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Translated by J. F. Clarke
A THOUSAND soldiers knelt in Warsaw’s square, | |
| The solemn oath of battle sternly taking; | |
| They swore, without a shot, the foe to dare, | |
| With bayonets’ point their deadly pathway making. | |
| Beat drums! march on, and let our country tell | 5 |
| That “Poland’s Fourth” will keep its promise well. | |
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| So said, and bloody Praga saw it done. | |
| Right where the foe in thickest mass was rushing, | |
| We charged, and not a comrade fired his gun, | |
| But each with deadly bayonet on was pushing. | 10 |
| Praga shall tell how, mid the blackened air, | |
| Poland’s “Fourth Regiment” was bleeding there. | |
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| When, from a thousand throats of fire, the flame | |
| At Ostrolenka on our columns falling | |
| Mowed down our ranks, we broke our way, and came | 15 |
| With the sharp bayonets’ point their heart appalling. | |
| Let Ostrolenka, joined with Praga, say | |
| That “Poland’s Fourth” has kept its vow to-day. | |
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| Yes, many manly hearts then sank to rest, | |
| To the war-fiend a noble offering bringing; | 20 |
| Yet to his oath each man was true, and prest | |
| On to the end, still to his weapon clinging; | |
| Yes, with unloaded gun and steady eye, | |
| Poland’s “Fourth Regiment” marched on to die. | |
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| O, woe to us! woe to our land forlorn! | 25 |
| O, ask not whence or how this misery came! | |
| Woe, woe to every child in Poland born! | |
| Our wounds break open when we hear her name. | |
| They bleed afresh, but most our hearts are wrung | |
| When “Poland’s Fourth” is named by any tongue. | 30 |
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| And ah! dear brothers, who to death have gone, | |
| But, dying, from our souls shall perish never; | |
| We, who still live, with broken hearts move on, | |
| Far from our homes, the homes now lost forever; | |
| And pray that God in heaven may quickly send | 35 |
| The last of “Poland’s Fourth” a blessed end. | |
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| From Poland’s confines, through the misty air, | |
| Ten soldiers come, and, crossing Prussia’s border, | |
| The sentry challenges with, “Who comes there?” | |
| They stand in silence. He repeats the order. | 40 |
| At last one says, “Out of a thousand men | |
| In ‘Poland’s Fourth’ we are the only ten.” | |
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