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  What it means

  A drunkard is like a beast: good for neither work nor prayer. A sharp moral condemnation of drunkenness — the drunk person is reduced to an animal state, useless for both practical duties and spiritual life.

  Vocabulary

  • pijak — drunkard
  • podobny — similar, like
  • zwierz — beast, animal
  • robota — work, labour
  • pacierz — prayer (the Lord's Prayer)
  • ni — neither (archaic/poetic form of 'ani')

  Grammar note

  'Ni... ni...' is an archaic correlative conjunction meaning 'neither... nor...'. 'Do roboty' and 'do pacierza' use the genitive after 'do'.

  Cultural context

  The pairing of 'work' and 'prayer' reflects the traditional Polish Catholic value system where both labour and faith defined a good person.

  Intermediate

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