Chrząszcz (''
beetle
Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...
,
chafer
Chafer may refer to:
* Chafer beetle, the common name for several species of scarab beetles
* Chafing dish, a food warming dish
People with the name
* Adrian Chafer (born 1991), Spanish musician
* Daniel Alberto Chafer (born 1981), Argentine fo ...
'') by
Jan Brzechwa
Jan Brzechwa (), (15 August 1898 – 2 July 1966) was a Polish poet, author and lawyer, known mostly for his contribution to children's literature. He was born Jan Wiktor Lesman to a Polish family of Jewish descent. is a
tongue-twister
A tongue twister is a phrase that is designed to be difficult to articulate properly, and can be used as a type of spoken (or sung) word game. Additionally, they can be used as exercises to improve pronunciation and fluency. Some tongue twisters p ...
poem famous for being considered one of the hardest-to-pronounce texts in
Polish literature
Polish literature is the literary tradition of Poland. Most Polish literature has been written in the Polish language, though other languages used in Poland over the centuries have also contributed to Polish literary traditions, including Latin, ...
. It may cause problems even for adult, native
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
speakers.
The first few lines of the poem:
The first line "W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie"
(''In Szczebrzeszyn a beetle buzzes in the reed'') is a well-known Polish
tongue-twister
A tongue twister is a phrase that is designed to be difficult to articulate properly, and can be used as a type of spoken (or sung) word game. Additionally, they can be used as exercises to improve pronunciation and fluency. Some tongue twisters p ...
and dates to at least the 19th century.
Thanks to the poem, the town of
Szczebrzeszyn
Szczebrzeszyn (; yi, שעברעשין, Shebreshin; uk, Щебрешин, Shchebreshyn) is a city in southeastern Poland in Lublin Voivodeship, in Zamość County, about 20km west of Zamość. From 1975–1999, it was part of the Zamość Voiv ...
is widely known in Poland. A monument to the beetle was erected there in 2002, and a yearly sculpture festival has been held there ever since.
''Chrząszcz'' was translated into
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national id ...
by
Walter Whipple
Walter Whipple (born 1943) is a Teaching Professor Emeritus of Polish in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages of Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah. From 1990 to 1993, Whipple served as the president of the Poland Warsaw Mi ...
as ''Cricket'' (whose Polish equivalent, ''świerszcz'', is also considered difficult to pronounce for non-Polish speakers).
See also
*
Polish literature
Polish literature is the literary tradition of Poland. Most Polish literature has been written in the Polish language, though other languages used in Poland over the centuries have also contributed to Polish literary traditions, including Latin, ...
References
External links
*
Polish poems
Tongue-twisters
20th-century poems
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