Right after the Nobel Committee awarded the prize to him (through his wife), I wrote him a letter in English telling him how much I admired him and supported his cause. In return, I received this typewritten personal letter in Polish.
I tried to translate it back then with a Polish-to-English dictionary, but the translation was rather <ahem>
Dear Sir,
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your congratulations on the occasion of the Nobel Peace Award being awarded to me. The award is a result of solidary work by many people.
Sympathetic reaction after receiving the award strengthen my firm belief in the correctness of the path taken.
At the same time, I apologize for the delay, but only now did I find some time to write back.
Best wishes,
<sig>
I had always wondered who wrote that letter. Was it Lech Wałęsa himself? All I had to go by was the squiggle of a signature. After a few minutes of Googling, I found that the airport in Gdańsk was named after him and uses his signature as a logo. Allowing for a little variance, it's definitely his signature—Lech signed my letter. I also noticed that there is a "LW" in the upper left-hand corner of the letter, indicating that the letter was ostensibly from him.
2 comments:
Dude... I remember when you got that... I can't believe it has been alllll this time before you got that translated! :)
How did you get his address anyway?
Lloyd
Geez, that's been so long ago, I don't remember. There was a union organizer that lived across the street from us. Maybe he got the address for me. Again, I dunno.
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