„Róbmy swoje!”, czyli ethos inteligencki w nowoczesnej parenezie Wojciecha Młynarskiego

The article contains a semantic and stylistic analysis of the song by Wojciech Młynarski entitled <em>Let’s Do What Is Ours!</em> (Pol. <em>Róbmy swoje!</em>), carried out with particular emphasis on the axiological intention of the author. The work promoting the attitude of intellectual courage, creative activity and perseverance, which serves the civilization values verbalized by the author in the form of a triad “culture, art, freedom of speech”, was considered a modern paraenesis, in which numerous linguistic and literary means (and in particular the title phrase, which became a winged word) were used to shape the worldview of the audience. The text has been reviewed against the artist’s entire legacy, the usefulness of which for didactics of Polish was reflected in the new base for teaching program for high school.

A Winged Word on Marriage

A foreign saying on marriage became widely known in China through Qian Zhongshu’s 1947 novel Fortress Besieged. As the novelist tells us, this saying has its source in both English and French literature, and in its different versions, marriage is either likened to a besieged fortress or a bird cage. This paper examines the origin and transmission of the saying in Greek, Arabic and Syriac sources, and argues that this saying originated in the so-called literature of the Christianized Socratic-Cynic philosophy, which once flourished in Syria. It became popular in the Byzantine and Arabic world after having been included into several famous Greek and Arabic gnomologies. Then it was introduced into modern languages, developed into different versions, finally came to China and became a household word among Chinese people.