YVETTE POPLAWSKA

YVETTE POPLAWSKA,

A JOURNEY OF SILLY BILLY-GOAT

A new journey of unruly billy-goat

In Pacanów Center of Tales was in the making.

The smart or rather nitwit babe-goat thought to himself

I was in Norway across the Baltic Sea,

so now I will make excursion to Belgium.

Hearing this goats the girls sheepishly looked at the map

and seriously thought: a long way, our dear friend

and it will be hard to reach the goal.

They counted kilometers..

O! Wow! how much it is! Four digits!

One, four, three, one. It is … 1,431 km to Belgium.

Babe boy, the stubborn unrully billy-goat thought

How will I get to Belgium with a bundle?

My stick is not a magic broom

and I have not an uncle Aladdin

with a flying carpet.

Perhaps with a bike I’ll overcome the route

but how will I get over mountains and rivers?

Perhaps with a  balloon is the best way

throughout the whole of Europe?

And if my babe-goats, the girls brought me

our Baltic Sea on the world map,

I would build on the way for children

palaces of sand on all the beaches.

Oh my, what a silly moron I am !

Yet my friend rides with a truck,

He knows the freeway from Poland to Belgium,

which is called E 40.

And here quietly cries babe-goat, a girl.

Bebebebe, my boy, you the moron

Why have these beautiful horns

grew on your unruly head?

Why are you worrying and thinking for hours

just go tomorrow from our Pacanów

to the Airport in Warsaw.

Our brave boy, the unrully billy-goat

played a moment with his pair of braces

stroked his beard and then chuckled in agreement.

How could I be so full of worry and ponder so much

when I have such sharp-witted friends ?!

Satisfied, he stood up and is already running,

till suddenly he is thinking

whether they know in Belgium

the familiar to him Ms winter?

What a doublet I get into my bundle?

What shoes with white fur,

and perhaps a parachute?

Because it is certainly safer

when I’ll get tired of this trip

I’ll simply soar in the clouds and talk with the birds.

But oooo! Bebebebe!  Shall the plane take

so much weight, my horns are though so very heavy!

Yes, you are the hero, our hero!

All the goats in the herd are shouting with their bebebebe

with your ideas also we will  become nitwits

just pack your ticket and boldly move

because the whole Belgium is waiting for Polish fairy tales

and who knows, perhaps America too, shortly !

Our unrully billy-goat, the nitwit

has finally landed in a new homeland.

He reads the inscription: “The heart of Europe!”

And where is the famous Atomium?

I have to climb yet to the very top of Belgium!

He went to the center of Brussels

and bought a ticket to visit the famous atomium nine bullets.

He was then invited to a high-speed elevator,

brought all the way to 103 meters high

and there he sees, wow, the famous David,

a painter and a draftsman

who is always walking with a pencil and paper.

Listen, dear artist, sketch a drawing for me,

and I know Jurek, a friend of mine from Silesia

who will add all the colors to it.

Oh! Well my friend, a girl advised me

Don’t forget to get a memento of yourself

and bring it to Pacanow

He sat comfortably, bristled his ears, stroked horns,

fliped with his tail

and supported his chin. Well, I’m already ready!

And so an image of our hero, the silly billy-goat

the world famous unrully billy-goat

emerged for children from Belgium and Poland,

and for their parents the memories of their own youth.

So they began to draw sketches and write poems,

and our nitwit the goat became the international hero.

Oh yes, yesterday Poland, now Belgium, tomorrow America!

©

YVETTE POPLAWSKA,

Translation: Tadeusz Hutyra

*u

Original Polish version:

Nowa Podróż Niesfornego Koziołka

W Pacanowie w Centrum Bajki

Koziołeczek mądry pomyślał sobie

byłem w Norwegii za Morzem Bałtyckim

więc teraz wypad do Belgii zrobię

Słysząc to Kózki

aż zbaraniały spojrzały na mapę

i podumały to kawałek drogi nasz przyjacielu

i ciężko będzie dotrzeć do celu

policzyły O! jejku ile to aż! cztery cyferki

Jeden cztery trzy jeden

To aż 1431kilometrow do Belgii

To jak ja dojadę do Belgii z tobołkiem

mój kijek to nie miotła zaczarowana

i nie mam wujka Alladyna

z latającym dywanem

A może gdyby mi Kozy na mapie świata

przeniosły nasze Morze Bałtyckie

tak bym po drodze budował z dziećmi

pałace z piasku na wszystkich plażach

O rety o rany jaki ze mnie Matołek

przecież kolega tirami jeździ

zna autostradę z Polski do Belgii

która nazywa się E40

A tu po cichu beczy Koźlica

bebebe Koziołku czy te piękne rogi

wyrosły na Matołkowej głowie

dlaczego się martwisz godzinami dumasz

jutro wyjeżdżaj z Pacanowa na Aeroport w Warszawie

Nasz dzielny Koziołek

strzelił szelkami pogłaskał brodę i cmokną na zgodę

jak ja mogłem się tak martwić i dumać

jak ja mam takich mądralińskich przyjaciół

Zadowolony wstał i już biegnie

aż nagle myśli czy tam w Belgii  znają panią ziemię?

jaki kubraczek mam wziąć do tobołka?

jakie buciki z białym futerkiem?

a może spadochron? bo to bezpieczniej

jak mi się znudzi ta podróż

poszybuje w chmurach porozmawiam z ptaszkami

ale ooo! bebebe czy samolot zabierze

aż tyle kilogramów bo moje rogi są też ciężkie?

tak tak ty nasz bohaterze wołają w stadzie

z twoimi pomysłami to i my zostaniemy Matołkami

spokój swój bilet i śmiało ruszaj

bo cała Belgia czeka na Polskie bajki

I wylądował w nowej Ojczyźnie

odczytał napis to!

Serce Europy

a gdzie tu stoi słynny Atomium

ja muszę się wdrapać na sam czubek Belgii

Usiadł wygodnie nastroszył uszy

pogładził rogi potrzepał ogonkiem

I podparł brodę już jestem gotowy

I tak powstał obraz dla dzieci z Belgii

da ich Rodziców wspomnienie młodości

zaczęli rysować i pisać wierszyki

a nasz Koziołek zostanie bohaterem Polonii

Written by Yvette Poplawska

___________________________________________________________

UNRULY BILLY GOAT THE BUSINESSMAN

Unruly billy goat walked

on its god’s acre in Brukselkovo

He counted each patch of the Brussels sprouts

one truck trailer is not enough

four of the trailers would be better !

Shall it not be a futile work

and is it worth the effort?

Oh, mouse Lilli frisks round in the field

and tomcat Leos taking guard there

I think they can help me to count Brussels sprouts

here in this kingdom of rodents

who gather grains for the winter

I am already seriously thinking

to export my Brussels sprouts to New York !

With this thought in his little mind

unruly bill goat really got peace of mind !

©

 YVETTE POPLAWSKA

Translated by Tadeusz Hutyra

**

Original Polish version:

Biznesmen niesforny Koziołek

W Brukselkowie po polu chodził niesforny Koziołek

liczył każdy rządek ile brukselki zbiorę?

jedna przyczepa to za mało takie cztery by się zdało

czy nie będzie to praca daremna i czy to mi się opłaca?

Oj tu jakaś myszka Lili biega i kicaj Leoś co mieszkają w polu

mogą mi pomóc brukselki liczyć

gdzie wszystkie gryzonie na zimę zbierają ziarenka

i pomyśleć o eksporcie do Nowego Jorku w Ameryce

Written by Yvette Poplawska

________________________________________________

UNRULLY BILLY GOAT ON A TRIP TO … AMERICA

One should sparingly plan for the future

goat Kiki teaches her friends

because severe winter is already coming

judging from the wizardly calendar

and it looks it is fast striding towards us

Very alert and enterprising are field animals

little, larger and the largest

Comblain, yet another billy goat

shook with his little hoof

Know it, dear friends, that our pantries

in the forest burrows

will be a chance of survival in Europe and America !

Business plan was successfully concluded

thanks to cooperation among them all

gifts of nature they spared much

in order to deliver most of it

to New York and even as far away as Chicago

there where thera are so many Americans

of the Polish origine !

And ... perhaps some goats with them !

All season’s nutritious vegetables

they tasted, as well as various fruits and cereals

until they finally sat in a circle

and began to plan how to get

to another continent ... America !

We already know how we get there

and what will we pack onto the ship !

Our unruly billy goat got into his rowing-boat

quite big, almost a large ship

and bravely paddled across the Atlantic

enormously surprised on the way

there can be such a great lake in this world !

Wow, what a lake !

Finally he saw a fabulous town

reaching the sky with its skyscrapers

and he knew it was … New York !

But the first impression of seeing the lady

everybody called Statue of Liberty

was so unexpected that our unruly billy goat

got the wind up and almost fell overboard

risking being swallowed up

by the Atlantic sharks.

They all heartilly laughed

about the adventurous trip of the horned hero

an d of his momentary panic

How can one fear America

so friendly to all Europeans !

YVETTE POPLAWSKA

Translated by Tadeusz Hutyra

***

Original Polish version:

Należy oszczędzać planować przyszłość

Kózka Kiki uczy swoich przyjaciół

bo sroga zima już w kalendarzu zagląda

wielkimi krokami się do nas zbliża

Bardzo czujne przedsiębiorcze są polne zwierzątka

Kozioł Comblain pokiwał kopytkiem

wiedzcie drodzy przyjaciele że nasze spiżarnie

w leśnych norkach będą szansą na przeżycie w Europie i Ameryce

Biznes plan się udał przy współpracy kolegów

dary natury tak oszczędzali aby zawieźć do Nowego Yorku i Chicago

wszystkie sezony pożywne jedli warzywa owoce i zboża przeróżne

aż usiedli w kole i zaczęli planować jak się tu się dostać na inny kontynent

Już wiemy jak dopłyniemy i co zapakujemy na statek

Wsiadł w małą łódeczkę nasz dzielny Koziołek wiosłował szybko bliżej witającej Pani

na widok ogromnego pomnika i w tle wysokiego do nieba miasta

tak się wystraszył o mało nie wypadł do oceanu Atlantyckiego

Śmiali się wszyscy z rogatego bohatera

jak można się bać przyjaznej dla europejczyków Ameryki

YVETTE POPLAWSKA

Wroclaw, Poland

LIVING IN BELGIUM

YVETTE POPŁAWSKA (b. October 4, 1960 in Wroclaw, Poland) - poetess, fabulist, essayist, prose writer, reporter, journalist, photographer, animator of culture, the jury lid in competitions, traveler, extreme sports. Since 1991 living permanently in Belgium.

She worked at the Theatre Kalambur, Pałacyk, MAK.  She was a co-founder John Lennon Imagine Foundation (1989) in Wroclaw.

She is a founder and president of the International Association of Artists, Authors, Journalists and Lawyers Virtualia ART (2013). She is also a member of the Association of Journalists of the Republic of Polish, Polish Association of Authors - Warsaw branch II,  Association Polonaise des Auteurs, Journalistes et Traducteurs en Europe (Paris branch), a member of the Union of Poles in Belgium, of the Association of Polish Combatants 1st Armoured Division of Gen. Maczek in Belgium, of the Organization Polonia for the Development and Promotion of Polish Culture based in Belgium, also a member of Movimiento Poetas del Mundo.

She is busy with integrating, exchanging of experiences, mutual inspiration into action for various artistic, poetic and otherwise groups and organizations. She is organizer of meetings for children and adults on a permanent basis. She writes scripts for fairy tales. She had organized the first WORLD LITERATURE unison poetry in Belgium 2014 "LiteraTosfera." Except of it she is an organizer of ‘ The Anniversary Readings in Belgium '' under Polish project and editing since April, 2014 ( Beringen, Brussels, Antwerp, Comblain-la-Tour )

Her poetry is translated into several languages. She made her debut with a poem " To my Child" in 1986. Her poems and articles she published in literary magazines, radio and TV in Poland and in the world.

Awards:

- Award of  ORGANIC WORK under patronate of Maria Konopnicka for contribution to Polish Culture

Warsaw - Poland, May 23, 2013

- Golden Wings on behalf of individuals contributing to  POLISH CULTURE awarded by the

Organization of the Polish Diaspora for the Development and Promotion of Polish Culture

October 4, 2013 VOICE OF POLISH CULTURE Birmingham - England

- Certificate of Recognition

FOR BIG HEART AND PRIOR CONTRIBUTION

I SUPPORT to our  fellow-countrymen Abroad

October 4, 2013, Brussels

- Pole of the Year Internet users in Belgium in 2014.

Award Committee - Brussels 14 November 2014

Prizes and awards in various Literary Competitions:

- I place in the World Competition “ Suffering '' 2013 Tychy (Poland)

- XXI National Poetry Competition “ Serduszkowy line '' ( Verses of the Heart ) 2013 Rabka Zdroj (Poland)

- “ Tuwimować I want ‘’, dedicated to Polish poet Julian Tuwim, 2013 Brussels (Belgium)

- The Competition “ What role in your life are playing Polish authors? Explain “, 2014 Wroclaw (Poland)

Poetic Creativity:

Editor, Editorial - Selected Anthology of Chosen Poets

-2012 First edition ISBN 978-83-7732-078-5

-2013 Second edition ISBN 978-83-7732-135-5

 Editor Anthology - ABC TRAFFIC FOR CHILDREN

-editor Anthology - Aphrodisiacs a La Chef * Is it prose or satire because of the Pizza Frutti di Mare everybody writes

Editor Anthology - Poetry Pentagram

Author's Books:

- ‘Ku Sobie Samej ‘ ( translation: ‘ For Myself ‘ , translation into Russian: ‘ К СЕБЕ СаМОЙ’, перевод/ translated by: Перевела Мира Лукша )

- ‘Goat’s travels to Benelux’ ( fairy tales + CD )

She founded and edits: http://bloguspoeticus.wordpress.com/yvette-o-mnie/ “, also so called Poetic Granary" and “ Literatomedia."

Founder, Chairman:  http://msvirtualiaart.wordpress.com/aktualnosci

E-mail virtualia.art@gmail.com

Thaddeus Hutyra http://www.funworld.be