General and Technical Notes

Copyright note: ‘Rights held by: Bronisława Wajs – Papusza (Romani text) | Licensed by: Ewa Wajs (Romani text) | Licensed under: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International | Provided by: Sławomir Szenwald, Head (Dyrektor), Wojewódzka i Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna im. Zbigniewa Herberta w Gorzowie Wielkopolskim (Zbigniew Herbert Regional and Municipal Library in Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland).’ TK

Brackets are employed to provide brief in-text information, usually an explanation of the preceding word or phrase. Also, some phraseological or syntactical elements that are not present in the text, but are required by the English prose, are provided in brackets. TK

Commentaries

Line 0: ‘Given name: Władysław.’ Papusza’s gadjo (official) name was Bronisława Wajs (1908–1987). The surname’s spelling was later ascertained as ‘Wajss’ (probably, a reflex of the original German-language spelling ‘Weiss’ or ‘Weiß.’ ‘Wajs’ is a Polish phonetic spelling of this surname, perhaps, under influence of the Russian form Вайс Vais), as at present attested on the poet’s gravestone in Inowrocław, Poland. She shares the grave with her stepfather Jan Wajs (1895–1961). Papusza’s biological father was Piotr (?), whose surname remains unknown; he perished around 1913 in Siberia. For the first time Papusza was married away in 1923, but her then husband (Adam, whose surname remains unknown) abandoned her shortly afterward. Meanwhile, Papusza’s mother Katarzyna Zielińska (1888–?) remarried and adopted Jan’s surname Wajs(s). Papusza’s second husband Dionizy Wajs(s) (1885–1972) – Dyśko was his Roma name – is buried separately, in Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland. He was Jan’s brother. In 1928 Papusza and Dyśko married in the Catholic church in Szumsk, Volhynia. Nowadays, the town, known as Shums’k, is located in western Ukraine, near the city of Ternopil’. Władysław Wajs (1944–2006) was Papusza and Dyśko’s adopted son, whom she gave the nickname ‘Tarzan(ek/io).’ His official first name, given to Tarzan in honor of his paternal grandfather, that is, Dionizy’s (and Jan’s) father, was Władysław Wajs. Tarzan is buried in Skarżysko-Kamienna, Poland, a town located between Kielce and Radom. He is survived by his daughter, Ewa Wajs. TK

Line 1: Żagań, a town in southwestern Poland, which until 1945 was the German town of Sagan. In 1945, at the Potsdam Conference the Allies passed to Poland most German territories east of the Oder-Neisse line (that is, the deutsche Ostgebiete in German). Nowadays, these former German territories constitute what is western and northeastern Poland. TK

Line 1: ‘25. lipca 1952 roku,’ the date, like the place, is also given in Polish, meaning ‘25 July 1952.’ July is the period when itinerary (‘nomadic’) Roma travel most often. Yet, instead of in a cart or in a forest, Papusza is in the town. For this reason, her recollections of the tragic days spent in the woods during the war are mixed with some nostalgic longing for a traveling manner of her former way of life. VS

Line 2: The poem’s title Tears of Blood is an allusion to popular Catholic prayers, for instance, the Rosary (Chaplet) of the Tears of Blood (Koronka do krwawych łez Najświętszej Maryi Panny in Polish) or the Rosary (Chaplet) of Our Lady of Tears (Różaniec do Łez Maryi in Polish). These chaplets draw on references from the Gospels of Matthew (4:11) and Luke (22:44). Repetitions of the appeal to God (na de, Devla! ‘Do not permit, oh God!’) and reminders of the poem’s genre (gili, gili tugani ‘the song of sorrow’) constitute direct parallels with the aforementioned chaplets. VS

Line 3: According to Mikhail Tyaglyy’s calculations (cf. Tyaglyy in this volume), from 1,500 to 2,000 Roma were killed in Volhynia by different divisions of the German occupation forces and the local police. This number does not include war casualties, as well as those who died from starvation and disease, while in hiding. Survivor testimonies and archival sources indicate over 20 mass killing sites of Roma in Volhynia. Like in the neighboring regions, the genocidal persecution intensified in summer 1942. At this point, the German occupation administration began collecting data on sedentary Roma families in the countryside to improve the rounding up and extermination. The mass killings, forced labor, alongside internment in ghettoes and concentration camps were carried out through 1943. Papusza does not limit her poem’s purview to the late period in World War II. VS VB

Lines 4–5: The poet tried various ways to commence the poem. The words daja gili Te Bageł ‘this song/poem [is meant] to be sung’ were crossed out. Then Papusza used the formula of affirming the veracity of her story: pacien syr dewłes kamam ‘believe <me you all>, as I love God,’ which is a Romani translation of the Polish phrase jak Boga kocham (‘for my love of God). The expression is broadly known across the whole East Slavic area as a typical Polish shibboleth (Szetela 2019: 392). It is not clear why Jerzy Ficowski did not preserve this line in his much shortened version of Tears of Blood. Perhaps, in the 1950s the censors would not tolerate the term ‘God.’ VS

Line 14: In Volhynia, Nazis exterminated most of the region’s Jews between 1941 and 1943 (Круглов, et al. 2016: 105). Some individual Jews (and even fewer entire families) survived, hiding in the wilderness, enrolling in Soviet partisan units and finding shelter among the local Christian (Catholic, Greek Catholic or Orthodox) peasantry. Roma followed a similar survival tactic (Гогун 2018: 159). VS VB

Lines 15–16: Ficowski (1956: 118) replaced the genuine Romani adverb bikhames<k>ro ‘without sun’ with the adjective bikhameskri ‘sun-less,’ as related to the feminine noun phuv ‘earth.’ Furthermore, the omitted final phrase sysby ciórory ‘<the earth> would be poor <without sunlight>’ changes the sentence structure. A similar misunderstanding and alteration in the Romani text can be observed in ll. 38–39. VS

Lines 18–19: Symptomatically, the word God was removed again (cf. l. 5), although the Soviet bloc’s communist propaganda allowed it in such a pacifist slogan even during the 1950s. VS

Line 20: zdran citron. This folklore formula contains two synonymous verbs, literally ‘they tremble-vibrate’ (cf. Line 862). VS

Lines 25–26: nadente nitsi. It is a typical example of Papusza’s condensed syntax; the sentence comprises an incorporated reply of the persons who did not sympathize with the Roma and their plight, as expressed by nadente nitsi ‘don’t give them anything’. VS

Line 26: sasıostyr ‘from Germany, German.’ The Romani word stems from the Germanic ethnic group of Saxons (or Sachsen in German). In the Baltic region, the German(ic) populations used to be known under this name. This ethnonym survives to this day in Estonian (Saksa) and Finnish (Saksan), or in England’s regional place-name of Essex, Sussex and Wessex. In the 19th century a Polish idiom developed chodzić na saksy (literally ‘going to Saxony’) for denoting annual migrations for seasonal (typically agricultural) work in Saxony, Prussia, and finally in the German Empire.

The Romani grammatical forms saso (occurring 30 times) and sasio (11 times) mean either ‘a German individual’ or ‘a German military unit.’ The plural form sassy occurs only twice in the text. Saso is sporadically pronounced as sasio /ˈsaɕɔ/ in Romani. This tendency reflects the Polish regional neutralization and confusion of dental, gingival and palatal consonants (Dejna 1973: 103). cf. l. 53: ciacuno /t͡ɕat͡ɕuˈnɔ/ ‘true,’ where the same sounds are denoted with different letters. It appears Papusza believed that a single [i] was sufficient for indicating the palatalization of two syllables in a single word. The same way of indicating multiple nasalizations in an entire word is characteristic of Papusza’s idiosyncratic spelling. TK VS

Lines 28–29: Potszé{binenys?}[\b\ne?] – an undecipherable word, due to multiple corrections. One can guess that initially the poet intended the verb potszébinenys (derived from Polish potrzebowali ‘they needed’).

The image of ruins is employed as a symbol of war and its destructive consequences. cf. Papusza’s poem Gruzy wszystko przypominają (Romani: Gruzy saro rypiren) ‘The Ruins Remind Us All [About the War]’ (Machowska 2011: 225, 349). VS

Lines 29–30: niekоn … Te bistreł (usually: nikon te na bistreł). Double negation is common in the Slavic languages and the local variety of Romani, though rather unusual in Romani as such. Compare with the phrase in Polish nikt nie zapomni or its Ukrainian/Belarusian counterpart ніхто не забуде. VS

Lines 35–36: Sic! Preposition adre ‘in’ is unnecessarily written twice at the end of l. 35 and at the beginning of the subsequent line. VS

Line 38: Here and elsewhere in the manuscript Ficowski probably used the idiosyncratic sign [_/] (for instance, gili _/ tugani) for marking these fragments that he decided to exclude from his version. VS

Lines 38–39: A_dre wesza Bypanieskro by jagakro Bok {Nas?}Bary. Ficowski rendered this line as Andre vešá bipańéskre, bijagákre bokh barí (Ficowski 1956: 118). He changed the adverbs bypanieskro ‘without water’ and byjagakro ‘without fire’ into adjectives grammatically bound with the plural noun wesza ‘forests.’ In the manuscript the final [-o] in both adverbs is underlined in black ink, while Ficowski settled for the final [-e] in his version. cf. ll. 15–16. VS

Line 39: {Nas?}. Likely the word naswalipen ‘disease’ was intended. VS

Lines 38–44: In these lines, Papusza portrays the challenges of survival faced by her family in the forest during winter. The effects of the German occupation on Romani families went far beyond human losses and the collapse of community life. In fact, historical patterns of co-habitation between Roma and non-Roma were destroyed. Before World War II, local Romani families used to stay with peasants during winter, renting or sharing homes with them. Under the German occupation, peasants were reluctant to host traveling families because of the fear of police intervention. Therefore, Romani families often had no other choice than to look for refuge in the woods, even if the conditions there were hardly tolerable for humans. In the course of German anti-partisan actions, the people in hiding did not start fires not to be discovered (Bartash 2023: 157; cf. Bartash in this volume). VB

Line 44: Adre węnt bary ‘in harsh (literally “big”) winter.’ Adre węnt ‘in winter’ (l. 151), went (f. noun) ‘winter’ = ivend in other dialects (l. 164). cf. węde (l. 296), wędę (l. 861). VS

Line 45: włodzimiż, a dialectal pronunciation of the official Polish-language name of the city of Włodzimierz, or nowadays, Volodymyr-Volynskyi in northwestern Ukraine. According to Ficowski’s records, Papusza’s family were able to stay in Włodzimierz in winter 1942–1943. In early spring 1943 they learned from the city administration about the German intention to exterminate ‘Gypsies’ in the city and went in hiding (Ficowski 1956: 166–167; cf. Bartash in this volume). TK VB

Line 46–48: ‘When the Germans wanted to kill us, first they ordered [us] a lot of work to do.’ Papusza does not mention the name of a labor camp or a ghetto where her family experienced forced labor. Other members of her community recalled that they were placed in a ghetto in Kostopol (Kostopil in Ukrainian) and forced to work in agriculture. They managed to secure the help of a Polish policeman and flee from the ghetto (Ficowski 1956: 154–155; cf. Bartash in this volume). VB

Lines 48–55: This event was narrated to Ficowski by other members of Papusza’s family group, as well. Ficowski’s interpretation was that a ‘German Rom’ warned them about the danger in ‘their language’ (Ficowski 1956: 170). It would be, however, difficult to ascertain the ‘national’ belonging of this person or to know in what occupation division he served. German Sinti and Roma were barred from serving in the Wehrmacht after February 1941. Most of Sinti soldiers were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau (cf. Fings 2016 for the history of Nazi persecution of Sinti and Roma in Germany). However, other national divisions fought under the German leadership in Volhynia, and Romani soldiers could potentially go unidentified. VB

Line 49: soś – a calque of the Polish noun coś ‘something,’ which in Romani can be analyzed as so ‘what, that’ + the Polish suffix for forming indefinite pronouns [-ś]. The verb peja is also a calque, in this case of the past participle wpadł of the Polish verb wpaść ‘to drop in.’ cf. ll. 236 and 481. VS

Line 50: Daja rat ‘this night,’ which Ficowski (1956: 120) incorrectly interpreted as ráty. He confused the noun rat ‘night’ and the adverb raty ‘at night, tonight’. VS

Lines 50–51: daja rat≤y kamen≥{isy?} tumen Te wymaren. Corrections in a different ink by another hand. The original words daja rat isy tumen Te wymaren ‘Tonight they have to kill you’ replaced with Dajá ráty kamén tumén te wymarén ‘Tonight they want to kill you’ (Ficowski 1956: 120). Probably, Ficowski misunderstood the construction isy te + [verb in present tense] for expressing obligation, as for instance, when relating the Polish commander’s words isy baro baro mary | ben te jaweł ‘a big battle was expected’ (ll. 842–843). Kozhanov (Кожанов 2013: 71–104) and Mérimée (1936: 171) wrote about this construction. VS

Lines 57–58: {?} Gijam dór dór {?} swętenca. Ficowski’s Polish translation needs to be explicated: poszłam daleko, daleko w święta ‘during the holidays I went (travelled) far, far away’ (Ficowski 1956: 121). But the Romani original reads ‘we went far, far into the world.’ Papusza erroneously wrote [ę] instead of [e], a common spelling error of hers. The expression gija swetenca ‘(s)he went into the (broad) world’ is common. Yet, the designation swętenca ‘*during the holidays’ is unusual, while swętonenca ‘with the holy (days) / on holidays’ would be appropriate. In addition, ‘holiday’ in the dialect is swenko from the Polish regionalism świętek or świątek (instead of the standard form święto). Mixing of paronymic roots historically parallel to Polish świat- ‘world, light’ and święt- ‘holy, saint’ led to homonymy in the Romani dialects of Belarus, where the coincidence of verbs meaning ‘to shine, to emit light’ and ‘to sanctify, to consecrate’ arose in emulation of the Belarusian śviacić in which both verbs coincide, entailing the homonymy of the two aforementioned meanings (Шаповал 2010: 254). A similar expression denoting wandering, vagrancy, as a rule, under the conditions of extreme need or circumstances, is found both in Ukrainian pіty svіtamy ‘to go [far] to the world[’s ends],’ or in the Polish dialect counterpart pójść światami, instead of the standard Polish expression pójść gdzie oczy poniosą ‘to go where your eyes lead you’ (Dobrzański 1858: 1232, 1233). Papusza’s use of a Romani calque of this Polish dialectical (or Ukrainian) expression emphasizes the drama of her Roma family group’s forced escape far from the comfort of everyday life into alien and hostile spaces. Papusza’s confusion between the Polish [e] and [ę] could be an influence from the southeastern Polish dialects (or, today’s Slavic dialects in Belarus and Ukraine’s region of Volhynia) (Klemensiewicz et al. 1981: 109–110). VS

Lines 63–64: An example of how Ficowski dealt with incomprehensible words. The word pcherybnagry (f) appears 4 times in the manuscript, probably formed from pherav ‘I walk,’ as derived from pherybena ‘walks’ (pl.); cf. pherybna|n|giro ‘something or someone related to walks.’ All these fragments were omitted in Ficowski’s version. Cf. also ll. 407, 585, 946. VS

Line 68: karyk i so ‘where and what’ – this expression indicates an unexpected occurrence, cf. ll. 383 and 481. VS

Line 69: _[51] Saro chalija ‘they all understood (the partisans).’ Erroneously, in Ficowski’s version [ćh-], while [ch-] in the manuscript. VS

Lines 72–73: This verb probably confused Ficowski. It denotes the Germans’ retreat, stop.

⁷² te wychytoł ‘to escape?’

^233–234 Chylton ‘they recede.’

^353–354 czy | sasio doredyr chyltyja<?> ‘does the German retreat farther?’

⁶³⁹ sasy chylcien ‘the Germans are retreating’ (that is, ‘they keep standing,’ or ‘do not attack’). VS

Line 73: Partyza|n|tka czapajew ‘Chapaev commando.’ During World War II, several Soviet partisan units named after the legendary Soviet hero Vasily Chapaev (1887–1919) operated in Volhynia and Polesia (Лозицкий 2010: 87, 642; Лавренов, et al. 1994: 112). Most probably, Papusza mentioned the unit organized by Mikołaj Kunicki (nom de guerre Mucha ‘Fly,’ 1914–2001). It was composed of local Poles and Poleshuks (stemming from the indigenous Slavophone and Orthodox population of Polesia), whom the Germans had earlier trained as policemen. This unit operated between March and June 1943 in the vicinity of the city of Rivne (Дюков 2008: 106–107; Гогун 2012: 348). They might protect Roma, who – like them – were Polish citizens. VS

The Soviet partisan movement was the most numerous and influential Resistance movement in many parts of the German-occupied Soviet Union (with the partial exception of the eastern half of interwar Poland occupied by the Soviet forces only in 1939). The first partisan units were formed by the Red Army commanders who found themselves in an encirclement in summer 1941. Throughout the war, the percentage of civilians in partisan units constantly increased. Partisans’ tactics included sabotage, political propaganda among the local population and armed struggle against Nazi police and Einsatzgruppen (death squads). Along with the centralization and bureaucratization of the movement, many partisan detachments underwent a transformation from small and highly mobile armed groups to more territorially based forest settlements that included family dwellings, sanitary facilities, storages, kitchens and craft workshops (Bartash 2021: 120). VB

Lines 83–84: to – Polish for ‘that’; čorasam ‘we steal’ – the secondary form of the Romani 1st person plural, formed with the suffix -am < ame ‘we.’ The smuggling of food as a survival strategy was mentioned by Papusza three times, but Ficowski fully omitted it in his version of the poem. Cf. ll. 83, 109, 758 (Kledzik 2020: 187–188). It should be, however, mentioned that this survival practice was not confined to Roma. All those who went into hiding depended on the local resources. This is not to mention regular requisitions from peasants by various militaries, be them Soviet partisans, Ukrainian UPA soldiers or Germans. For the strategies of coping with hunger and shortage cf. Tönsmeyer, Haslinger and Laba (2018). VS VB

Line 86: Papusza’s favorite motif (topos) of echo carrying the song that is followed up by animals from the forest. Cf. also ll. 115 and 285. VS

Line 88: {dar} – crossed out in pencil. VS

Line 98: ziakireł / żakire|ł| – two different manners of pronouncing the same word given. VS

Line 99: [o] – corrected in pencil. Daj ‘mother’ misunderstood by Ficowski as ‘here;’ hence, replaced with doj ‘there’ (Ficowski 1956: 124, 125). VS

Line 104: [A]dre wesza bare ‘In the big forests.’ It was a popular Roma survival tactic to hide deep in forests and swamps (Ковпак 1945: 98). VS

Lines 104–105: ‘The Germans are chasing us but they fear to go deeper in the forest.’ Papusza describes a so-called anti-partisan action (in German, Bandenbekämpfung ‘struggle against bandits’). Such actions were conducted by the joint forces of the Einsatzgruppen, Gestapo, SS and Wehrmacht. For the involvement of Wehrmacht, cf. Beorn (2014). Bandenbekämpfung was used as an excuse for ethnic cleansing and mass violence against the countryside population, that is, potential partisan supporters. After the defeat in the battle of Stalingrad (Volgograd) in February 1943, a turning point in the German-Soviet war, Nazi occupation policies frequently took a form of punitive actions that aimed at destroying the material resources and networks of support for Soviet partisans. During anti-partisan operations that сould last for weeks, endangered civilians, as well as partisans themselves, went deep into the woods or stayed on the floating islands in the midst of Polesian swamps. VB

Line 122: sasio Baro – literally ‘German the Great’ for referring to Adolf Hitler. Ficowski omitted this fragment for obvious ideological reasons, just a decade after the end of World War II. VS

Line 126: weszo, weszo, weszorenca ‘Oh, forest, forest, with the small forests.’ A typical way of address that treats forest as a living creature (cf. Деметер 1981: 114, n. 41) or as a father and a protector (cf. ll. 124–128; 325–327). VS VB

Lines 128–130: ‘A big battle, the Germans together with Ukrainians, all are killing us, and Jews.’ Papusza articulates the local population’s complicity in the Nazi genocidal project. Throughout the occupied territories, local policemen and volunteers assisted the occupation forces in the implementation of their anti-Jewish and anti-Romani policies (cf. Dean 2000). VB

Line 132: katalar, katylar, literally ‘Catholic,’ meaning an ethnic Pole. VS

Line 133: tsibja łę|g|ę optsindło ‘their toungues were cut out.’ Perhaps modelled on the Polish expression języki im odcięto, or the Ukrainian one язики ïм відтято. VS

Line 136: psze|ć|choła. The underlined letters represent the contracted form ćchoveła ‘(s)he pours.’ VS

Line 142: Kałę móry Te skedeł ‘Collecting wild blueberries.’ Berries often function as a metaphor for tears (Деметер 1981: 196; Ficowski 1960: 8–10; Kuźniak 2013: 21). VS

Line 144: graja zamarde ‘killed horses.’ The local Romani tradition prohibits slaughtering horses and eating horse meat. Those Polska Roma who traveled perceived their horses as their most valuable possession or even as family members and gave their horses names. After the war, Shero Rom announced a retroactive amnesty for all those who had been compelled to eat horse meat to survive (Kledzik 2020: 194; Kuźniak 2013: 63). Cf. also l. 307. VS VB

Lines 155–156: ‘all the clothes already in tatters, the flesh [is] naked, we want to die’, most probably, of shame. The concept of shame or impurity (mageripen) was central to the local Romani tradition. It considered the female lower body as the main source of such ritual impurity. In conservative families, housework and personal hygiene were organized in such a manner so as to avoid defilement by a woman’s body or a newborn baby. Therefore, according to traditional etiquette, women were supposed to wear longer skirts. VB

Lines 167–168: zamrasiona; pomerena. It is unclear why Ficowski replaced the former with zmraśona and the latter with pomerna. VS

Line 175: joć = i hoć ‘and though.’ Papusza used the contraction to denote an allegro pronunciation of this line. VS

Lines 181–182: Saśo, xyrja nalačho ‘the German, an evil Devil (literally “No-Good”)’. How to explain the inhuman behavior of the enemy? The question was answered in a similar manner both by Papusza and Yitzhak Katzenelson in his Song of the Murdered Jewish Nation. According to them, the enemy serves the power of the evil one. Cf.: “…דאס איז געווען די סטרא־אחרא, דער שד פון אונטערװעלט” Dos iz geven di stra-akhra, der shd fun untervelt ‘This was the “stra-akhra”, the ghost of underworld,’ translated by Ficowski into Polish as ‘To była siła nieczysta z piekieł …’ (‘It was an impure force from hell’) (Kacenelson 1982: 55, 58 of the 2nd pagination). In Belarusian (but also in Ukrainian and Russian), нелюдзь nieliudź (literally ‘non-human’) denotes ‘beast [from hell].’

Line 187: rakie[r]lęs. Ficowski changed this word to rakirlys. VS

Line 189: Crossing any railroad in a large group was risky, because the Germans watched the railways closely, anticipating partisan activities (Ковпак 1945: 100; cf. also ll. 235 and 290). One of the partisans’ tasks was to stop the enemy’s transportation by railway through blowing up trains and damaging rails. VS VB

Line 190: daja rat na sióciam ‘this night, we didn’t sleep.’ Ficowski incorrectly interpreted this passage as daja raty na sućom ‘*this tonight, I didn’t sleep.’ VS

Lines 196–198: dzi|a|wys by sasios te mareł

A_pre ćchórja i niby) sawi) nitsi

Nadaraw

‘I would be going either to kill Germans, <or to be [stabbed]> with the knives; nothing is likely to scare me.’ A_pre ćchórja, literally ‘on the knives.’ The same rhetoric formula is used in the then popular Russian song Loze (Лозе ‘Oh, Luisa’), recorded and published by P. S. Patkanov in 1904 (Патканов 1904: 36–37, No 13; Шаповал 2007: 294–295). VS

Lines 199–202. Such verbal courtesies (polite plural wy ‘you’ in Polish for addressing a person) were not typical for Soviet partisans, suggesting that in this case Papusza is writing either about Polish partisans, or about Volhynia’s locals. VS

Line 200: bóckiren – a calque of the Polish verb budźcie (infinitive: budzić), instead of the Romani dziⁿgawen ‘wake them up.’ VS

Line 201: the Germans sent two Hungarian regiments to pacify the partisans in Volhynia and Polesia (Kunicki 1959: 87, 89; Лозицкий, et al. 2010: 42, 154, 161, 168, 177, 181 217). Polish partisans moderated their impact through Hungarian-language propaganda leaflets (Auderska and Ziółek 1972: 293). Soviet partisans also tried this approach (Лозицкий, et al. 2010: 130, 220). VS

Lines 210–213: ‘When we arrive, we will give away all [we have] to [gift] at the church a candle, as big as my height.’ This passage illustrates intercultural influences on the poem. Lighting (big) candles is rather an Orthodox Christian tradition (Papusza’s family were Catholics). Such candles are lit out of gratitude to God or as an act of commemoration for a deceased family member. The ritual is also used in black magic. VB

Line 215: ‘tied up children’s mouths,’ to prevent children from crying. While in hiding, young children were often seen as a threat to collective safety, since their screams could reveal a group’s hideout. There were even the situations in which a family with infants had to leave a group and hide on their own (Bartash 2021: 117). VB

Lines 246–247: so To za jek – a calque of the Polish expression Co ty za jedna? ‘Who are you, lady?’ VS

Line 261: Tysia ‘table, banquet,’ cf. the Sinti word tiša borrowed from German Tisch ‘table.’ VS

Line 265: A_dre cholin baro ‘in big anger,’ the masculine gender of the adjective baro can be influenced by the Polish masculine noun gniew ‘anger;’ cf. Terno bałwał ‘Young Wind’ by Edward Dębicki with the same shift (Szybka 2017: 05:12). VS

Line 266: so – in the place of the Polish dialectal conjunction co ‘that, which;’ in standard Polish the conjunction is że (Kledzik 2020: 177). VS

Line 279: adre jw baro pszepejam ‘in deep snow we perished.’ Ficowski erroneously reinterpreted this passage as andre bare jiwa ‘(Roma women buried four kids) in the great snows.’ VS

Line 296: syr węde cierykło ‘like a <frozen> sparrow in winter.’ Cf. l. 861. A rare dialectal usage węde/wędę ‘in winter’ related to the description of the frozen sparrows. Both contexts refer to the tribulations suffered by the Roma. VS

Line 305: ‘a Romni does not go to villages.’ The expression demonstrates the abnormality of Romani lives under German occupation. In traditional communities, women were daily breadwinners. They usually earned money or obtained food by telling fortune, selling crafts and offering healing services to peasant women. VB

Lines 309–310: wosko żójneł (zamiast / gomka Amerykansko) ‘they are chewing wax instead of chewing gum,’ where gomka or gumka stands for ‘chewing gum.’ This detail, as well as marzipans (l. 148), illustrates tribulations suffered during the war. In stark contrast, Papusza wrote that in 1929 Żyłam jak królewna, miałam na sobie złota, ile chciałam. Dularami rzucałam jak śmieciem ‘I lived like a princess. I wore as much gold (jewelry) as I wanted. I threw dollars around, like rubbish’ (Papusza in Kuźniak 2013:41). VS

Lines 313–314: ‘a hedgehog – the forest piglet.’ According to the narratives of the Roma who used to travel in the region, their diet included a variety of game foods. A hedgehog’s meat was considered a delicacy. The entire hedgehog was cooked on fire, wrapped in a layer of clay, which allowed for the easy removal of the skin and quills from the meat. VB

Lines 318–320: The Romani word for ‘TB’ šuke is an adaptation of the Polish one suchoty. VS

Line 329: sowa ‘owl’ (a direct borrowing from Polish, also sowa) plays the role of the messenger of death (Dębicki 2004). In other Romani groups, for instance, among the Kalderash, the woodpecker is cast in this role (Деметер 1981: 249). VS

Lines 343–344: pszałoro ‘little Brother’ refers to Jerzy Ficowski (1924–2006), Papusza’s non-Roma friend, who transcribed, edited, censored, translated into Polish and secured the publication of Papusza’s poems. His censoring interventions were done in good faith, so that communist Poland’s official censors would permit the publication of the 1956 collection of Papusza’s poems. Obviously, the Polish communist propaganda banned any mentions of the 1943 mutual ethnic cleansing of Poles and Ukrainians in Volhynia, or of the tense relations between Polish and Soviet partisans. Cf. l. 991 pcheniory ‘little Sister,’ which refers to Papusza (Kuźniak 2013: 21). While Papusza addressed Ficowski with the term pszałoro, Ficowski called Papusza pcheniory (Machowska 2011: 197, n. 122). TK VS

Lines 347–348: so pszedzidzija rom ciororo /i Tsindo barwało ‘the poorest Rom and the richest Jew.’ This dichotomy between the poor Rom and the rich Jew, attested in Roma folklore, became irrelevant during World War II. By 1942 most Volhynian Jews had been robbed of their property and either murdered in the Holocaust by bullets (cf. Desbois 2008) or incarcerated in local ghettoes and concentration camps. A similar fate was soon imposed on the local Roma. Beginning in 1942, Volhynian Roma were often interned in the ghettoes and concentration camps together with (or after) the Jews (cf. Tyaglyy in this volume; Kledzik 2020: 185, 188–189, 194). Nazis earmarked both ethnic groups (nations) for extermination on racial grounds. Yet, Germany’s genocidal policies towards Jews and Roma differed in some aspects. Thus, the Romani genocide was less centralized, more depending on locals taking initiative. The severity of Romani genocide often depended on the involvement of local perpetrators, thus, varying across the occupied territories, from the almost complete destruction of the Romani population in Estonia (cf. Weiss-Wendt 2023) to a relative safety experienced by Roma in Lwów (Lviv) (cf. Wawrzeniuk 2018). VS VB

Line 349: pał sasioskro szero ‘under the German administration;’ literally szero means ‘head’. VS

Line 372: (mamósza) wymarde so ki cherój ‘people [Poles] were killed to a man, without a trace.’ The Romani expression is a calque of the Ukrainian one вибити до ноги ‘to kill all to the [last person’s] leg,’ also attested in Polish wybić (co) do nogi. VS

Line 383: cha{d}ładytko gili means here ‘soldiers,’ not ‘Russians.’ The Wajs family’s first concert in the area controlled by the Ukrainian forсes took place in the village of Ochedniki, in the military school (Бульба-Боровець 2008: 178; Лозицкий 2010: 48). The village’s name is cited in a variety of spellings (Kledzik 2020: 187; Літопис 2007: 75, 90, 124). Now it is Okhytnyky in Ukrainian. The village is located 20 kilometers southwest of Kovel’. The song successfully performed by Papusza likely was ‘Розпрощася стрілець (козак) зі своєю ріднею’ (A rifleman (Cossack) is saying a goodbye to his family) (Dębicki in Krótki 2020: 04.45–05.37). The same tune with Russian lyrics Papusza recorded in the poem’s ‘Partisan song,’ cf. ll. 761–801. VS

Line 383: karyk i so. Cf. l. 68. VS

Lines 384–390: Papusza related about their concerts that were richly rewarded by Ukrainian partisans. Ficowski removed these fragments that documented UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) partisans’ positive attitude toward the Roma, because both Soviet and Polish censors deemed the formation as ‘anticommunist’ (Kledzik 2020: 195). VS

Lines 385–386: ‘Dark Eyes’ (Очи чёрныя Ochi chiornyia), a popular Russian pseudo-folk song, translated into many languages across Central and Eastern Europe. Originally, it was the Ukrainian poet Yevhen Hrebinka (1812–1848) who wrote this poem and published it in 1843. The poem with its current tune was published in 1884. It was the German-Polish composer active in Vil’na (Vilnius), Florian Hermann (1822–1892), who in 1879 published the melody, originally titled in French as ‘Valse Hommage.’ TK

Lines 389–390: saren jagór jagurestyr pszyre / wanys ‘in the end;’ jagór jagurestyr – a calque of the Polish expression koniec końców ‘ends’ end.’ Meanwhile, pszyre / wanys seems to be a misspelling of przy-ra wenys ‘[they] changed clothes.’ VS

Lines 395–399: According to the Romani tradition, personal belongings of the dead require special care; clothing should be burnt or given away (Kuźniak 2013: 48–49, 62; Деметер, Черных 2018: 310–312). Yet, the harsh realities of survival made many Roma breach such traditional taboos. Under the German occupation and during the immediate postwar period, personal belongings of murdered Poles and Jews continued to circulate locally. For a history of Jewish belongings circulating in such a manner, cf. Waligórska and Sorkina (2022). VS VB

Line 405: dajaj, miswritten as jadaj ‘here,’ and then crossed out. VS

Lines 407, cf. the note regarding ll. 63–64. VS

Line 408 ‘Bulbaites,’ that is, Ukrainian partisans who fought against any Soviet forces. The term is derived from the nom de guerre of commander Taras Dmytrovych Borovets, namely, Taras Bulba. In literature he is known as Taras Bulba-Borovets (1908–1981). The commander borrowed this pseudonym from the Ukrainian writer, Nikolai Gogol’s well-known story, titled ‘Taras Bulba.’ After the German-Soviet attack on and occupation of Poland in 1939, the following year Borovets organized and headed a Ukrainian resistance army, which was named the Polisian Sich. After Germany attacked the Soviet Union in 1941, the German military administration recognized Bulba’s forces as part of the German army (or the 213th Sicherungs-Division). At the end of 1943 the Gestapo imprisoned him, but the following year (in late October) Bulba was freed (Бульба-Боровець 2008: 291) to fight again against the Red Army.

The Bulbaites mentioned by Papusza were acting independently or as part of Stepan Bandera’s UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army). The Bulbaites’ refusal to participate in actions against the local Poles caused them to part ways with Bander’s UPA. So, in late July 1943, Borovets decided to rename his forces as UNRA (Ukrainian People’s Revolutionary Army). Eventually, UPA directed an assassination attempt at Borovets that brought death to his wife (Бульба-Боровець 2008: 9). Soviet partisans took note of the rift between Bandera and Borovets and sought to use it to their advantage. Meanwhile, UPA and UNRA locked in a struggle against each other, against the Soviet partisans, and in the former case also against the Polish underground military, resorted to subterfuge. When tactically useful, UNRA and UPA partisans spoke Russian, Polish, and sometimes German. The situation confused many and especially civilians, who did not know whom to trust and who was who (‘Документи. 1975’: note 16; Kunicki 1959: 43, 163, 165). TK VS

Line 424: kaj na kaj – a calque of the Polish expression gdzieniegdzie ‘here and there.’ The ligature [aj] looks as if it were [ej]. VS

Line 425: Reasonably, Papusza was afraid of wells, often poisoned with festering dead bodies (Бульба-Боровець 2008: 229; Kunicki 1959: 34). VS

Line 431: mule ‘ghosts,’ which Roma feared. Different Romani groups have traditionally believed in a mulo (‘dead person, ghost’) and their ability to return to the world to express their dissatisfaction with the deeds of the living or, on the contrary, to warn them about danger (Деметер, Черных 2018: 560; Mulo, Mule Romarchive). A mulo can disturb the living, scare them to death and, in extreme cases, even suffocate. According to the local Romani belief, a mulo can only visit the homes where he/she has previously lived or visited as a human. Therefore, while staying in the homes of the murdered Poles, Papusza had all the reasons to fear the dead who might come back. VS VB

Lines 442–444: These are typical Ukrainian (Orthodox, Uniate) names. Cf. ll. 505–506, where the Roma’s Polish (Catholic) names are mentioned. Papusza’s family group pretended to be Ukrainian (Orthodox, Uniate) Roma, when coming into contact with UPA soldiers or the Ukrainian villagers who supported them. Reasonably, they feared of being victimized as Catholics and ‘Polish’ (Kledzik 2020: 171, 185). Ficowski excised from his version the long section about the looting of an abandoned house, when Roma showed some Ukrainian documents to UPA partisans to avoid being summarily punished (Kledzik 2020: 185, 186). In these Ukrainian documents the Wajses hid under the Ukrainian surname Poharewicz (Kledzik 2020: 190). TK VS

Line 449: Lytomorie – a distorted Roma aural recording of the German historical place-name Lodomerien for the town, which nowadays is known as Volodymyr-Volynskyi in Ukrainian. VS

Line 459: dywłoro dykcheł kaj na chochawalw ‘Dear God knows I don’t lie.’ In line with the German occupation regulations, one was to be shot together with one’s family in punishment for helping Jews in Central and Eastern Europe. Therefore, such religious formulas for confirming the veracity of Papusza’s words were seen as necessary. VS

Line 461: In the manuscript the word ciorory ‘poor [girl]’ written above the word Ficeryk ‘little officer (?).’ It might be the beginning of another story line, which the poet did not pursue.

Salt was scarce at that time and often functioned as a hard currency when paper money issued by different occupation authorities turned out to be worthless (Kunicki 1959: 65). Soviet partisans gave peasants matches and even salt to curry favor and paid with these for goods (Лозицкий 2010: 495). Borovets’s UNRA forces paid peasants with salt and sugar for bread and other foodstuffs (Бульба-Боровець 2008: 185). VS

Line 465: syr moryca ‘[as lovely] as a berry’, and also ll. 980 and 1065 syr móry ‘[as lovely] as berries.’ Cf. Papusza’s direct translation of this phrase into Polish A żona młoda jak jagoda ‘And the wife was as young as a berry’ (Pamiętnik: 11). VS

Line 471: raty ‘in the night’ is mistakenly given in Ficowski’s version, instead of rat ‘night,’ cf. ll. 50–51 and 190. VS

Lines 474–475: so kor / ko ‘every week, every Sunday’ – a calque of the Polish expression co tydzień, co niedziela. VS

Lines 478–479: Tradine agił wkidy / zasuciam ‘They went ahead, when we fell asleep.’ The Chapaev partisans belonged to General Begma’s military group, composed of local Poles and Poleshuks. They were ordered to take leave of the Roma, who impeded their military capacity (Kunicki 1959: 141). The Roma and the Chapaev partisans met again two months later in March 1944, when the former withdrew west before the advancing Soviet front. Some Roma women reproached partisans in such a way, from which it is obvious the latter reneged on some personal (romantic) promises made to the Romnis. Cf. ll. 615–616 Soske tum|e| jamen Apre | sojben pomekłę ‘Why did you leave us when we were asleep?’ VS

Line 481: karyk i so. Cf. also l. 68. The Roma verb wpereł is here a calque of the Polish verb wpada in the colloquial meaning ‘to drop in, visit’. VS

Line 492: It is impossible to establish what illness it was. The Roma expression is a calque of the Polish one zachorować na coś ‘to get sick with something.’ The Romani tuwissio can be also analyzed as either an assimilation of the Latin medical term tussis ‘cough,’ or the French pronunciation of /te-be-se/ for TBC ‘tuberculosis.’

In local healing practices, raspberry infusion is used for treating common colds and respiratory infections. In February, when winter is at its coldest and hungriest in Central and Eastern Europe, avitaminosis used to be rife, while overcrowding in small huts caused spikes in infection rates. VS

Line 495: nikon nameja ‘nobody died.’ In other places, Papusza recalled that many Roma had died (cf. l. 102; Papusza in Kuźniak 2013: 63). VS

Lines 505–506: Polish (Catholic) and Ukrainian (Orthodox, Uniate) names, cf. also ll. 442–444. VS

Line 506: miro ław naszty chaline romano ‘They hardly considered my name as Romani.’ The Turkish noun papuç ‘shoe’ was borrowed into Romanian as ‘slipper,’ but also in some dialects as ‘bundle, doll.’ In turn, in Northern Slavic it came to mean kapciuch (in Polish) for a ‘bundle of dried tobacco leaves,’ alongside papuć, kapeć (in Polish) for ‘slipper’ (Мельничук 2003: 286; Цыхун 1993: 158–159). Local peasants misinterpreted Papusza’s name to mean a ‘standard bundle of home-grown tobacco.’ VS

Line 510: Pchendłe groby Te chandeł ‘they made us dig graves.’ Yet, it is not clear who actually was compelled to dig such a grave for whom (Kledzik 2020: 180). VS

Line 510–571: Papusza avoids talking about some embarrassing details of their survival. At times, unintended consequences of military operations let the Roma escape unharmed. For instance, although they planned so, the Ukrainians could not kill the Roma, because they found themselves under a German attack. Afterward Soviet partisans attacked, so countering them was a priority, instead of slaughtering the Roma. In his version of Tears of Blood, Ficowski excised the fragment on the Germans’ role in the events (Kledzik 2020: 192–193). VS

Line 512: ne gadze Te na dykchen ‘but gadže <won’t> to look (to take into account age and sex of victims).’ Later, the latter [n] was added in black ink, resulting in ne gadze Ten na dykchen). Subsequently, this word Ten was misread as łen ‘them,’ resulting in the following misinterpretation ‘but gadže don’t look at them (victims),’ finally, yielding in Ficowski’s version Ne gadże les na dykchen ‘but gadže don’t look at that (victims’ age or gender).’ VS

Line 515: Apre čanga kňejon ‘they kneel.’ The Romani verb kňejon ‘to kneel’ is a borrowing from the German verb knien. VS

Lines 519–521: Jame murša l{as}[en] tovera andre / vasta. The verb las ‘we took,’ replaced with len ‘you took (pl.).’ VS

Line 529–531, also cf. l. 479: Papusza did not let the young Jewish girl know where the Chapaev commando had set up a camp. VS

Line 535: och. odo {ciomno} [kali] raciory! Ficowski misread the line as Och, do kali raćori! In the manuscript Kali was added in pencil by another hand. VS

Line 539: wylidzia męgę szero is a contracted version of the expression tu, mro syvo grastoro, tu vylydža mro šero (Шаповал 2007: 288, № 43) ‘you, my gray horse, take my head [out of the trouble].’ VS

Line 541: Tykne cyrykłe mangen dewłes … Ficowski misread cyrykłe as ćirikłore. VS

Lines 544–545: Ex, dolica tu jamary! By-baxtali baxt miry! It looks like a Belarusian song quoted in Romani, cf.: “Ах ты, доля мая, доля! Доля горкая мая!” Ach ty, dolia maja, dolia! Dolia horkaja maja ‘Oh you, my fate, my fate! My bitter fate!’ (Гарэцкі 2009: 363). VS

Line 547: The Roma’s traditional preference for dying in the presence of their own family tends to be ridiculed by non-Roma neighbors and host populations (Konczewska 2016: 117). VS

Lines 554–555: ‘We hear the forest speak in Russian!’ Papusza means an encounter with а group of Soviet partisans. Cf. the commentary to the lines 562–563. VB

Line 559: jone połokes sar{e}[o] obliłe wesz. I reinterpreted the manuscript’s unknown to me Romani word obszłe as obliłe, ‘they surrounded [it]’ (literally ‘embraced’), because it fits the context best. VS

Lines 562–563: ‘Olga, where are you going to? Chapaev [partisans]! Come here!’ is given in the poem in Russian, though phonetically written down in Latin letters. Language is used as a means of group identification, for instance, at that time Russian was closely associated with the Red Army and Soviet partisans (Kunicki 1959: 152). TK VS

Lines 563–564: Papusza noted the Ukrainian surname Kovpak in its Russified version Kolpakov. The legendary partisan leader was known among his fellow partisans and the locals by different informal names, such as Kolpak (‘cap’ in Russian), Dzed (‘grandfather’ in Russian), Batia (‘daddy’ in Russian) (Марковская 2009: 102–103). Soviet partisan commander Grigory Balitsky also tended to Russify Ukrainian surnames and words (Лозицкий 2010: 443). However, Major General Kovpak could not listen to the songs of the Roma in Volhynia in March 1944, because in January, due to his deteriorating health, he had been evacuated by plane to Moscow (Самосват 2007: 27). VS VB

Line 571: Ani jek {piosenką wiesolą} milicija ‘there was no militia to be seen’ suggests that the Roma were surrounded by unfamiliar soldiers, and the local self-defense unit (milicija) was not around to confirm their loyalty. VS

Line 574: A Polish-language song that can be translated as ‘Have a look around, can you see / how they step [hard] marching / and [sing] a joyful song.’ The text at the page’s bottom was written by Papusza’s son Tarzan. TK VS

Line 579: Mol(i)unia – a diminutive of the Polish-language name Mariola or Melania. She was a friend of Papusza’s. Molunia and Papusza led the Soviet soldiers to the Roma camp. Papusza also mentions her in ll. 527–528 and 533, before lamenting Molunia’s untimely death in ll. 598–609. TK VS

Lines 580–581: zakor / dan ligir|e|n ‘they [Soviets] bring [take] them [Ukrainians] abroad.’ VS

Line 585: pcherybnagrja, cf. the note regarding ll. 63–64. VS

Line 586–587: Creating an independent and ethnically homogenous Ukraine was the ultimate goal of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN, founded in Vienna in 1929). In interwar Poland, the OUN was one of the most radical organizations that adopted terror as a political tool. During World War II, the organization was responsible for many instances of anti-Jewish violence in Volhynia and Galicia, as well as the massacres and expulsions of Volhynia’s Poles that cost the latter approximately 60,000 dead (cf. Himka 2021; Motyka 2011). VB

Lines 590–591: ‘Roma girls perished in the concentration camp from forced labour.’ The places of forced internment conceptualized by Papusza as concentration camps might look very differently. In fact, it could be any makeshift place erected by the Germans with the use of barbed wire to detain people and force them to do their bidding may be meant here (Kunicki 1959: 164). Presumably, this episode recalls the fate of two young women from Papusza’s family group who fell victims to sexualized violence in the ghetto in Kostopol (cf. Bartash in this volume). VS VB

Line 599: [ca]) … doja A_|d/p|re szteto pszepeja ‘this <woman> died at the spot.’ The phrase A_re szteto can be reinterpreted as A_|d|re szteto ‘in the city,’ by analogy to the earlier expression szetetostyr ‘from the city.’ After all, the Roma did not return to Włodzimierz (Vladimir-Volynsky). VS

Line 618: gił dziówla ‘in front of women.’ Cf. l. 478: Tradine agił ‘they went forward.’ VS

Line 627: Mutual accusations of this sort were common. Here, Papusza is retelling the Soviet version of the events (Kunicki 1959: 140). VS

Lines 634–635: graja chymron szunen / drom baro ‘The horses are neighing, sensing / the long journey.’ A well-established topos in folklore songs (Шаповал 2007: 272). VS

Line 639: sasy chylcien. Cf. l. 272. VS

Lines 642–643: łatsio cyro peske pszytchowen ‘imagine good times coming,’ here the Romani calque pšy-thoven is employed instead of *pšed-thoven because the Polish przystawiają ‘they put (something closely to something else)’ is confused with similarly pronounced przedstawiają ‘they imagine / perform.’ VS

Line 650: Bolbowcy zamarde 5 chaładen ‘Bulbaites killed 5 soldiers’. In reality, Borovets’s UNRA units had nothing to do with these events, which took place after the commander and his soldiers had parted ways with UPA (Бульба-Боровець 2008: 236). Yet, local Polish and Soviet partisans continued to dub all Ukrainian forces as ‘Bulbaites’ (Kunicki 1959: 133). VS

Line 658–660: graja / tasadene […] A_dre / Błaty ‘horses drowned in the swamp.’ It is not a rhetoric hyperbole, the swamps along the Pripyat (Prypeć in Polish) river used to be dangerous (Лозицкий 2010: 196). VS

Line 668: zaszczyki (zaščïki) ‘injections,’ a borrowing from Polish zastrzyki. The German forces, spread thinly as they were, German units faced logistical problems to secure medical and other supplies (Бульба-Боровець 2008: 261). VS

Line 670–672: The soldiers (partisans) allow the Roma to stock up on food from the found German wagons. In general, the phrase is difficult to interpret: i męder zabi|s|tyren ‘forget us too,’ that is, ‘go your own way.’ Then there is some contradiction, it is not clear why when parting the soldiers ask ‘you won’t get lost [from the Germans] with us.’ It seems that Bo jamęnca / chaładeca te na prszeperen refers specifically to the products received from the soldiers. VS

Line 677: dali go ‘let’s do it quickly!,’ from the Polish interjection dalej! (Kucharzyk, et al. 2010: 45–46). VS

Line 686–687: dyćło sweto szukar baro zdórał / kchera I manósza ‘apparently the world is more beautiful far away from the people and their houses.’ In the midst of the total war, some places escaped the ravages of fighting (Лозицкий 2010: 122). VS

Line 696: Bradziaga (Tramp) – the famous Russian folk song ‘По диким степям Забайкалья’ (Crossing the wild steppes of Transbaikal). Attested since the 1880s, the song’s most popular text was written later by Ivan Kondratyev (1849–1904) (Гартвельд 2012: 67, No 43). VS

Line 704 ‘Romale:’ In Romani ‘dear Roma.’ A specific form of address, in the vocative, as opposed to the nominative case. TK VS

Line 707: By the ‘Lords’ soldiers’ Papusza means the Polish underground, namely, the Armia Krajowa (‘Home Army’, abbreviated as the AK). The Home Army was one of most numerous and best organized resistance movements that operated in the former eastern regions of Poland (annexed by the Soviets in 1939). The AK fought for the reconstruction of the Polish state in its prewar boundaries, thus, the force enjoyed local Poles’ support. In Volhynia, the AK confronted the Ukrainian insurgents and German forces. Depending on the situation, the AK either fought against or cooperated with the Soviet partisans. VB

Line 715: In principle, the expression ‘our Polish partisans’ may mean several different groupings. In Volhynia and Polesia, many Poles fought in Soviet partisan units or initiated their own self-defense units in response to the UPA-driven violence against the Polish population. Such units were gradually absorbed either by the AK or the Soviet partisan movement. VB

Line 730: The first question the Roma were asked by the Polish AK soldiers sasy czy) roma ‘[Are you] Germans or Roma?’ may look unreasonable. However, at the beginning of 1944, even the region’s ethnically German settlers of the tsarist times were leaving the occupied territories (Schmaltz 2008). VS

Line 744: stała chałade ‘regular soldiers,’ opposed to partisans. Cf. ll. 854 and 978. Papusza speaks of two different Polish military formations. Soviet partisans handed over the Roma to the care of the 27th Volhynia division of the Home Army dressed in German uniforms (Jezierski 2011; Kunicki 1959: 140; Zińczuk 2012: 211). The regular Polish troops, whose arrival the Roma awaited, were advancing from the east. It was already the Polish People’s Army (Armia Ludowa), which de facto constituted part of the Red Army. VS

Line 748: Papusza began mentioning bombings only beginning in March 1944, because earlier the Roma had hidden in the forests. In reality such aerial bombing had started earlier (Kunicki 1959: 144). VS

Lines 753–756: Papusza’s poem does not follow a strict chronological order. Some earlier events are incorporated into the narrative as contrastive recollections. This highly interesting passage illustrates the conduct of Bandera’s UPA soldiers and the power of music as an important survival strategy. ‘The Roma played for them, they sang, kept staring up, but they did not scare any of us, only boasted.’ VS

Lines 757–758: Papusza recollects what others are now gradually forgetting, namely, the dramatic wartime events. They generated such a trauma (PTSD) that the only psychological possible way of dealing with it was to forget about what had been going on during the war (cf. Koźlicka 2019: 15.45). VS

Line 758: masa wytsiór|e|nes ‘[they] were stealing hams.’ Cf. l. 109. VS

Lines 761–801: The song is written in a mixture of Ukrainian and Russian. Apart from Polish, Papusza officially indicated only Russian, as the sole foreign language that she spoke (Kuźniak 2013: 172). The poet did not distinguish Russian either from Belarusian or Ukrainian, although she had a day-to-day experience in comprehending and using all the three languages, be it as a fortune-teller or the author of Tears of Blood. In daily practice, all these three languages were referred to as Ruski (literally, ‘Ruthenian’) in wartime Volhynia. The Russian-language song mentioned by Papusza in her partly Ukrainianized rendering is ‘В чистом поле под ракитой’ V chystom polie pod rakytoi (In a Plain Field, Under a Willow). In the latter 1930s, Mikhail Isakovsky (1900–1973) wrote the song’s lyrics to the music of Vladimir Zakharov (1901–1956). TK VS

Line 764: ‘Komsomol’ is abbreviation from the Всесоюзный ленинский коммунистический союз молодёжи (‘All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, 1918–1991). It was a political youth organization in the Soviet Union. Although officially independent, it functioned as a youth section of the country’s communist party. During the Soviet times, Komsomol focused its activities on ideologized and atheistic upbringing of the Soviet youth. VB

Line 811: The comparison with a city is revealing. The Polish, Ukrainian and Soviet partisans in Polesia and Volhynia were quite entrenched and had time to secure all kinds of amenities, which then were thought to be typical only for urban areas (Kunicki 1959: 124). VS

Lines 816 and 818: szlabanto ‘barrier in the form of a long pole that can be raised and lowered,’ from Polish szlaban, which in turn is derived from German Schlagbaum. The secondary phoneme [-t-] is inserted like in the case of Romani bravinta ‘brandy,’ as borrowed from German Branntwein. VS

Line 816: After recording the partisan song with some variations that she tried out in the course of repeated performances, Papusza left a blank page here. Perhaps, the poet planned to write down a finalized form of the song, but never came to completing this task. VS

Line 823: o_żełki ‘eaglets,’ that is, orzełki in Polish for ‘military emblem.’ It is hard to establish, whether this was the regular emblem worn on caps by Polish soldiers or a cockade with the coat-of-arms of the region of Volhynia, which also features such a heraldic eagle. VS

Line 833: ‘Kopyczew.’ Also, Kopyczów, nowadays, Kupychiv, a village in Ukraine, located near the town of Turiisk (Turzysk in Polish). After 20 August 1942, the village’s Jews were exterminated (Круглов et al. 2016: 127). That is why empty houses were available for Roma in this village in 1944. TK VS

Line 834–835: The self-defense militia in Kopychiv was composed of local Poles, Czechs and probably Jews (Артизов 2019: 249; Kresowa 2007: 53; Leoni-Zopperfin 1957: 509, 510). Papusza used the term foryco tekno ‘small town’ to express the Polish one miasteczko and the Yiddish-language designantion שטעטל shtetl. Nowadays, from the administrative perspective, Kopychiv is recognized to be a village. The Soviet sources claim that all the ethnic Poles fled their hamlets and villages and grouped in towns for safety. In turn, the Germans allowed for forming a Polish police that would curb the Ukrainian forces who were then ethnically cleansing Poles (Лозицкий 2010: 103). As a result, the Ukrainian civilian population faced retributive violence at the hands of Polish policemen, as aided by local ethnic Germans (Бульба-Боровець 2008: 248). VS

Lines 842–843: pał 3 dywes isy baro baro mary | ben te jaweł ‘in 3 days, a big-big battle must be’. Cf. ll. 50–51. The Polish military knew the exact date of the commencement of the attack to be launched within the framework of Action Burza (‘Storm, Tempest’). Hence, they strove to remove civilians from the predicted zone of fighting. Action Burza lasted from January 1944 to January 1945. Polish underground forces, mainly, the AK (Home Army) wanted to liberate the most important Polish cities and towns from the Germans to be able to welcome the advancing Red Army as the hosts. This unaccomplished feat would have lessened Moscow’s ‘right’ to seize the eastern half of interwar Poland (Kunicki 1959: 150). The Polish unit which hosted Roma was informed about the future activities against German forces, too. VS

Line 845: This unusual snowfall in March was noted by many at that time (Kunicki 1959: 170). VS

Line 861: wędę. Cf. l. 296. VS

Line 862: Zdran cytron. Cf. l. 20. VS

Line 863–867: The fragment inspired the song Kicy bidy ‘How Many Misfortunes’ that the Polish composer Jan Kanty Pawluśkiewicz developed for the feature film Papusza (2013). VS

Line 869: kręży – derived from the Romanian noun creangă ‘twig, branch,’ pl. crengi. The poet’s glossa on this unique word was to denote Polish gałęzy, which was corrected as gałęzi ‘twigs, branches,’ and finally crossed out. The end of the line was erratically marked with [.)]. VS

Line 875: The winter moon can be observed in the north. VS

Line 890: ‘air-frame plane:’ The Focke-Wulf Fw 189 Uhu German reconnaissance plane with the characteristic airframe body (Лозицкий 2010: 381). TK VS

Line 923: ‘Stalin’s organs.’ The Soviet Katyusha multiple rocket launcher (BM-31). TK

Lines 923–924: szudło kacuszy i wanószy syr / męgę czapajew pchendzia ‘You could hear Stalin’s organs and nebelwerfers, as a Chapaev soldier told us.’ The Katyusha multiple rocket launcher. The Nebelwerfer (smoke mortar) was a World War II German series of weapons, nicknamed Vanyusha (‘Little Ivan’) in Russian. Papusza borrowed the names from partisan usages. VS

Lines 946: pcherybnagraja. Cf. the note regarding ll. 63–64. VS

Lines 967–968: wizaw wodar A_dre / wodar ‘opposite our hall’s door,’ like in the French expression vis-à-vis ‘face to face.’ The Romani phrase is a calque of the Polish expression drzwi w drzwi ‘door to door.’ VS

Line 980: syr móry. Cf. l. 465. VS

Line 988: ‘Polska Roma. Kalderashi and Lovari.’ This passage mentions three Romani groups (that is, culturally and linguistically differentiated communities of Roma with shared history and identity). Ethnonyms of such groups are often derived from professional occupations or identify their historical roots. For instance, the ethnonyms Polska Roma or Ruska Roma refer to the groups’ (imagined) homelands, namely, the Polish and Russian lands, respectively. The Lovara (derived from Hungarian ló ‘horse’) speak a Vlach Romani dialect and lived mainly in Hungary and Slovakia before World War II. The Kalderash (or Kalderara, derived from Romanian căldare ‘cauldron’) speak a Vlach Romani dialect, too. The Kalderash formed as a group in Southeast Europe but lived and travelled in interwar Poland, as well. Unlike the Polska Roma, who made their living mainly from horse barter and small-scale commerce, the Kalderash were tinkers and metal workers. VB

Line 989: ‘Lwów’ in Polish, today, Lviv in Ukraine. TK

Lines 989–991: Papusza mentions here that some Romani families survived the war in Lwów (Lviv), thanks to forged documents (Kuźniak 2013:43). Apparently, these documents featured typical German names. For reasons still unknown, the situation of Roma in Lwów, the wartime administrative capital of the District of Galicia, was better than in the Galician countryside or elsewhere in the General Government (Generalgouvernement). Hence, the city became a desirable haven for diverse Romani groups during World War II (Wawrzeniuk 2018: 339). VS VB

Line 993: ‘Volksdeutsche:’ German bureaucratic term for ‘ethnic Germans’ outside prewar Germany and Austria, who were eligible for German citizenship. TK

Lines 993–994: foldaj{d?}Czėry i dadywes / teszysę ‘today, the Volksdeutsche are still shooting <people>’. Obviously, Papusza uses the local pronunciation /foldajčėrï/ of the term Volksdeutsche ‘ethnic Germans,’ while hesitating how to write it down. The German verb schießen ‘to shoot,’ for instance, rendered in Yiddish as שיסן shisn, yielded here a Para-Romani hybrid verb te-szyseⁿ ‘to shoot.’ VS

Line 1010: ‘Holy Mother of Częstochowa.’ In other words, the Black Madonna of Częstochowa, that is, the venerated icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the altar of the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa, Poland. It is the country’s most important Catholic pilgrimage place. TK

Line 1016: Papusza completed the poem’s main story on the Roma’s tribulations in wartime Volhynia with a plea for peace. Next, she moved to a different kind of reflection on the value of life in peace. The poet’s choice of images is reminiscent of her poem ‘Pchuw miry’ (My Land), which Papusza had written earlier in March 1952. What is more, this reflection constitutes the entire poem’s framework and its haunting coda. After all, this conclusion also refers to the beginning of Tears of Blood (Ratwałe jaswa), where Papusza explains that she returns to these difficult memories to soften some men’s cruel hearts. Cf. also ll. 23 and 1019. VS

Line 1065: syr móry. Cf. l. 465. VS

Line 1069: syr pani naszeł ‘<as fast> as the water runs.’ A metaphor for commenting on one’s rhetorical skill. VS

Lines 1073–1080: Ficowski excised from his version this description of the positive aspects of the traditional way of Roma life. The censors, in accordance with the communist party’s line, wanted to emphasize the negative aspects of itinerary (nomadic) life. Hence, the optimistic pathos of unity with nature and the likening of the Roma to the feathered inhabitants of the forest were considered inappropriate. VS