‘God Is Born’ – a Christmas carol of the spiritual community of Poles

The Christmas carol Bóg się rodzi is often described as a symbol of the Polish Christmas, the ‘queen of carols’, and ‘the most beautiful of Christmas songs’. Its exceptional status, however, did not emerge out of nowhere – it is rooted in the long and rich tradition of Polish Christmas carols.

Polish Christmas carols have been composed since the fifteenth century. Initially, they were mainly translations or paraphrases of Latin and Czech songs, but the genre truly flourished in the seventeenth century, during the Baroque period. It was then that the lyrics of carols such as W żłobie leży and Ach, ubogi żłobie, attributed to Piotr Skarga, were written. Songs featuring the motif of shepherds travelling to Bethlehem became particularly popular – hence the term ‘pastorałki’ (pastoral songs), alongside the name ‘kantyczki’ (canticles). Carols with a lullaby-like rhythm were also sung, such as Lulajże, Jezuniu. As Józef Smosarski notes, Carmelite carols in particular reveal a very direct, tender, even maternal attitude towards the Child God. In total, around five hundred Polish carols were composed.

Against the backdrop of this tradition, the carol ‘Bóg się rodzi’, written in 1792 – a historically dramatic moment for Poland – occupies a special place. It was composed a year after the adoption of the Constitution of 3 May, which still offered hope for the preservation of independence, and a year before the second partition of the country. The author of the text was Franciszek Karpiński, a poet remembered primarily as a composer of religious songs. The carol was originally entitled O narodzeniu Pańskim and was commissioned by Princess Izabela Lubomirska (née Czartoryska). It was included in the collection Pieśni nabożne, published in Supraśl. The melody, however, is not by Karol Kurpiński: it is traditionally sung to the polonaise melody attributed to the coronation polonaise of King Władysław IV or to an earlier court polonaise.

The uniqueness of Bóg się rodzi is already apparent in its opening stanza. On the level of language, attention is drawn to a sequence of oxymorons – stylistic figures formed by juxtaposing concepts of opposing meaning. ‘Fire solidifies, light darkens’, ‘the Infinite has limits’, ‘despised, yet clothed in glory’, ‘a mortal King above the ages’ – these contrasts produce an effect of astonishment and lead the listener towards an understanding of the mystery of the Incarnation as an event that transcends human logic. The author thus creates an image of a true miracle: the birth of the Son of God in a humble stable.

The stanza concludes with the famous quotation from the Gospel according to St John: ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.’ Józef Smosarski, author of the book ‘Oblicza świąt’, observes that this verse not only harmonises perfectly, on a stylistic level, with the preceding negations of natural laws, but also points to the consequences of the Incarnation – both for God and for humankind.

The subsequent verses of the carol, in addition to expounding the truths of faith, introduce important social and national themes. Gathered around the newborn Child are representatives of different social estates: kings bearing precious gifts and ordinary people. God makes no distinction between them: ‘Myrrh, incense, and gold / the Deity mingled together / with the offerings of the peasants.’

The final, fifth verse has a distinctly patriotic character. For generations, Poles have turned to it with a fervent plea for protection over their homeland: ‘Raise your hand, Child of God, / Bless our beloved homeland!’ During the period of the partitions, censorship led to the replacement of the word ‘homeland’ in official church publications with the more neutral ‘land’. Yet in private homes and places of worship the appeal for a blessing upon Poland – the homeland – resounded all the more powerfully.

This historical context also shaped the fate of the author himself. After the third partition of Poland in 1795, Karpiński declared in fragments of his correspondence and memoirs that the loss of statehood had made it impossible for him to continue his previous public poetic activity. This explains his later ‘silence’ as a poet and the subsequent shift of his interests towards prose and texts of a more private nature.

Franciszek Karpiński was born in 1741 into a poor noble family in Hołosków, in the Pokucie region, in what is now western Ukraine. He was educated by the Jesuits in Stanisławów and Lviv, where he obtained a doctorate in philosophy and the liberal arts as well as a bachelor’s degree in theology. In Vienna, he furthered his studies in foreign languages and the natural sciences. After returning to his homeland, he became a leaseholder of landed estates in his native region.

Karpiński began his literary career relatively late, around the age of forty. At that time, he published a collection entitled ‘Zabawki wierszem’, dedicated to Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, who invited the poet to Warsaw and entrusted him with the care of his library. Karpiński wrote prolifically, producing idylls, love poems, elegies and dramas; he also translated the Psalms, expressing a critical view of Jan Kochanowski’s earlier translation, which he believed departed too far from the original.

It was his religious songs, however, that brought him lasting fame. ‘Pieśni nabożne’ includes works that remain widely known to this day, such as Kiedy ranne wstają zorze and Wszystkie nasze dzienne sprawy. The collection was soon reissued in Vilnius, Kraków and Warsaw.

Karpiński died on 16 September 1825 in Chorowszczyzna near Wołkowysk. His grave in Łyskowo takes the form of a modest house with a sloping roof, evocative of the stable in Bethlehem. It bears the inscription: ‘This is my humble home.’

KAROLINA PREWĘCKA