Stanley Billさんのイラストまとめ

Polish word of the day: wrzesień (September). While English and most other European languages use the now inaccurate Latin "seventh" month, Polish (like Belarusian and Ukrainian) has a poetic word derived from the heather (wrzos) that flowers (or once did) at this time of year.

110 years ago today, in 1911, Polish Nobel laureate Czesław Miłosz was born in Šeteniai, Lithuania (then Russian Empire). He died in Kraków in 2004, having lived in exile in France and California (after defecting from communist Poland). His poems bear witness to his century.

Today's Google Doodle celebrates the 80th anniversary of the birth of Polish film director Krzysztof Kieślowski. Best known for his "Three Colours" trilogy and the "Dekalog" series, he posed deep questions about human life through stark, realist images that hint at transcendence.

Polish word of the day: zima (winter). The word derives from Proto-Slavic term for the cold season. It has same root as Sanskrit "hima" हिम, meaning "snow", familiar from "Himalaya", meaning "abode of snow". The common origin is Proto-Indo-European *gheim-, also meaning "winter".

Today in 1927 the "Dąbrowski Mazurka" became Poland's national anthem, with its famous opening line: "Poland has not perished as long as we still live". The song was written in Italy in 1797 to a folk melody for Polish soldiers joining Napoleon to fight for lost independence.