Stańczyk [English translation]

(according to J. Matejko's painting)1

Today there's a ball at Queen Bona's castle.

They poisoned mice, hanged the lanterns

and paid the singers.

I feel my jester's face is getting pale.

I've just read about the loss of Smoleńsk2

but Smoleńsk and Cracow are far apart

The message is sure, signatures, seals

but the Queen will twist her face with resentment.

The bills worry her more.

I clasp my fingers unwilling to make any gestures

'cause there's as many as forty rulers here alone.

They're hosted well at the ball.

If I pulled the cords of great bells,

I would play the highest tone

and ring, ring to raise the alarm

but with the little bells on my jester cap,

having my cane as my advisor,

who can I warn?

"Jester!" They're calling, "Give us a jester here"

The feast and music are no longer enough for them.

They want to laugh at the fool.

I'm not a good jester for these times.

But amid silk and gold kutases,3

find me someone who'll buy wisdom.

But no wisdom can replace the premonitions

that are beside me today like in every evening.

Even when they play the loudest,

I sit still as if I was mute.

So why suddenly around my head

little bells are jingling miserably?

It's this woman still insatiated by power.

She swaps the documents, doesn't read the reports.

She has some secret deals.

You can say that she's wise and from a great family,

that the hand of the west is to rule the east

but I hate this horrible woman!

1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sta%C5%84czyk_(painting)2. Poland has lost Smolensk (now in Russia) to the Grand Duchy of Muscovy3. in the 17th and 18th century in Poland, kutas was a decoration made of threads and attached to a belt