An issue of the magazine "Poland" devoted entirely to the Polesie area. The history of the region, its geographical features are mentioned, and the largest and most interesting urban and rural monuments and centres are listed. The issue also contains illustrations and photographs of, among others, the Jesuit college in Pinsk, the Orthodox church in Dobrosławka or Polesie landscapes and photographs showing Polesie everyday life (Source: "Polska", Warsaw 1937, R: 3, no. 32, after: Jagiellonian Digital Library).

A modernised reading of the text

Polesie

Beyond the Bug River is a different country. You have barely crossed the slightly undulating fields of Podlasie, dotted here and there with the remnants of a forest, you have barely glimpsed a wide, juicy strip of meadows on the Bug River, the last houses of Brześć have flashed by, and you already feel that you are in front of you some new, strange and unknown land. Although there are cultivated fields and decent towns on both sides of the faraway railway line, just like on the other side of the Bug river, you can feel a humid breeze in the air, your ears are filled with the strange sound of the singing voices of the people you meet, and a bluish haze hovers over the entire route, giving the landscape a melancholic, quiet and peaceful colour. Plains and plains... as far as the eye can see, you won't see the slightest hill, unless it's a man-made hill, the roof of a house or a patch of forest. It's Polesie... You don't know where the name came from.

Did it mean that once upon a time there was no cultivated land here, only an immense primeval forest, which was slowly being cleared by man, or that it was a marshy-forest country, where a man only walked in the forest like an animal, of which there were many, or was there another reason for the name. Scholars are searching for this truth and somehow cannot agree. It is an immensely interesting and vast country, like the whole kingdom of the Belgians, and even that is not all, as beyond the border of the Republic of Poland another such Polesie stretches far into the depths of the Soviet state.

Poland owns 48 000 km² of Polesie. This area is rich in marshes and swamps of the most varied type, so that the marshes alone, together with permanently flooded meadows and pastures, cover more than half of it (2,500,000 ha). A significant part, almost a second (2,000,000 ha), is taken up by forests. Unfortunately, the turmoil of war did not spare them. The better parts were devastated by the Russians and later by the Germans. Traces of the war can often be seen here... There are still well-preserved shelters and trenches, piles of barbed wire, and from time to time, in spite of numerous warnings, country boys, having found a grenade or an incendiary device, carelessly cause an explosion, resulting in death or disability. This is how, after 17 years or more, the terrible war is still remembered.

Water and forest, and above all water, is where the Poles live. The most important transport arteries lead along waterways. Sometimes you see an original picture: in front of you is an endless meadow, dotted only occasionally with mounds of hay, placed on high platforms and stilts to keep them from getting wet, and across this meadow floats... a ship. It glides among the grasses, just like a cart through the meadow. The illusion is greatest when the water is high. The boat replaces the cart, the hay and grain are transported by boat. The boat is used to get to the market and church, the cart has far fewer uses. Only in winter, when the marshes freeze and the snows cover the ice, do the Polissy sleighs go by, harnessed to small, tiny horses. A very original and unusual sight is the Polesie markets in Pinsk. In the usually quiet city it is then swarming and bustling.

The market and the streets are jammed with carts, or rather trolleys; on the Pinsk and the canals there is such an abundance of boats and boats that you can get from one bank to the other just by jumping from side to side. The annual market on 22 August attracts Poles from all over Polesie. What is not to be seen... There are mountains of beautifully shaped pots, pots, urns and ladles. Beautifully glazed or raw, decorated with nice, simple ornaments, black, burnt, with beautiful dark arabesques of various shapes and sizes. The Polesie people are well-known potters. In general Polesie folk art stands high.

I have often admired beautiful linen fabrics, dyed with natural dyes, woven in a lovely pattern of delicate colours. All this is the work of Polesie women, the fruit of labour during the long autumn and winter evenings. The stalls tempt the eye with pretty embroideries, linen, decorated with wide trails, lovely towels and shirts, in a word, a whole range of different kinds of art, really pretty things, famous not only in Poland, but also abroad. The patterns and colours on these works of Poleszuks' hands are as simple and calm as they are.

There is no doubt that a person who has lived in one area or another for centuries, grows close to it and complements each other, fits in with the landscape in a way that no one else does. This is why the Poles are calm and slow. It is difficult to move quickly where one's foot is still stuck in the mud, where a careless step threatens to drag one into the sticky ooze of the marsh. Oh, because the treacherous bog draws to itself and entices the unwary or unfamiliar visitor. Many legends, and tales, and stories about it you will hear from the mouths of the natives. The current of Polesie rivers, rivers and streams is lazy and slow.

Poleshuk does not differ from them either, he does each thing slowly and deliberately, although in principle he is not lazy, he has to rip everything out of the mud and win, but he is a good man and hospitable. In spring, when the snow melts, Polesie turns into one big sea, from which clumps of trees and inhabited islands emerge. When the water recedes, meadows and marshes become green. Polesie people distinguish between different types of marshes and call them by different names. Flooded meadows in places close to rivers with a fast flow of spring snowmelt, and therefore with the best haying, are called "obołoń" or "ręka"; rush thickets, considered "nietra", or wasteland, are called "oczerot" or "plucha"; sedge meadows on peat, like "hało", and finally "moch" or "kaczaj bołoto" swamps.

Difficult access to the depths of the Polesie marshes has meant that the people have preserved to this day their rituals, customs, dress, and even tools, some from ancient times. Their cottages are wooden, unbleached, sometimes even hut-like (i.e. without chimneys), covered with straw or reeds, less often with shingles. The only material here is wood, so much so that even today you can still find a Plesetsk cart, made entirely of wood, without using the smallest piece of iron, not even a nail. They have also preserved their rituals and customs, a remnant of pagan times. One of these is the custom of building small houses on the graves of the dead as a habitat for their souls; they even bring them their favourite food for nourishment on certain days.

The ancient dances have a slow rhythm and are uncomplicated, just like their creators. The drier areas, more elevated, are places where traces of the former rule of the Commonwealth can be seen; one encounters monasteries, castles such as in Mir, Dawidgródek, etc., one encounters old palaces and mansions from later times. The capital of Polesie is Pinsk, with the massive Jesuit church and monastery towering over the whole area, visible from afar. Today, this city is not so big, but quite busy, being the seat of the starosty, district court and other authorities.

It has a population of over 30 000, several banks, gymnasiums, hotels and restaurants. It is, by the way, the centre of Polesie life, expanding rapidly and nicely. In general, in recent years, life in Polesie has begun to flow a little more vividly than the water in the Pina. Social work, commerce, rising agriculture, and therefore increasing wealth - all of this is making Polesie visible and heralding a new era. Polesie is an extremely interesting country. For the tourist who wants to have a truly interesting holiday and who does not care about comfort, it is an ideal travel area.

For hunters, it is an invaluable paradise... Hunters know this, and the fame of Polesie's game has spread far beyond the borders of Poland. That is why strangers are more and more frequently seen here, and more and more often Polesie leads visitors through its hashes - a veritable jungle, a wonderful nature reserve not to be found anywhere else in Central and Western Europe. And Polesie is getting louder and louder, although Polesie itself is also quiet and thoughtful, as it probably was a thousand years ago.