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  What it means

  “He who bends his hands to work will not bow his brow in palaces.” The person who works hard with their hands will never need to humble themselves before the powerful. Labour preserves dignity and independence.

  Vocabulary

  • praca — work
  • ręce — hands
  • skłonić — to bend, to incline
  • uniżyć — to humble, to lower
  • gmach — grand building, palace
  • skroń — temple (of the head), brow

  Grammar note

  'Ku pracy' uses the dative after the preposition 'ku' (towards). 'W gmachach' is locative plural of 'gmach'.

  Cultural context

  A proverb celebrating the dignity of manual labour, common in 19th-century Polish patriotic and folk literature.

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