This past Monday I was listening to the funeral services for Bronisław Geremek. Only listening, because I’m not into state funerals with full honors, unless of course, it’s one of the world’s famous despots who’s dead – their funerals are always fun. But the service on Monday was very dignified, sad and solemn.

Bronisław Geremek was by all accounts an outstanding man and a distinguished politician. You might have heard of him as one of the figures behind the Solidarity (Solidarność) movement. To many people, and especially to people abroad, Solidarność has become synonymous with Lech Wałęsa, but of course as with any political movement, it wasn’t just a one-man show. In 1989 Mr. Geremek participated in the Round Table negotiations, which resulted in the first free and democratic Polish elections after WW2.

Later on, he was appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs (1997-2000).

In addition to being a famous political figure, he was also a respected medieval historian. Actually, that’s how I became familiar with his name. I’m a total political ignoramus, I freely admit it. When exposed to political news of any kind, my brain performs an immediate emergency shut-down. And when exposed to Polish political news, the results are even worse.

So because I’m not a fan of current politics, choosing instead to pursue goofier hobbies like medieval history, the first time the name “Geremek” registered in my consciousness was when perusing a paper about underworld groups in medieval Paris. The paper was an English translation from French, and referenced Mr. Geremek’s extensive research into the topic.

Dude! I didn’t even know they had gangs and organized crime back then! They even had human trafficking rings dealing in prostitution. See? Not that much has changed in Europe since the 14th century.

In academia, Mr. Geremek’s specialty was French medieval history and his research covered some very interesting subjects. Really. He was so famous as a scholar, he even lectured at the Sorbonne for some time. Like I said, a truly remarkable man. He died in a car crash on July 13. He was 76 years old.

But when I was listening to the audio of the funeral service I found myself grinding my teeth. The quality of the official live English language interpretation left a lot to be desired. OK, I’ll say it, it was bad. Really bad. I understand that simultaneous interpretation is not for everyone, but Mr. Geremek deserved better. And surely somewhere in Poland there must be qualified professionals, who know how to use “a” and “the”.

Oh yes, the articles! The reason why they inflict so much pain upon the Polish speakers of English is the simple fact that there’s no such thing in our native language.

So, both “a woman” and “the woman” would be translated simply as “kobieta” (woman) into Polish.

When translating the other way round complications abound, as the poor woman interpreting at Mr. Geremek’s funeral had not so nicely demonstrated to the whole wide world.

But for those who are learning Polish, the lack of indefinite and definite articles should be pleasant news – finally there’s something that is actually EASIER in Polish than it is in English.

photo: Wikipedia