In this post, I’ll be learning Polish language from the song “Urke” by Wilki.

<Verse 1>
Nic nie przychodzi do głowy
Samotny człowiek w środku dnia
Zupełnie sam
Na ulicy gwar

Zgubione szczęście
Nigdy nie wraca choćbyś chciał
Tyle w życiu się zmienia
Zaufaj przeznaczeniu

In the first line, przychodzić is not a part of indeterminate/determinate thingy. Its perfective verb is przyjść. This line means “Nothing comes to my mind.”

At the second line, środku is locative form of środek. At the fourth line, gwar means a rustling sound.

The second line of the second paragraph is kind of interesting. Choćbyś chciał is NOT an inversion. Choćbyś itself means “even if” or “even though”. Also, in this line, we can recognize that the speaker of this song is talking to a male person (byś chciał).

At the third line, tyle is a numeral that has meanings of “this much”, “as much as”, or “so much”, which leads to the translation of “So much in life has changed.”

Finally, on the last line, przeznaczenie means “destiny” or “fate”. It comes from przeznaczyć + -enie. Przeznaczyć means “to dedicate” or “to allocate”, so making it a verbal noun makes it have a meaning of “something dedicated for someone” or “destiny”. (At least I think so)

<Chorus>
Pijemy za lepszy czas
Za każdy dzień, który w życiu trwa
Za każde wspomnienie co żyje w nas
Niech żyje jeszcze przez chwilę

This paragraph was relatively easier to understand.

Trwa is third person singular of trwać with the meaning of “to last” or “to stay”. So this line can be translated to “For every day that will last in one’s life.”

Also, on the last line, przez takes accusative case, so chwila conjugates to chwilę. Przez can be used in time constructions such as Był w domu przez 6 dni – He was home for six days.

<Verse 2>
Nic nie przychodzi do głowy
Nic nie poprawisz choćbyś chciał
Czekaj na wiatr
Zjawi się sam

Wykorzystaj tę chwilę
Może Cię spotkać w środku dnia
Nie trać wiary w marzenia
Tyle jest do stracenia

Poprawisz (or its original form poprawić) is perfective, an ChatGPT provides the reason for it as follows:

  • Nigdy tego nie poprawisz.
    • “You will never fix it. (not even once)
  • Nigdy tego nie poprawiasz.
    • “You never fix it. (habit / ongoing behavior)

More examples:

  • Nigdy nie skończę tego zadania.
    • I will never finsh this task.
  • Nigdy nie kończę zadań.
    • I never finish tasks. (habit)

Zjawić się means “to show up”, which is referring to wiatr mentioned above. By the way, zjawisko means phenomenon!

Wykorzystać means “to use”, “to utilize”, or “to take advantage of”. It is used as an imperative. Imperfectives and perfectives are used differently in this case:

  • Rób to.
    • Do it. (process / ongoing / maybe repeatedly)
  • Zrób to.
    • Do it. (and finish it)

And negative imperatives usually use imperfectives! Another imperative was used in third line of the second paragraph. Trać is a second person singular imperative of tracić, which means “to lose”. Since it is a negative imperative, imperfective is used.

Finally, tyle appears again, and this time the sentence means “There is too much to lose.”

This was my attempt on learning Polish from a Polish song. I’ll try this more when I have some free time.