Hej Sokoly

One of the songs sung by our Polish tutors & Andrzej, camp director (they knew so many songs, & loved to sing them...) has become my favorite; brings great memories back to me. It's call Hej Sokoly, which translates as..."Hey, Falcons," and was sung by soldiers in the Polish-Soviet war of 1920 and again during WWII.

Here's a real nice version --

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCXcfDli3y0&feature=related

and a squeezebox version:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pngta-dI-kgo&feature=related

My favorite version, tho, was done by the Bielorussian group at the Podlasie Octave of Culture in Bialystok. I've a video of it & will see if I can upload it onto Youtube.

What a great song!

A memorial in the Powazkowski cemetery

This cemetery, a block from my Warsaw hotel (the Hotel Maria), is one of Warsaw's oldest & largest, & contains the graves of some of Poland's famous artists, etc. During WWII & the Warsaw uprising, battles were fought within the cemetery.

This memorial, on the grave of Jerzie Kolanowski, is an appropriate memorial to end this year's blog on: Sic Transit Gloria Mundi -- Thus passes the glory of the world.

My trip is more than a week behind me, already, and has taken on something of the flavor of a dream, remembered not in detail but in disconnected bits, which somehow are supposed to make up a meaningful narrative. But as I try to piece those bits together into that narrative, it all crumbles apart, like an ancient artifact recently dug up out of the ground.

I suppose there is no meaning outside the doing. On the Aga Zaryan CD I bought in Torun -- she's this really sultry jazz singer, a Warsawian but she croons seductively in an accent-free American idiom -- on the cover of her CD is this:

"The world is not something to look at, it is something to be in."

And, that world whether we look at it or be in it, is soon gone. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.

But what glory, eh?!

Warsaw supermarket

This display is PART of their vodka selection...those are all vodka, and there was a somewhat smaller shelving opposite the aisle from this...

Warsaw, the Arkadia mall

This huge, glittery mall seems impossibly far in time & substance from much of Poland.

It could be Cairo, Vancouver, Minneapolis, Sydney. It is the geography of nowhere.

But it was just a couple blocks from my Warsaw hotel, & had an internet cafe...

Warsaw, in front of the Presidential palace

In April of this year Poland lost its president, Lech Kaczynski, his wife, and 94 others, many of them important government or armed forces officials, in an airplane crash, ironically on their way to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn murders.

Every day small crowds gather at this memorial, with vigil candles, kiosks, flowers, and written statements of grief & condolences. I think this will happen for years...

Warsaw, downtown, near the Centralna train station

Warsaw's a big city, with big-city attractions, and problems.

The Talkowskis of Sztabin

The woman 2nd from the left is Melanie Talkowski (ne Parejko) whose grandfather was Ron & my grandfather Julius' brother. To her right is Andrzej Talkowski, her son, to his right his wife Basia. The woman on the left, who I'd never met before, is Melanie's daughter-in-law.

Melanie is sister to Szygmunt & Stanislaus Parejko, who show up in last year's blog, when I visited them.

We really need to get a bunch of us Parejkos over to Poland and soon...Melanie said that Stanislaus, who lives in Vilnius (& is our email correspond Remi's father) is not well...