Pieśń jako zapis cierpienia w sytuacji granicznej (na przykładzie Dnia pierwszego września roku pamiętnego)

This article considers the song “Dnia pierwszego września roku pamiętnego” [On the First Day of September of the Memorable Year] as an expression of the collective suffering of Polish society in the face of a boundary situation: the Second World War. Drawing on Karl Jaspers’ concept of the boundary situation, the article explores how the song under dis- cussion became a medium for expressing the emotions, losses and hopes of a community. The source text concerns the destruction of Warsaw, the famine and the helplessness of individuals, and it creates a picture of a traumatic experience that consolidated the community and gave it an identity through the shared experience of difficult emotions. The study also points to the role of the song as a means of storing memory and an element for building the spiritual strength of the community. The analysis reveals the song as an act of collec- tive resistance and “therapy” that helps society process the experience of war and rebuild a community identity.