Poland is not yet lost, so long as we still live. You may have heard these lines before, especially if you have an interest in Polish history. This is an English translation of the opening lines of Poland's National Anthem, which is officially titled Mazurek Dombrovskiego, or Dombrovskiz Mazurka in English. It was written in the year 1797 by a poll named József Wibitski, while he was fighting for Napoleon Bonaparte in the north of Italy. If you think Italy is an odd spot to be riding a patriotic Mazurka, you'll be even more surprised to know that Poland's future national anthem was written at a time when the country didn't even exist on the world map. And who is this Dombrovskie guy anyway? To get an answer to all these questions, we need to go back to the year 1772, at a time when Poland, in a political union with Lithuania, were one of the major powers in Europe. They were also at war with almost all of their neighbours, specifically Russia, Prussia and Austria. Over the next 23 years, the territories of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth were gradually partitioned between these three powers, until the final seizure in 1795, which completely erased Poland from the map. The Polish people, however, were not willing to go down without a fight and looked towards revolutionary France for help against the common enemy. Many Polish soldiers and military commanders emigrated to French territory, in order to join Napoleon's Kondame, the Grand Army. One of these men was József Wibitski, a Polish nobleman from Pomerania. Together with General Jan Henrik Dombrovskie, they formed the Polish Legion of the French Grand Army in 1797. Whilst Polish troops would eventually fight as far abroad as the West Indies and Egypt, their biggest contributions in the service of Napoleon Bonaparte was in the north of Italy. It was here in mid-July of 1797, in the town of Regio Emilia, that József Wibitski penned the words to an inspiring poem, designed to uplift the morale of the Polish legions. Together with a melody from a Polish Mazurka, a folk tune from Central Poland, it became the Mazurak Dombrovskiego. In its famous opening lines, he reminds the listener that Poland still exists, despite the fact that it was no longer on the world map at the time, and so long as the Polish people were still willing to fight for it. In the chorus, he calls upon Dombrovskie and his legion to march home from Italy and rejoin the nation. There are other national heroes mentioned in Wibitski's lyrics. These include Stefan Czarniewski, a nobleman who fought the Swedes during their invasion of Poland in the 17th century, and who helped inspire an uprising in Poznań during their occupation. In Wibitski's original version, Tadeusz Kostjuszko, the famous Polish revolutionary, is mentioned in regards to the Battle of Wrazławitsa, where he led Scyth wielding peasants in a victory against Russia. Ironically, however, Kostjuszko never approved of Pols fighting alongside the French in a foreign conflict, along with other political decisions that would be made some years later. The only non-Pol mentioned in the song is Napoleon Bonaparte, the official sponsor of Poland's latest attempt at independence, and a so-called example as to how it should be done. But how interested was Napoleon in Polish independence? Although Dombrovskie appealed to his superior to be mobilized towards partitioned lands, Napoleon took his time and made good use of the Polish legions elsewhere. Eventually, in 1806, he gave Dombrovskie and Wibitski his blessing to Orkus Drape and uprising in Greater Poland, which is the area surrounding the city of Poznan. This led to the creation of the Duchy of Warsaw, which was effectively a client state of Napoleon, run by the King of Saxony. Despite hopes that Napoleon would allow for an independent Polish kingdom to be formed, this would all change following the disastrous campaign against the Russian Empire in 1812, as Napoleon's forces fell back towards France and ultimate defeat. The surrounding powers were able to take back their partitions, swiftly ending the short life of the Duchy of Warsaw. It would be more than a century before Poland finally gained its independence at the end of World War I. All the while, Mazurek Dombrovskiego was a sort of spiritual beacon for Poles living under occupation. Much like the opening lines of the song, the idea of Poland had remained alive amongst its people, who, since the beginning of the partitions, had sought out a new life abroad in many different countries. France, the US, South Africa, Azerbaijan, Brazil, and Australia, making it one of the largest diaspora in the world, even today. If the Polish state resurrected in 1918, Mazurek Dombrovskiego was officially written into the Polish constitution in 1927, as the country's national anthem. In many regards, it is the song that defined the Polish identity, and since Vybitski first penned the lyrics in 1797, Poland has faced an unprecedented number of challenges. But regardless of its turbulent history, and come what may in the near future, one thing is for sure. The nation of Poland will always exist, so long as there are people who identify as being Polish.