“Here is our long-forgotten family home.

And, having heard now and then the voice of ancestors calling,

Like a grey little forest bird, from far-away centuries,

I fly to you,…”

…It’s late, I’ve just finished some last minute work and I’m off to Poland on a “roots trip” with (almost) ALL my family very early tomorrow (actually today) morning.

So I guess that’s one way of being thrown back on my roots-trees-”Family Forest” project, my storytelling and writing on my grandparents’ stories.

I’m thinking of trees and growth and renewing and home and ancestry and knitting and…sleep.

But before I head to bed, I wanted to share this poem/song & image.

Trunk of The Jagiełło Oak, image source

Здесь забытый давно наш родительский кров.

И, услышав порой голос предков зовущий,

Серой птицей лесной из далёких веков

Я к тебе прилетаю, Беловежская пуща.

Zdes’ zabytyj davno naš roditel’skij krov.

I, uslyšav poroj golos predkov zovuščij,

Seroj pticej lesnoj iz dalëkix vekov

Ja k tebe priletaju, Belovežskaja pušča.

Here is our long-forgotten family home.

And, having heard now and then the voice of ancestors calling,

Like a grey little forest bird, from far-away centuries,

I fly to you, Belovezhskaya Pushcha…

– Belovezhskaya Pushcha”, composed in 1975 by Aleksandra Pakhmutova with lyrics by Nikolai Dobronravov. Poem/Song source – Apparently you can download the song’s recordings here – I can’t work out how as the site is in Polish…but the words are magical – perfect – though and I love all the more that it is a song! And I love oak…even if it isn’t “whole” anymore…

[All found with thanks & gratitude to scents provided by Cathryn (a wonderful friend and colleague) who today told me of the magical land of Poland - it's ancient forests, history of democracy and the Black Madonna of Czestochowa...the town from which my grandmother and great Aunt fled to...Berlin...on false papers...during WWII.]

I will write upon my return…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 5:19 am and is filed under beauty, Friends, musings, poetry, quotes, stories, walk, words. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.