173. Kazimierz Winkler (lyrics), Romuald Żyliński (music), Stanisława Celińska (vocals) – Uśmiechnij się, jutro będzie lepiej

	Uśmiechnij się, jutro będzie lepiej	Give us a smile, tomorrow will be better
1	Uśmiechnij się, jutro będzie lepiej!	Give us a smile, tomorrow will be better
	Już od pierwszych godzin dnia,	From the early morning when
	Gdy noc [już] pójdzie spać!	The night will be in bed
	[No,] uśmiechnij się, jutro będzie lepiej!	Well, give us the smile, tomorrow will be better
5	Tak, jak ja do ciebie,	Like I’m smiling to you now
	Jutro twój szczęśliwy los o sobie da ci znać.	Tomorrow you’ll be lucky, you’ll surely see
	Już dzisiaj pożegnaj twe smutki,	Today do dissipate your sorrows
	Niech dyskretnie ulotnią się gdzieś,	So they go away somewhere
	Bo żywot twych smutków jest krótki,	‘Cause they won’t live long anyway
10	Jeśli ty sam tego chcesz!	Unless you want them to live
	Uśmiechnij się, jutro będzie lepiej!	Give us a smile, tomorrow will be better
	Już od pierwszych godzin dnia,	From the early morning on
	Na słowo uwierz mi!	Believe it when I say

Stanisława Celińska is probably the most famous for her role of a school teacher in Stanisław Bareja’s series ‘Alternatywy 4’. Less known are her songs and, as it is usual with many actors, her theatrical parts.

The song, which was written in 1964, translated above is a brilliant example of how a well know phrase may be parodied. In this case the phrase is Polish ‘uśmiechnij się’ (‘cheer up’).

In her performance, Celińska used not only the terrifying face and voice, but acts as a politician speaking at the rostrum. This element along with the way of singing and the kind of face she is wearing make her message seem rather dubious, to put it mildly. And this is the source of humour of this song.

Translation

The title: ‘uśmiechnij się’ should be translated as ‘cheer up’ or ‘chin up’, but the author used the literal meaning of the Polish phrase as a contrast to the singer’s frightening face which definitely lacks any trace of smile.

4^th verse: the words in square brackets are the words from the Celińska’s performance, absent from the version of the lyrics found on the Internet (http://www.tekstowo.pl/piosenka,stanislawa_celi_ska,usmiechnij_sie__jutro_bedzie_lepiej.html).

9^th verse: this passage seems to resemble some politic slogans.