The doctor Spaniard

Jan Kochanowski was one of our greatest poets. He was writing both in Latin and in Polish. Below is my translation of one of his poems:

"The doctor Spaniard"

Our good doctor is going to sleep already

Does not even want to wait for the diner

„Let him go! W'll find him in the bed

And ourselves let us be joyful”

After the dinner – „Let's go to the Spaniard

Let's go, sure, but not without a jug

Let us in, our dear comrade doctor!”

Doctor did not let in, but the door did

„One cup wouldn't hurt, God bless you”

„Be it only one cup!” Says the doctor

From one it ended up with nine ones

And the doctor's brain is rocking

„It's difficult with these lords”

„I went to sleep sober, I will get up drunk!”

Here you can find the original. The doctor really existed, his name was Roysius and he was the court doctor of the king Sigismund II Augustus. You know - my favourite Polish king, the one who was in love with Barbara Radziwiłłówna. Kochanowski wrote also for example Jezda do Moskwy (A journey to Moscow), it is about the Russo-Polish war called Livonian Campaign. This was a good fight, we were attacked by Ivan the Terrible and we stroke back. Our king at that time was Stephen Batory. He was related with the crazy and cruel Elisabeth Batory, that you may have heard of (he was her uncle). But he was an excellent king. Being Catholic himself, he was tolerant in the religious matters.

There was another Russo-Polish war (1605-1618), which was a shame, since we attacked them. A stupid idea. As you might expect strongly supported by the Pope and Sigismund III Vasa:

A citation from the Wiki:
He viewed it as an excellent opportunity to expand the Commonwealth's territory and sphere of influence, with hopes that the eventual outcome of the war would Catholicize Orthodox Russia (in this he was strongly supported by the Pope) and enable him to defeat Sweden.

I do not like this guy (Sigismund III Vasa). I told you that already. The wars against Sweden and Russia were greatly motivated by the religion. Catholicism.

BTW. I have created a page on Facebook for this blog, it is http://www.facebook.com/PawelBiernackisBlog.