczyk and Eleni Tzoka . It was also sung by Polish prisoners from Auschwitz concentration camp . A report by prisoner Jozef Jedrych from the collection of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum describes how "German Christmas carols began to be singing and then the powerful words [of a Polish Christmas carol] came like waves in the sea, 'Power becomes weak, God is born'".
Structure of the song
The Christmas carol consists of five stanzas. Each stanza has eight lines and each line in the Polish original has eight syllables.
1st stanza:
Power becomes weak, God is born
Lord of the world lies without shining
Light of fire is frozen in place
The infinite has limits
Honor has been despised
becomes mortal who is enthroned forever
And the word has become body
and has lived among us.
3rd stanza:
He had to live in poverty, the
crib served as his cradle.
He was surrounded by the shepherds.
He had to lie on the hay.
He
suffered because sin inhabits our hearts
and the word became body
and dwelt among us.
5th stanza:
Son of God, raise your hands,
bless our fatherland , strengthen
people with your wisdom
in the city and in the country
prosperity may your word order,
where your mother is enthroned
and the word has become body
and has lived among us .
Analysis and interpretation of the song
The text of the hymn is stylistically characterized by its oxymora by using strong linguistic contrasts:
Power becomes weak, God is born
Lord of the world lies without shining
Light of fire is frozen solid
The infinite has limits
Such contradicting figures of speech emphasize the importance of the miracle that took place with the birth of Jesus Christ in a stable in Bethlehem . The song text “And the word became body and dwelt among us” is a quote from the Gospel of John: “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us” ( John 1:14 EU ). In addition, Karpiński interwoven a patriotic statement at the beginning of the fifth stanza - with a request to the baby Jesus : “Son of God, raise your hands, bless our fatherland”.
Pope John Paul II referred to the Christmas carol Bóg się rodzi on December 23, 1996 in the Vatican Audience Hall . The Pope quoted the words of the hymn:
Power becomes weak, God is born
Lord of the world lies without shining
Light of fire is frozen solid
The infinite has limits
and stated: “The poet shows us the mystery of the Incarnation of God's Son by using opposites to express what is essential to the mystery: in assuming the human form, the infinite God simultaneously took the limitation of a creature on".
In pop culture
The "Brave New World" Expansion Pack of Civilization V has an instrumental version of this song . Bóg się rodzi is the musical theme of the Polish civilization that was given by the Polish King Casimir III. (also: Casimir the Great ) is cited.
See also
Web links
- Bóg się rodzi - original Polish text
Individual evidence
- ↑ Maria Hubert von Staufer: Christmas Carols from Poland ( Memento from November 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ^ AG Piotrowska, Uniwersytet Jagielloński , Instytut Muzykologii, Polish songs performing national anthem function (English)
- ↑ Waldemar Smaszcz: A komuż, jak nie Ewie Lipskiej. Civitas Christiana
- ^ Jerzy Snopek: Oświecenie. Szkic do portretu epoki. Warsaw 1999
- ↑ Franciszek Karpiński in the Polish Book Institute ( Instytut Książki )
- ↑ " Bóg się rodzi ": Hymn about the birth of Christ - analysis and interpretation (Polish)
- ↑ Stanislaw Cieslak: Religiosity in Polish Literature ( Memento from March 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Christmas Eve in Auschwitz as Recalled by Polish Prisoners (English)
- ^ Translation of the Christmas carol on the homepage of the Institute of Computer Science - Polish Academy of Sciences
- ↑ "Christmas carols have shaped our history", Pope John Paul II (English)