{"id":341,"date":"2026-09-08T13:38:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T13:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/justcouncil.com\/?page_id=341"},"modified":"2026-10-04T23:00:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T23:00:44","slug":"hymn-of-the-mocked","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/justcouncil.com\/en\/songs\/hymn-of-the-mocked\/","title":{"rendered":"Hymn of the Mocked"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group jc-section is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n\n<p class=\"jc-kicker wp-block-paragraph\">Work \u00b7 Micha\u0142 P. Dybowski \u00b7 July 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"jc-lead wp-block-paragraph\">Nine four-line stanzas with a refrain, free verse with a hymnic cadence. The historical arc runs from the Partitions, through the year 1920, Gdynia and the cellars of 1944, to Solidarity and the present day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"jc-verse wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"jc-verse-label\">I.<\/span>They laughed in three capitals as her land was carved apart,<br>that a nation wiped from the map is a footnote for cartographers.<br>Yet she endured in silence \u2014 in a lullaby, in a prayer,<br>in a copybook where a child by night traced Polish words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"jc-verse wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"jc-verse-label\">II.<\/span>They laughed in the year twenty: \u201ca state for a single summer,<br>a seasonal republic \u2014 it will wilt before the first snow.\u201d<br>August gave them answer with thunder at the gates of Warsaw,<br>and the maps were drawn anew \u2014 this time with a trembling hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"jc-verse jc-refrain wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"jc-verse-label\">Refrain<\/span>Are they laughing still? Then let them \u2014<br>laughter is short, and Poland long.<br>Whoever builds does not hear it:<br>the hammer drowns out every jeer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"jc-verse wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"jc-verse-label\">III.<\/span>They laughed at a fishing village: \u201cA port? Them? From sand and wind?\u201d<br>Yet within a dozen springs she raised a city from the dune<br>and sent ships out into the world beneath the white-and-red ensign \u2014<br>for greatness does not answer scoffers. Greatness builds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"jc-verse wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"jc-verse-label\">IV.<\/span>They laughed that she was trampled \u2014 yet in the cellars of Warsaw<br>by candlelight she stitched up wounds, with a scalpel cut the darkness.<br>There was no power and no tomorrow \u2014 there was a surgeon and a nurse,<br>and a stubbornness that at times is holier than many a victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"jc-verse wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"jc-verse-label\">V.<\/span>They laughed at ten million: \u201cWith a strike? Against tanks? With a psalm?\u201d<br>Yet without a single shot they moved the Iron Curtain \u2014<br>and laughter froze in the throats of empires when the shipyard spoke in a whisper<br>what all the cannon of the world had never managed to cry out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"jc-verse wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"jc-verse-label\">VI.<\/span>Today the laughter comes from near at hand \u2014 the hardest is to laugh at ourselves:<br>at the queues, at the endless quarrels, at the concord that eludes us.<br>But whoever mocks his own wounds has not yet dressed them \u2014<br>and we know about wounds as few others do on this earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"jc-verse jc-refrain wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"jc-verse-label\">Refrain<\/span>Are they laughing still? Then let them \u2014<br>laughter is short, and Poland long.<br>Whoever builds does not hear it:<br>the hammer drowns out every jeer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"jc-verse wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"jc-verse-label\">VII.<\/span>For laughter is a tax the small pay the great in advance,<br>and scorn \u2014 a prophecy read backwards.<br>No one, after all, mocks the dead. Mockery is a fearful bow<br>made to that which is growing \u2014 before it grows too great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"jc-verse wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"jc-verse-label\">VIII.<\/span>So let them laugh, and welcome \u2014 today we have work to do:<br>the doctor at the table, the teacher at the chalk, the engineer at the plans,<br>the entrepreneur who kept his word, the official who in a case number<br>saw a human face \u2014 it is they who go on writing this hymn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"jc-verse wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"jc-verse-label\">IX.<\/span>And when we have finished building and that quiet hour comes,<br>we shall lay a table in the courtyard \u2014 before those who scoffed.<br>And there will be no triumph in it: there will be bread, and there will be room.<br>This is how the mocked one wins \u2014 by inviting laughter to the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"jc-verse jc-refrain wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"jc-verse-label\">Final refrain<\/span>They laugh no longer? No matter.<br>Laughter was short. Poland \u2014 long.<br>Someone today lays the first brick.<br>The hymn goes on \u2014 in his hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity jc-sep\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Performance note<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"jc-song-note wp-block-paragraph\">Form: nine four-line stanzas with a refrain, free verse with a hymnic cadence. Historical arc: the Partitions, 1920, Gdynia, 1944, Solidarity, the present day, the turn towards ourselves, the builders, the table. The finale is deliberately stripped of triumphalism \u2014 the mocked one prevails through hospitality, not revenge. A version shortened for communal singing is to be found in the <a href=\"https:\/\/justcouncil.com\/en\/songs\/hymn-of-the-mocked-song-version\/\">song version<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nine stanzas about a nation that was laughed at in every century \u2014 from the Partitions to Solidarity \u2014 and that answered with building, not revenge. A finale without triumphalism: the mocked one prevails through hospitality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":475,"parent":326,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-341","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hymn of the Mocked \u2014 nine stanzas on Poland | Just Council<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Hymn of the Mocked follows Poland from the Partitions through 1920, Gdynia and 1944 to Solidarity: a nation long mocked that answered by building.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/justcouncil.com\/en\/songs\/hymn-of-the-mocked\/\" \/>\n<meta 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