Work · Michał P. Dybowski · July 2026
Four verses with a refrain. Metre: trochaic octosyllable, as in “Rota”. Rhyme: abab in the verses, xaxa in the refrain. A shortened version of the full work, written for communal singing.
Verse IThey laughed when maps had struck us out:
“A nation? Footnote — not to stay!”
But August answered, fierce and proud,
at Warsaw — resurrection day.
RefrainLaugh away — and let us build:
laughter fades, the house lives on.
Scorn is brief and Poland long —
the hammer will complete this song.
Verse IIThey laughed: “You? A port? From dunes?”
A city rose — its walls stood white.
Then, amid the war and smoke,
in cellars we sewed up the wounds.
RefrainLaugh away — and let us build:
laughter fades, the house lives on.
Scorn is brief and Poland long —
the hammer will complete this song.
Verse IIIThey mocked those marching without arms —
a shipyard’s whisper moved the hills.
Now our own laughter hunts us down
when, scorning wounds, we raise up walls.
RefrainLaugh away — and let us build:
laughter fades, the house lives on.
Scorn is brief and Poland long —
the hammer will complete this song.
Verse IVSo to work now — hand in hand:
hammer, scalpel, chalk and word.
And when at last our house shall stand —
for scoffers too, bread on the board.
Final refrainLaugh away — and let us build:
laughter fades, the house lives on.
Scorn is brief and Poland long —
your hand will complete this song.
Performance note
Metre. A consistent trochaic octosyllable — the metre of Konopnicka’s “Rota”; songlike, march-like, easy to set to music and to sing together.
Compression of the arc. The first verse spans the Partitions and 1920 — the “resurrection” at Warsaw. The second joins Gdynia and the cellars of 1944 in a single breath. The third is Solidarity, and after it comes the verse of conscience: mockery of our own wounds raises walls between us. The fourth gives voice to the builders through the metonymy of their tools — hammer, scalpel, chalk, word — and ends with a table at which bread awaits the scoffers too.
The final refrain exchanges a single word: “the hammer will complete” becomes “your hand will complete this song” — the work is handed over to those who sing it.
