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A Life in Translation

Getting to know my father through his wartime diaries

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I've wanted a mono lingual Polish dictionary for so long, to help with learning and translating. So I was really delighted to find a parcel on the doorstep yesterday from my dear friend @ewaczenczek in Poland, containing exactly that! Thank you very much Ewa, I've used it so many times already in the last 24 hours! #lifeintranslation #translationproject #polishlanguage #polskibookstagram #PolskiWydawnictwoNaukowe #lifeintranslation1939
Three photos of my mother, Juliet. 1. My parents' wedding day (1949), 2. The first trip to Poland (1962), 3. Juliet's 90th birthday (July 2019). Celebrating my mother's 90th birthday earlier this month prompted me to look back at some photos from her life. She was 20 when she and Józef married, and was 33 when we first visited Poland (about ten years after Józef's death). Also in this second picture are my sister, Charlotte and Polish family members including my grandfather. The final photo was taken by my nephew (Charlotte's son, Philip @spiritofsuffolk ) when we gathered in the beautiful sun for Juliet's birthday. Preparations for the party did take precedence for a month or so, but another extract from Józef's diaries will be on the blog soon. #familyhistory #polishfamily #familymemories #1960spoland #1940swedding #90thbirthday #lifeintranslation1939 #lifeintranslation
Today's #googledoodle marks the 185th anniversary of the publication of Adam Mickiewicz's Pan Tadeusz. If you're familiar with this poem and its importance to the Polish people, it will come as no surprise that Józef chose its first lines to open the very first entry in his memoirs. The poem comes from a time before political notions of nationalism, when the experiences of Poland and Lithuania left them closely linked. #pantadeusz #adammickiewicz #polishhistory #manuscript #translation #translationproject #memoirs
Judging by the passionate way my father wrote about his homeland throughout his diaries, I believe he would have been proud to know that Poland had maintained its independence for 100 years. Despite all the upheavals of WWII, it stood firm. Long may it continue. The latest extract is a particularly poetic, patriotic passage lamenting the September Campaign in 1939 - "O Poland! Who Saw You...?" (Link in bio) #kopieckosciuszki #dzienniepodleglosci #wspomnienia #ww2diaries #polishindependenceday #polska🇵🇱 #poland1939 #polskafotografia #lifeintranslation1939 #lifeintranslation
I took this photo a year ago today in a cemetery in Kraków. All Saints & All Souls are amongst the most significant celebrations of the Polish calendar. Everyone travels to be with their family, perhaps even more so than at Christmas. They put dozens of extra tram and train routes on to meet the sheer amount of people travelling to visit the graves of their loved ones. #dzienzaduszny #zaduszki #allsaintsday #allsoulsday #dayofthedeadfestival #polishtradition #cmentarz #polskatradycja
Missing Kraków in autumn 🍃🍂 #kochamkrakow #polishautumn #plantypark #krakowplanty #krakowwawel #wawelcastle #polskafotografia #polska🇵🇱 #universitetjagiellonski #jagiellonia

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