Original

Okręt nasz wpłynął w mgłę i fregaty dwie Popłynęły naszym kursem by nie zgubić się. Potem szkwał wypchnął nas poza mleczny pas I nikt wtedy nie przypuszczał, że fregaty śmierć nam niosą.
Ciepła krew poleje się strugami, Wygra ten, kto utrzyma ship. W huku dział ktoś przykryje się falami, Jak da Bóg, ocalimy bryg.
Nagły huk w uszach grał i już atak trwał, To fregaty uzbrojone rzędem w setkę dział. Czarny dym spowił nas, przyszedł śmierci czas, Krzyk i lament mych kamratów, przerywany ogniem katów. Pocisk nasz trafił w maszt, usłyszałem trzask, To sterburtę rozwaliła jedna z naszych salw. "Żagiel staw" krzyknął ktoś, znów piratów złość, Bo od rufy nam powiało, a fregatom w mordę wiało. Z fregat dwóch tylko ta większa w pogoń szła, Wnet abordaż rozpoczęli, gdy dopadli nas. Szyper ich dziury dwie zrobił w swoim dnie, Nie pomogło to psubratom, reszta z rei zwisa za to. Po dziś dzień tamtą mgłę i fregaty dwie, Kiedy noc zamyka oczy, widzę w moim śnie. Tamci, co śpią na dnie, uśmiechają się, Że ich straszną śmierć pomścili bracia, którzy zwyciężyli.

English translation

Our ship entered the mist and two frigates Sailed our course so as not to get lost. Then a squall pushed us out beyond the milky bank, And no one guessed the frigates were bringing us death.
Warm blood will flow in streams, The one who holds the ship will win. In the roar of the guns, some will be covered by the waves, God willing, we will save the brig.
A sudden roar rang in our ears, and the attack was on, The frigates armed with rows of a hundred guns. Black smoke covered us, the time of death had come, The cries and laments of my shipmates, broken by the executioners' fire. Our shot hit the mast, I heard a crack, One of our volleys had smashed the starboard side. "Set the sail!" someone shouted, and the pirates raged again, For the wind blew from our stern, and in the frigates' teeth. Of the two frigates, only the larger gave chase, And soon they boarded, when they caught up with us. Their skipper made two holes in his own hull, It did the scoundrels no good; the rest hang from the yard for it. To this day, that fog and the two frigates I see in my dreams when the night closes my eyes. Those who sleep on the bottom are smiling, That their terrible death was avenged by their brothers, who won.

Bitwa (“The Battle”) is not a traditional song. Lech Klupś of the Polish group Mechanicy Shanty wrote both the words and the music, and the band recorded it as the opening track of their 1999 album W granicach folku (“Within the Bounds of Folk”). It has since become a favorite of the Polish szanty scene, sung at sailing club gatherings and festivals alongside much older songs.

Poland has one of the liveliest sea song scenes anywhere, centered on the Shanties festival in Kraków, which a youth sailing club started in October 1981. Polish groups translated and adapted English shanties and forebitters, and also wrote new songs in the same spirit. Mechanicy Shanty formed in Gdynia in 1985. Their first record, released by Polskie Nagrania in 1989, was mostly adaptations, including a Polish Rolling Down To Old Maui. By the band’s own count it became the best-selling Polish sailing record, at some 90,000 copies. Bitwa came from a later wave of the band’s own compositions.

The song is a sailor’s account of a sea fight. A brig slips into a fog, shadowed by two frigates that turn out to be pirates. In the battle the brig’s guns bring down a mast, and when the larger frigate catches up and boards, the attackers are beaten and the survivors hanged from the yardarm. Years later the narrator still sees the fog and the two frigates in his dreams. The chorus borrows the English word “ship” to rhyme with bryg.