Gorzka prawda. Ojczyzna, naród i wolność jako wartości w piosenkach Jacka Kaczmarskiego

In the article the linguistic image of the terms “homeland”, “nation” and “freedom” in Jacek Kaczmarski’s songs has been analysed. The image of these values in the poet’s texts reflects his attitude to the communist homeland, as well as to the country, which has changed as a result of democratic transformations. The disappointment with the home country, nation living there and questionable freedom are expressed in Jacek Kaczmarski’ engaged poetry through characteristic words or expressions. The analysis of the linguistic image of the world consists in capturing lexemes and phrases being an interpretation of an average language user. This a tool for cognitive linguistics research. It has helped to demonstrate the poet’s negative opinion about the homeland, nation and freedom. The image of these values left by Jacek Kaczmarski dispels the myth of “the bard of Solidarity” which accompanied the poet from the beginning of his career. Captivity is shown by means of lexemes connected with dog’s life: kennel, chain, belonging to a certain group of people (we) in which the uniqueness of an entity disappears, as well as the fact that freedom needs guards. The homeland described by the poet is red, that is communist. According to the lyrical subject appearing in Jacek Kaczmarski’s songs, Poland is an illegitimate child of Versailles or gentry’s private patrimony. As regards nation, it has been divided for centuries as can be seen from the division of Polish people by axis they-we which was used by the poet. The soldier of Armia Krajowa [the Home Army] is not able to trust the representative of Armia Ludowa [the People’s Army] in spite of the fact that they have the same enemy. Jacek Kaczmarski also presents the megalomania of Sarmatians who describe other nations with pejorative and stereotypical expressions. The linguistic image of the world as a set of subjective judgements about the world is a linguistic interpretation of understanding words or sentences by an average language user. Studying the image of the world created by poets is useful in an analysis of social concerns of a given epoch, as well as in the interpretation of individual linguistic signs, which is necessary in cognitive research into language.