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SUBSCRIBE ABOUT CONTACT LOGIN LOGOUT × search Custom Search Sort by: Relevance Relevance Date * NEWS * Front Page * WNY News * Rochester * New York City area * Polonia in the U.S. * News from Poland * People in the News * FEATURES * Christmas * Polish Chef * Books * People in the News * Polish News Bytes * Ask Our Man in Warsaw * PBW of Polonia * Religion * Health/Seniors * Entertainment - Polka Road * Culture and History * Obituaries * Easter * The Start of WWII * Polonia's Market Place * Broadway Market * Polish Writers and Artists * Journey in Faith and Grace * Polish Library Collections * Citizens of the Year * PHOTOS * 2023 * 2022 * 2021 * 2020 * 2019 * 2018 * 2017 * 2016 * 2015 * 2014 * 2013 * 2012 * 2011 * 2010 * 2009 * COLUMNISTS * Andrew Ostrowski * Polonia Pressbox * Tom Talk * The Eagle's Eye * Basia's Corner * Genealogy * Travel to Poland Then and Now * Rev. Czeslaw Krysa * My Travels Through Polonia * Polonia’s Gardens * Joe Macielag - Opinion Pole * Roger Puchalski - Pole-to-Pole * The Old Photo Album * Robert Strybel - Polish Can Be Fun! * Polka Time * Babcia's Closet * Rev. Michael Burzynski - Polish Saints * Kathleen A. Wiater - Now And Then * OPINIONS * Editorials * Viewpoints * Letters * POL-AM DIRECTORY * Pol-Am Organizations * Calendar * Links to Polish American Organizations * Polish Media Links * Visit us on Facebook To read the rest of this story, please subscribe to the Am-Pol Eagle!. Please click here to login. FEATURES Religion “BARKA” – THE FAVORITE SONG OF JOHN PAUL II By Wanda Slawinska• Feb 09, 2011 (Sung during the “Light-Life Oasis” spiritual retreats conducted by Archbishop Wojtyla for teenagers) Everyone has favorite songs. When I learned Polish religious songs early in life, naturally, I thought that they were written and composed by Polish authors. Twice, in recent years, however, I was mistaken. The first time was with the hymn, My chcemy Boga (We want God.) It was at a Mass in St. Joseph’s Church, in Niagara Falls, celebrated by the late Msgr. Richard S. Amico. I heard the familiar melody with a slight variation. They were singing Noi vogliam Dio. The words were the same, but in Italian. The notation at the top said it was “Traditional,” which usually means it has been handed down from generation to generation, until the author or composer’s name is lost. Now I ask myself how many more “Polish” songs do I know which did not originate in Poland? What would you think when a song that you especially liked was also a favorite of John Paul II? There is one that many of us can name and, perhaps, sing. It is Goralu, czy ci nie zal? (Highlander, do you not grieve?) This favorite of our Holy Father was part and parcel of my family’s experience when we, and thousands of other Polish refugees after World War II, were stranded in Europe between the tyranny of communism and the despair of homelessness. That song had a deep meaning also for our Holy Father, who knew that in the same way he, too, albeit for other reasons, would never again return home. The song, Pan kiedys stanal nad brzegiem, or Barka (The Barge), as it is better known, (Lord you have come to the seashore), was most significant for the Holy Father. It contained the theme that he adopted for his pontificate, since Christ had called him, as he called his apostles, and told him not to be afraid, as henceforth he would be a fisherman of men. And it was with this same homily that Benedict XVI began his pontificate. My first awakening to the origins of this song was when I found it in Spanish in a church hymnal. Not quite believing it, I thought, “Oh, it’s been translated into Spanish!” Next, I looked for a name at the top of the page, and found that it was not Polish at all, for Cesareo Gabarain was the author. Then and there I decided to do some research on it. I called Milagros Ramos, the Spanish language editor of our diocesan paper, and she assured me that the song was Spanish, and that she had been singing it since she was a little girl. Now I knew that the song had been around for several decades, but how did it get to Poland? I searched on the internet under the author’s name, and found an “In Memoriam” for the 10th anniversary of the author’s death on April 30, 2001. Father Cesareo Gabarain, a Franciscan priest in Madrid, had just completed 32 years in the priesthood and had written some 20 popular melodies for religious celebrations. As poet-composer, he left a repertoire of some 500 songs, but not all of them are known to the public at large. How did Barka become so popular in Poland, I wondered? Like various songs over the millennium, many of them came from Italy. Sometime in the 1970s Fr. Stanislaw Skopiak brought to Poland a whole mass of melodies. His friend from the seminary, a Silesian, Fr. Stanislaw Szmidt, says that he made the Polish translation either in 1974 or 1975. Since he was busy teaching during the day, he started the translation from the Spanish at night, and it was not coming out right because he didn’t know Spanish. He spent much of the night laboring over it, finally figuring it out by using his knowledge of Latin. Some time later he went to Lodz and heard Fr. Ireneusz Chmielewski singing “his” Barka. And it was this priest, a missionary and homilist, who took the song all over Poland, teaching it to all the people, especially to the Polish youth. Fr. Szmidt was pleasantly surprised when in 1979 John Paul II came on a pilgrimage to Gniezno, and he saw and heard the pope singing it by heart. Father Szmidt had never had an audience with John Paul II, but in 1980 he was in Rome studying monastic formation. When the course was almost over, he was determined to meet the Holy Father. On a certain Wednesday he went very early to St. Peter’s Square for the outdoor audience. When the pope was 3-4 steps from him, he said, “Holy Father, I am the author of Barka. The pontiff replied, “But the original is likely Latin American,” Fr. Szmidt answered, “Yes, but I was the one who wrote it in Polish.” At that the Holy Father kissed him on the forehead and the photographers snapped a series of pictures. Barka was one of many foreign melodies introduced in Poland in the 1970s. Many melodies became adopted into Polish liturgical hymnbooks because there were not very many new songs being composed in Poland. Furthermore, Italian and Spanish songs, like the lilting barcarole, Barka, were a novelty, and quite different from Polish tunes. I don’t know the circumstances, but it was the Holy Father himself who translated Barka into Croatian, Krist jednom stade na zalu in 1979. Pilgrims have taken this song to their own homelands. This song is popular in a number of countries. An American choir singer has this to say about it: “This hymn was truly inspired by our Heavenly Father as it is represented through Gabarain’s very eloquent expression as he makes ‘eye contact’ with the spirit of Jesus. I have checked Catholic liturgies all over the world and have rejoiced to hear this unifying hymn sung in many different languages. This is the most requested hymn when our choir is asked to sing for funerals, weddings, birthdays, etc.” – Cordelia Garcia, Santa Fe, New Mexico. It would be appropriate to include this quotation from Pope John Paul II, during his very last pilgrimage to his homeland: “I would like to add that this [was the] same song of the “Oasis” in those years. It was like some kind of a hidden breath of the homeland. It was my guide on the variety of paths of the Church. It was this song that often led me spiritually here, to the Blonie of Krakow, to the foot of Kosciuszko Hill. I thank you, song of the “Oasis.” I thank you Blonie of Krakow for the hospitality you have shown so many times, especially today. May God reward you. And I would like to add: See you again. But this is completely in God’s hands. I entrust this entirely to the mercy of God.” (More than two million people had sung his favorite song, Barka, at the end of the Holy Mass in Blonie Park, Krakow, on Aug. 18, 2002.) In Krakow, too, after the usual bugle call from St. Mary’s Church at noon on April 2, 2006, the first anniversary of John Paul II’ death, they played his beloved Barka. Poles just cannot let go of this song. Here is my prose translation of another verse that was written by Bishop Jozef Zawitkowski after the death of John Paul II: O Lord, the rest of the voyage has been cancelled Since you have recalled your helmsman home. We lack strength and our hope is extinguished. Ref.: Lord Christ, see how the seas are raging Save our barge because without You we will be lost. “Do not be afraid, but put out into the deep” Full speed ahead for a new day is dawning. Perhaps now we can join in and say, “Holy Father, you were looking for us, and now we have found you….” ShareFacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedInWhatsApp 1 Comments P RAWSON • prawson@prawson.karoo.co.uk JAN 29, 2018 • would LIKE THE WORDS IN pOLISH TO THE HYMN "BARKA" Add your opinion BUZZ Babcia's Closet This French onion dip got its start on the Polish East Side Rev. 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