Rota (poem)
[6] Rota was first sung publicly during a patriotic demonstration in Kraków on July 15, 1910, held to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Polish-Lithuanian victory over the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Grunwald.
[citation needed] Between 1920 and 1922 the piece was chosen as state anthem of the Republic of Central Lithuania, a puppet state fully dependent on the Second Polish Republic (i.e. interwar Poland); while in Poland proper it was seriously considered as a possible national anthem too – among the other several different poems which the post-1926 government led by Józef Piłsudski thought over – as it was associated with anti-German struggles from the late 19th century.
("Rota" was promoted especially by political right which saw the proposed We Are the First Brigade of the Pilsudski legion as too partisan and was lackluster on Poland Is Not Yet Lost.
During the German occupation of Poland in World War II, on the eve of 11 November 1939 (Polish Independence Day), in Zielonka, a town at the outskirts of Warsaw, the scouts from the Polish Scouting Association put up posters with the text of the poem on the walls of the buildings.
[8] At the turn of the 1980s and 1990s of the 20th century, this composition was considered as the anthem of proposed Polish National-Territorial Region within the Lithuanian SSR.
[9] [need quotation to verify] Rota is also the official anthem of League of Polish Families political party.
From May 2024, an autograph score of the composition (prepared for publication in 1910) is presented at a permanent exhibition in the Palace of the Commonwealth in Warsaw.
Do krwi ostatniej kropli z żył Bronić będziemy Ducha, Aż się rozpadnie w proch i w pył Krzyżacka zawierucha.
To the last blood drop in our veins We will defend our Spirit Till into dust and ash shall fall, The Teutonic windstorm.
The German won't spit in our face, Nor Germanise our children, Our host will arise in arms, The Spirit will lead the way.
In Poland's name, in her honor We lift our foreheads proudly, The grandson will regain his forefathers' land
