Translated by Przemyslaw Musialowski 11/3/2019

My homeland - dear land,
where for the first time I saw the sun  
and where I came to know God;
Where my father, brothers and mother kind
taught me prayers in my maternal tongue.

My homeland - villages and cities,
planted from the times of Piasts among Lechic fields;
Rivers, forests, flowery leas and meadows,
where larks sing their sweet songs of hope.

My homeland - our forefathers' glory,
Chrobry's Notched Sword and Cecora Mace,
Knightly Spirit, noble and brave,
bitter defeats and victories great.

My homeland - quiet green fields
for centuries trampled by hostile armies,
burial mounds and sad graves
that have covered our freedom defenders.

My homeland - heroic spirit of the Polish people,
that by miracle lives amid hunger and cold;
- hope that always blooms in hearts,
with work for the fathers, and song for the young!

Maria Konopnicka (1842-1910)

Circum-
navigating
this frost pit
I consult a locksmith
who’s actually toxic.

Apothecary land-
mines can confine
My carcass kind.

I reach into the abyss
and I’m handed pills.
I sense something’s amiss
once they remove my will.

his oceans are calling me home,
the green grasses no longer it for me

a stranger in a land unknown,
the blue waters are where i was meant to be

We were a country that lived near the equator;
I was the land and you were my infinite sky.
We have lived and witnessed our aeons together.
Each moment fleeting, and passing by.  

The wind whispers, and the creatures rumble
weeping for me the unfair weather I hold
Only the dry seasons and the rainy seasons come by
and the sky, he's always done what he's always told.

When he cries, he creates floods and storms
or peaceful drizzles and ditz so plain
and when's angered, he takes right up
the moistened land and then grants me pain.

At night, he's terribly beautiful and quiet
the stars twinkle like stickers on my attic
The silent love, and the prolonged memories
and what he holds, goes far beyond semantics.

I sung, "Precious sky, I am your earth
the land you watch with clouds and dew."
And he replied, "Pretty land, you are my purpose
and there's nothing to take me from you."

Land of the free,
shining bright like colours of the bees, attracting all the nations to learn about your history legends.
Getting people amused with the beauty you posses.
You give happiness to your citizens making them proud South Africans.
The problem you face get quickly erased,
that shows we have faith on you,
It's true you're the land of the dreams,
they knew that the hope we had on you will never fade away because there are many ways to describe a mysterious land like you,
but there is only one name that simplifies you
Republic of South Africa

you are sweeter than pure sugar dancing across my lips
you are made of the sweeteners of life
the flowers in the garden of Eden
the foundation of the Earth
from the lands of milk and honey
to the land we stand on
to the air we breathe
to the sun that warms us
made with God's very hands
the heavens must have been proud after creating you,
the closest thing to a human angel on earth


©L.F.

and mankind came together
on that July day

as they watched the historic
landing on the moon's lay

it was an event every corner
of the earth shall recall

the scientific endeavor
did so marvelously enthrall

the eagle flies free,
and men imprisoned,
behind lines drawn in the sand,
for which they are flattered,
to ****, to bleed, and to die ...

the free mourns,
for theirs is all the earth,
from which they are banished and exiled ...

the idolatrous flag,
another nail to hang the hypocrite ...